A Fragile Cease-Fire Between Iran and Israel, and Toxic Homes in L.A.

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From the New York Times, it's the headlines.

I'm Michael Simon Johnson.

Today's Tuesday, June 24th.

Here's what we're covering.

In the Middle East this morning, Israel and Iran say they've agreed to a ceasefire, raising hopes that almost two weeks of intense warfare could be coming to an end.

The fragile truce was first announced by President Trump on Monday evening after he talked with Iranian officials and the Israeli prime minister in an abrupt move that caught even some of his own advisors by surprise.

Following that initial announcement, though, Israeli Air Force jets hit dozens of targets in Tehran, and an Iranian missile barrage killed at least four people in southern Israel.

Adding to the uncertainty, in just the past few hours, the Israeli military has accused Iran of carrying out a new rocket attack and said it would, quote, respond with force.

As ever, in the early stages of any ceasefire, it's uncertain whether the truce will hold or whether it will break.

Patrick Kingsley is the Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief.

He's been covering how the two sides came to the agreement.

Experts on Iran say that Iran has suffered major losses through this war, both to its nuclear capabilities and other government infrastructure throughout the country.

And that has brought it to a position of weakness in which it had little better option than to capitulate.

However, there's just enough in the mix to allow Iran to claim some kind of victory.

They fired missiles last night at a US airbase in Qatar.

That allowed Iran to save a little bit of face.

Equally, Israel feels able enough to say that its campaign has been a huge victory.

Iran's main nuclear sites have been struck not only by Israel, but also by the United States, much more powerful bunker-busting bombs.

And that is something that Israeli leaders could only hope for in their wildest dreams a few weeks ago.

And now it has come to pass.

You can follow live coverage of the ceasefire from my colleagues across the region at nytimes.com.

In Washington yesterday, the Supreme Court said that the Trump administration can move forward with deporting migrants to countries other than their own.

The brief order, which didn't offer any explanation, temporarily paused a ruling from a lower court, which had said that migrants whom the government wants to send to third-party countries should first be given the chance to challenge their deportation if they're at risk of harm in that country.

That situation has played out most prominently in the case of eight men the administration has been trying to deport to South Sudan, an often violent place that most of them have never set foot in before.

Since they were flown out of the U.S.

more than a month ago, the men men have been detained at an American military base in nearby Djibouti, living in a converted container that's normally a conference room, while their case works its way through the courts.

Monday's Supreme Court ruling clears the way for those men to be sent to South Sudan.

The administration has argued that the home countries of convicted criminals, like these eight men, often refuse to accept them back and that the government needs to be able to quickly deport them elsewhere.

But in a lengthy dissent, the court's liberal justices said that deportees should have the right to due process and that, quote, the government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone, anywhere, without notice or an opportunity to be heard.

Meanwhile, in Florida yesterday, the governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities.

I think this is the best one.

As I call it, Alligator Alcatraz.

State officials started work on a new detention facility for migrants dubbed Alligator Alcatraz.

Their plan is to put up a number of large tents at an old airfield in the middle of the Everglades and start bringing detainees there next month.

People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.

Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.

Immigrant advocates have criticized the new facility, with one lawyer at the National Immigrant Justice Center warning that without proper planning, migrants could be in danger in the intense Florida summer heat, saying the plan showed a, quote, callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there.

Immigrants that are detained by federal officials are typically held in jails and private prisons, but the Trump administration has been pushing state and local authorities around the country to find ways to boost their capacity.

The administration is currently holding about 55,000 immigrants.

That's about 15,000 more than were being held at the end of the Biden administration.

After the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year, thousands of residents whose houses were spared thought they were the lucky ones.

But the Times has been covering an unsettling truth that's been emerging.

Even the homes that are still standing might be too toxic to live in.

During intense fires, everyday items can become dangerous when they burn.

Plastic shower rods release formaldehyde.

A garden hose emits benzene.

Printers and TVs can melt into a cloud of cyanide.

Even homes thousands thousands of feet away can be affected if toxic smoke gets in through air vents or under doorways.

To determine if their homes are contaminated, homeowners need expensive, comprehensive chemical testing.

The Times surveyed hundreds of LA homeowners near the fires and found that the majority of those with homes still standing said their insurance companies declined to pay for that testing.

Many of them ended up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket, and the test results showed some level of contamination.

The test came back positive for cyanide in my kids' car seat.

I mean, we were driving around at this car probably for eight weeks or something at least.

Karina Seringer was one of the homeowners the Times talked with.

She said that ever since a private test found cyanide in her car, she's been pushing the adjuster at her insurance company to pay for tests at the rest of her property.

I sent her the cyanide proof and said, Look, if my car tests positive for cyanide and it's sitting in front of my house, it is highly likely that cyanide can be found in my couch and in our mattresses.

It's definitely toxic.

I mean, it's so obvious that it's toxic.

Her insurance company eventually agreed to do tests for asbestos and lead, but not for a wider range of potential hazards.

As she's been trying to make sure her home is safe, she's taken on almost $20,000 in debt to cover temporary housing.

And other homeowners told the Times the toxic fallout from the fires has left them with similar financial stresses, tapping out retirement accounts and emptying savings to try to cover both their mortgage and the cost of another place to live.

One suggested that it might have all been easier if her house had simply been destroyed, saying,

How do you get to go from being so thankful to wanting your house to burn down?

And finally, this observatory is the greatest astronomical discovery machine ever built.

This is the first image that we are unveiling

to the whole world today.

More than two decades in the making, the Vera C.

Rubin Observatory, which boasts the world's largest digital camera, has released its first images of the night sky, offering a preview of its unprecedented capabilities.

With its 3.2 billion pixel camera, it can take up to a thousand photos of different sections of the sky each night, scanning the entire sky every three to four days.

Once that imagery is patched together, it will reveal a dynamic, evolving picture of the cosmos, what one scientist at the observatory claimed will be, quote, the greatest movie of all time.

The U.S.

government-run facility is located at the top of a mountain in Chile, where conditions are perfect for stargazing.

And in just a few nights of observation, the telescope identified over 2,000 new asteroids, though don't worry, none are currently on a collision course with our planet.

Long term, the observatory's rich data set will let astronomers investigate some of the deeper mysteries of the universe, like dark energy and dark matter.

For the moment, amateur astronomers can zoom in on the telescope's new finds through a website, skyviewer.app, though most of what you'll see there is unlabeled, since many of the celestial objects have been captured for the very first time.

Those are the headlines.

Today on the daily, a look at the mayoral race in New York City and what it could reveal about the future of the Democratic Party.

That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Michael Simon Johnson.

The headlines will be back tomorrow with Will Jarvis and for Tracy Mumford.