--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Michael Simon-Johnson. Today's Thursday, June 12th.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Here's what we're covering. A plane carrying more than 240 passengers and crew crashed earlier today in western India.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The Air India flight was headed to London when it went down shortly after takeoff in the city of Ahmedabad, near a local medical college.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Passengers from at least four countries, India, the UK, Portugal, and Canada, were on board. India's health minister says many people have been killed.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Footage from the scene showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as local firefighters dows the plane's wreckage.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: This is a developing story. You can follow the latest at nytimes.com.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is facing pressure from the White House to ramp up its deportation efforts.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: With a stated goal of 3,000 arrests per day, 10 times what the Biden administration ever reached, ICE agents have fanned out across cities and rural communities, targeting workplaces like farms, clubs, and restaurants.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: ICE is not yet hitting that goal. Last week, arrests peaked around 2,000 per day, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: But the Trump administration says the push is working. ICE agents are going not only to where undocumented immigrants work, but also to courthouses, where routine immigration hearings are now the backdrop for arrests.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: My colleague Todd Heisler, a Times photographer, and I spent about three days in the main immigration courthouse in downtown Manhattan, which has become the epicenter of President Trump's immigration crackdown in New York City.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Luis Feres-Sadourney covers immigration for the Times. He says plainclothes ICE agents wearing face coverings have started showing up in the building's courtrooms and hallways.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: They quickly detain migrants leaving immigration hearings, handcuff them, and take them to holding cells that are overcrowded with recent arrestees.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The courthouse itself has become very tense. There's frequent taunting between activists and ICE agents and judges, as well as people who work there, have become dismayed by the frequent disruptions that the arrests have caused
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: ICE has said that these tactics are meant to conduct arrests in more controlled environments but some of the arrests themselves have turned chaotic
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I saw the arrest of one man from the Dominican Republic who was tackled to the ground by six ICE agents inside a cramped hallway.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And it became a messy scene filled with photographers, activists, and agents grappling to detain the man.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I talked to an Ecuadorian family who had showed up for an asylum hearing, and they were telling me how they almost didn't show up because they were so nervous about being apprehended at the courthouse.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: These tactics have become the new reality for undocumented migrants who have to show up to courthouses filled with ICE agents, not knowing if they're going to be able to leave after their hearing.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has named eight new members to a federal vaccine advisory panel, half of whom have spoken out against vaccinations in some way.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Kennedy had fired all 17 members of the panel earlier this week, promising to replace them with accomplished physicians and leading public health experts, not, quote, ideological anti-vaxxers.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: But after the announcement, some public health leaders accused him of breaking his word.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: These new members have spread medical conspiracies and opposed COVID vaccine mandates, and one serves on the board of an organization focused on the risk of vaccines.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: An advisory panel more closely aligned with Kennedy's views could significantly alter or even drop which vaccines are recommended for Americans, including for children.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: That could change which shots private health insurance and programs like Medicaid will cover.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: U.S. and European officials say Israel is poised to launch an attack on Iran, a move that could further inflame tensions in the region and delay efforts to broker a new U.S.-Iran deal over the country's nuclear program.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Concerns over the possible attack led the U.S. to withdraw diplomats from neighboring Iraq on Wednesday, and families of U.S. military members and non-essential embassy personnel have been told they can voluntarily leave nearby Bahrain and Kuwait if they want.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: President Trump had dissuaded Israel from attacking Iran months ago, but with Iran's proxy groups, Hamas and Hezbollah currently decimated many Israeli officials believe they now have a golden opportunity to attack Iran directly
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Iran is taking those threats seriously especially as nuclear talks with the U.S. have stalled.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Trump expressed his waning confidence in getting a deal done on a podcast interview that posted hours before the U.S. withdrew personnel from the region.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: They seem to be delaying, and I think that's a shame, but I'm less confident now than I would been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: But I am much less confident of a deal being made.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Iran's defense minister said on Wednesday that in the event of a conflict following failed nuclear talks, the United States would suffer heavy losses, telling reporters that U.S. military bases around the region are, quote, within our reach.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I am very happy with today's verdict. It's a big win for everyone.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Harvey Weinstein will be in jail. Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood executive whose sexual assault case against a number of women became the flashpoint for the Me Too movement, was found guilty of a felony sex crime in Manhattan on Wednesday.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I truly hope from the bottom of my heart that standing here right now will give courage to others to speak up.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Weinstein had previously been convicted in 2020 of sex crimes against two women, but that conviction was overturned last year after an appeals court determined that he had not had a fair trial.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Weinstein's retrial added a third woman to his charges. All three women had been seeking work in the film and television industry between 2006 and 2013.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Weinstein argued the interactions were all consensual.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The jury in the retrial found Weinstein guilty of a first-degree criminal sexual act against one of the women and acquitted him on charges against another.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The jury is set to continue deliberations today regarding the remaining charge of third-degree rape.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Still, yesterday's conviction of the 73-year-old carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And finally. If we were older, then we would have to wait so long.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Brian Wilson, the creative force behind one of America's most enduring bands, the Beach Boys, has died. He was 82.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: No one gonna make it that look better Wilson formed the Beach Boys in the early 1960s with his two brothers his cousin and one of his schoolmates Together they skyrocketed to success initially capturing the surf rock craze of the time and reflecting an almost mythical depiction of California life.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Wilson was far more than just a beach bum, though. In fact, he didn't even surf.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: He was the band's primary songwriter and often its main vocalist.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And after a string of simple pop hits, he pushed the Beach Boys to new creative heights with their innovative 1966 album Pet Sounds, which he wrote and produced almost single-handedly.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: With its complex harmonies, orchestral arrangements, and avant-garde style, Pet Sounds cemented the Beach Boys' place in rock history.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: But early on, Wilson showed signs of instability. In the 70s and 80s, Wilson struggled with drugs, alcohol, and mental health problems, resulting in paranoia and delusions.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: He claimed he often heard threatening voices in his head.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I didn't get out of bed until like 4 in the afternoon, you know. I took a lot of drugs. I spent a lot of money on drugs.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: It was either, let's get high, or I'm going to get stoned, or else, let's see, how about drunk today? Nah, let's call it...
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: For years, he lived under the care of his therapist. in what Wilson later described as a controlling, abusive relationship.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: He was fired from the band in the 80s and retreated from public life.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: At one point, he had forgotten much of his own musical catalog and had to relearn many of the Beach Boys songs from a songbook.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: But Wilson had a revival in the 2000s, touring with new music projects and winning Grammys.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Being called a musical genius was a cross to bear, he once told Rolling Stone.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Genius is a big word, he said. But if you have to live up to something, you might as well live up to that.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, an interview with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Trump's show of force in Los Angeles.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: It's shock and awe. It's overwhelming. And I just want folks to understand that we will lose this democracy if we are silent.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I'm Michael Simon Johnson. We'll be back tomorrow.
