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Alex Osola
Iran signals that it wants an off ramp in its clash with Israel plus, the Trump Organization plans to launch a smartphone made in the US and why President Trump suddenly backpedaled on his deportation tactics.
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Ariane Campo Flores
We've heard from numerous businesses about the impacts that they're experiencing directly as a result of the raids and also the fear that the raids have generated and that it prompted some workers to just stay home.
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Alex Osola
It's Monday, June 16th. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of what's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin this evening with the latest in the Middle east where Iran and Israel carried out further strikes on one another. In Israel, three people were killed in a missile strike at the country's biggest oil refinery in Haifa. Videos showed plumes of smoke emanating from the site. The same refinery was hit by a separate strike yesterday, causing a partial shutdown. But Israel has the advantage with air superiority over the western part of Iran, including Tehran. Israel's military said it killed four senior Iranian intelligence officials in a single strike there on Sunday night, local time, and today it struck buildings belonging to Iran's state owned media company. The strikes came hours after the Israeli military said people in that part of the capital should leave. The blasts seemed to be heard during a live broadcast. The attack eventually sent the TV presenter dashing off the set. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military had targeted, quote, unquote, the Iranian regime's Propaganda and Incitement Broadcasting Authority and the head of the UN Atomic Agency said today that the centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment site struck by Israel in recent days may have been completely destroyed. That makes it possible that all of the machines previously enriching uranium at the massive underground part of the site have been taken out. Meanwhile, Iran's leaders say they want to stop the fighting. We're exclusively reporting that Iran has been urgently signaling that it wants to an end to the conflict and to renew talks over its nuclear programs. Middle Eastern and European officials say Iran has been Sending messages to Israel and the US Via Arab intermediaries, WSJ security correspondent Benoit Fouqan tells us what Iran is seeking from possible negotiations with the.
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Stephen Kalin
U.S. in a nutshell, they say they want peace and a peaceful nuclear program. The US And Israel don't believe that their nuclear program as it stands is going to remain peaceful. So what they want is one thing. What they're getting is very different. Then to resume the talks would be something obviously that would happen if there is no hostilities. They do have conditions, which is number one, that the US Says clearly we don't agree with these strikes. Also, we would not be involved in the strike against Iran. So make it clear that it's not going to be a parallel process of the US Joining bombing on Iran on one hand and Turkey on the other hand. They can't have it both ways. That's basically the Iranian position.
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Alex Osola
Speaking with reporters at the G7 summit in Canada today, President Trump urged Iran to return to negotiations over the future of its nuclear program to end conflict with Israel. He said, quote, iran is not winning this war and they should talk and they should talk immediately before it's too late. A second US Carrier strike group is headed to the Middle east and the US Is sending more ships to help Israel defend against Iranian missiles. In Tehran, residents are fleeing the capital, carpooling and ride sharing to get out of the city. For more, I'm joined by WSJ foreign correspondent Stephen Kaelin. So, Stephen, it sounds like from your reporting that the highways out of the city are pretty jammed. What does that seem like?
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WSJ Foreign Correspondent
Some of that is just because of the sheer volume. There's one major highway that is now only one way out of the city. On top of that, some folks are running out of fuel on the way. There have been reported shortages. Gas stations closed, said they're getting stranded. And those cars are becoming obstacles and creating bottlenecks. There's also been reported accidents along the road. Obviously it's a very stressful situation and many people haven't slept in days because the bombing is sort of around the clock.
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Alex Osola
This afternoon local time, a spokesman for the Israeli military warned Iranians in a particular neighborhood of Tehran to evacuate. I guess anticipating more strikes. Is that what the locals are responding to here or what is happening?
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WSJ Foreign Correspondent
This was the first really specific warning for a particular neighborhood. But people were already on the roads when the bombing started on Friday. But that's really picked up in the last maybe 24 hours. But these warnings that the Israeli military is putting out there, a lot of them aren't really getting to the Iranian people because they have very limited Internet access. The government is in. Iran has put limits on the speed of Internet access. They're saying that's for cyber defensive purposes, to prevent hostile activity over the Internet. But it's left a lot of Iranians without access to accurate information, even the most basic things like tweets from the Israeli military spokesmen about where they're going to bomb next.
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Alex Osola
How are Iranian citizens thinking about this conflict? Are they kind of settling in for the long haul here? Are they thinking it could just be pretty short lived?
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WSJ Foreign Correspondent
Folks we've talked to are not sure what to expect really. Many of them picked up the most important documents and some money, basic supplies, and headed out of the city. It's not clear how long they're going to stay there. A lot of people are preparing to be away until this is over. Israelis have indicated over the weekend that they had about two weeks of operations planned. So it's really hard to tell how long this is going to last.
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Alex Osola
That was WSJ foreign correspondent Stephen Kalin. Thank you, Stephen.
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WSJ Foreign Correspondent
Thanks for having me.
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Alex Osola
US Stocks climbed today after the Wall Street Journal reported on Iran's wishes to end the conflict with Israel. The Dow rose 3/4 of a percent. The S&P 500 was up about 0.9% and the Nasdaq added roughly 1.5%. Oil prices, which had surged on Friday and over the weekend fell today. WTI crude futures dropped 1.7% to under $72 a barrel. Coming up, how President Trump's deportation tactics collided with the US labor market. That and more of the day's headlines after the break. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium wireless. Everybody get 30, 30, better get 30, better get 20, 20, 20 better get.
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Stephen Kalin
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Alex Osola
Just 15 bucks a month. So give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of network spy taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com Federal authorities have announced charges of murder and stalking against the man suspected of shooting two Democratic Minnesota lawmaker Saturday. Authorities captured 57 year old Vance Luther Bolter yesterday following an intensive two day manhunt, the biggest in Minnesota history. The state's acting U.S. attorney said Bolter went to the homes of at least four elected officials with the intent to kill them. He said that it was hard to know what was motivating Bolter in terms of ideology. The suspect made his first appearance at a brief hearing in a federal courtroom in St. Paul today. The federal charges against him would give prosecutors the option to seek the death penalty, though it's not yet clear whether they will do so. Nations including Japan, Canada and Mexico are eyeing the Group of Seven summit in Canada this week as a chance to strike trade deals with President Trump or at least build momentum to keep talking and ease tensions over tariffs. WSJ trade and economic policy reporter Gavin Baid said it might be difficult for Trump's team to complete the dozens of deals it pledged to by July 9th.
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Gavin Baid
It's looking less and less feasible as we get close to that deadline, and I think that the administration is a little bit crosswise on this right now. So we heard Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, he told Congress last week that they might extend that deadline for nations that are negotiating in good faith with them. Then we saw Trump kind of throw cold water on that and say, oh no, that's July 9th, the deadline. It's tough to see which way this could go, but it's just become a lot more difficult for them to strike even a narrow tariff agreement than I think maybe they thought at the outset. So there's a lot of irons in the fire right now, and I think that they need a little bit more time before they can pull a few out.
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Alex Osola
Right now, no major smartphone manufacturer makes its products in the U.S. well, the Trump Organization is saying it'll change that and do it in a matter of months. The company said today it'll launch a mobile phone service called Trump Mobile and plans to offer a US built smart smartphone for $499 starting in August. On our Tech News Briefing podcast, WSJ Deputy Tech and Media Editor Wilson Rothman said the Trump Organization has a tough job on its hands.
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Wilson Rothman
The thing about manufacturing phones in America is you have to have an infrastructure, you have to have a workforce. You have to have things that you can't just snap your fingers or even throw $500 billion at. It's not a problem that can be solved just with money. It really is a decades in the works kind of project. So The Trump Mobile T1 phone has specs that look as good or better than the best iPhones, but they're selling it ostensibly for 499, a little bit of a question mark on that. And then they did say the Made in America phone would be available August, September timeframe. And we don't know where that would come from either.
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Alex Osola
For more from Wilson, listen to tomorrow's episode of our Tech News Briefing podcast. Earlier this month, the Trump administration ordered federal agents to intensify their deportation push. They arrested people at farms, restaurants, and hotels, sparking nationwide protests. Then late last week, the administration reversed its policy, saying arrests should focus on those with criminal backgrounds. One big reason for the reversal is economic. Key industries rely heavily on workers living in the US Illegally. Ariane Campo Flores is a staff reporter for the Journal. Ariane, do we have a sense of the impact that these deportations have had on these industries?
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Ariane Campo Flores
So far, we've heard from numerous businesses about the impacts that they're experiencing directly as a result of the raids and also the fear that the raids have generated and that have prompted some workers to just stay home. So it's a number of industries that have traditionally relied heavily on immigrant labor. Farms have had to cut back on their work in the fields. Meatpacking plants have had to dial back operations and are operating only at a fraction of capacity. Restaurants have had to shut down, sometimes for days, and have struggled to bring back workers. Construction sites that were raided have had to either wind down or delay their operations or really scrambled to try to make up for lost workers.
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Alex Osola
It sounds like anecdotally at least, is having quite a big impact. And then, of course, Trump reversed this policy. What was behind the reversal? Do we have a sense of who was pressuring him to make this change?
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Ariane Campo Flores
Well, what we know is that the administration has come under significant lobbying. For instance, we know that farmer and meatpacking lobbyists have talked about the worker shortages that they are facing and how that could impact food prices. We know that the hospitality industry, as well, conveyed that they were already dealing with labor shortages and that this was exacerbating them. So if, in fact, they stop conducting the raids, and if that persuades some workers who were fearful of going to work to actually come back, that'll ease some of the pressures that these employers are facing. But that remains to be seen because there is a lot of fear out there among workers. And as we've seen, the administration has had a tendency of changing policies very quickly with little notice. And so it generates a lot of uncertainty in the market.
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Alex Osola
That was WSJ reporter Ariane Campo Flores. Thank you, Ariane.
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Ariane Campo Flores
Sure thing. My pleasure.
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Alex Osola
And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi. Our supervising producer was Pierre Bienname. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.