The Afternoon Wire is The Investigative Journal’s daily digest of the day’s major developments across government, the courts, and international affairs. All items are sourced to public records, official statements, and wire reporting. Pending matters are flagged as such.
A renewed exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran dominated Sunday, after U.S. Central Command said it had hit Iranian military targets along the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired missiles and drones toward American installations in the Gulf. The escalation, which Gulf air-defense systems said they largely intercepted, played out as the Supreme Court prepared for one of the final opinion days of its term and as the death toll from last week’s earthquakes in Venezuela approached 1,500. What follows is a rundown of where each story stands as of Sunday afternoon.
Government
President Trump said he intends to nominate Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to serve as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to NBC News. Schroyer brings nearly three decades of law-enforcement experience in Oklahoma and is a former Marine who, reporting indicates, most recently served as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, coordinating between federal immigration authorities and state and local police.
The post carries unusual institutional weight: ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration, a vacancy that reflects years of polarized politics around the agency. If confirmed, Schroyer would lead ICE during a period of intensified enforcement, including expanded use of the 287(g) program, which deputizes state and local officers for immigration duties. The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation and, as of Sunday, the timeline for hearings had not been set. Official announcements from the executive branch are posted to the White House newsroom.
In electoral politics, Republican Rep. Julia Letlow defeated state Treasurer John Fleming in Louisiana’s GOP Senate primary runoff on Saturday, CNN reported. Letlow, who carried the president’s endorsement, is now favored heading toward the general election for the seat held by retiring Sen. Bill Cassidy in a state Trump won with roughly 60 percent of the vote in 2024. NBC News and CBS News noted that the result was widely read as a fresh demonstration of the president’s continued influence with Republican primary voters; Democrat Jamie Davis won his party’s nomination the same night.
On the disaster-response front, federal and state crews continued battling what officials describe as the nation’s largest active wildfire, burning in southern Utah. NPR reported that critical fire weather—high heat, low humidity, and gusty winds—was complicating containment and that extreme fire behavior was expected to persist through the weekend.
Courts
The Supreme Court handed the administration a pair of immigration victories last week as it cleared its docket. In Mullin v. Doe, decided June 25, the justices ruled 6-3 that the Department of Homeland Security may proceed with terminating Temporary Protected Status for nationals of Haiti and Syria—a population that filings put at roughly 350,000 Haitians and about 6,000 Syrians. The majority found that federal law generally bars courts from second-guessing the secretary’s discretionary determinations; the original terminations were made under then-Secretary Kristi Noem. The full opinion is posted on the Court’s website (PDF).
A companion ruling the same day allowed the administration to revive a policy of turning away asylum seekers at the border, according to CNN’s opinion-day coverage. The administration characterized the decisions as major wins for its enforcement agenda, while immigrant-rights advocates warned the rulings could leave longtime TPS holders without work authorization. NBC News reported that affected work permits are set to expire, throwing many recipients into legal limbo; that characterization reflects advocates’ projections rather than a finding by the Court.
The TPS decision fits a broader pattern this term. CNN reported that the 6-3 Court has split along ideological lines more often this year than during the entire previous term. That arc includes the April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, in which a 6-3 majority, in an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, reworked the long-standing Thornburg v. Gingles framework and raised the bar for vote-dilution claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (opinion PDF). Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson.
Still outstanding is the term’s most closely watched case: Trump v. Barbara, the challenge to the executive order restricting birthright citizenship. The Court heard argument on April 1—a session the president attended in part, a first for a sitting president according to docket observers—and analysts who watched the questioning described a skeptical reception for the government’s reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. SCOTUSblog’s case tracker lists the decision among those expected before the term closes. No ruling had been issued as of Sunday.
International
The day’s lead story remained the Strait of Hormuz. According to CNN, U.S. Central Command said it launched strikes Friday and again Saturday against Iranian military infrastructure—missile and drone storage, coastal radar, air-defense sites, communication systems, and minelayer capabilities—in what CENTCOM called a response to “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.” The command tied the operations to a one-way drone attack on a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel as it exited the strait earlier in the week. NPR reported the strikes followed a U.S.-Iran understanding reached earlier in June that was intended to stabilize maritime traffic through the waterway.
Early Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had retaliated against U.S. military sites in the Gulf. RFE/RL reported Iranian statements naming bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain’s and Kuwait’s defense authorities said their air-defense systems intercepted and destroyed a number of the incoming missiles and drones, and both governments condemned the strikes; CBS News reported no major damage to the targeted facilities in the initial accounting. Specific casualty figures from Sunday’s exchange had not been confirmed by late afternoon, and the totals here should be treated as preliminary. President Trump accused Tehran of violating the June understanding and warned of further military action if attacks continue.
Markets and shippers are watching the strait closely, since roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil transits the chokepoint. Any sustained disruption to traffic would carry implications for global energy prices when trading resumes Monday.
In South America, the humanitarian emergency in Venezuela deepened. NPR reported the death toll from the June 24 earthquakes was approaching 1,500 as the window for finding survivors narrowed. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 7.2 foreshock followed seconds later by a 7.5 mainshock; CNN reported widespread destruction across La Guaira and Caracas, including heavy damage to the main airport serving the capital. CBS News reported that international search-and-rescue teams, including American crews, had joined the effort. Officials caution the toll is expected to rise as crews reach collapsed structures.
In Eastern Europe, Ukraine carried out one of its heaviest drone bombardments since Russia’s full-scale invasion. NPR reported that Ukrainian forces struck targets across multiple Russian regions and Russian-held Crimea—including naval vessels and air-defense radar near the port of Kerch—after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced what he described as a 40-day campaign intended to pressure Moscow toward ending the war. Russia, in turn, launched strikes on Ukrainian territory, underscoring that neither side has signaled a pause.
In Lebanon, U.S.-mediated efforts to consolidate a durable ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah remained unsettled. NPR reported that Hezbollah rejected an earlier truce framework, objecting to provisions that would tie an Israeli withdrawal to the group’s disarmament—a sequencing dispute that has repeatedly stalled negotiations. The status of the arrangement remains fluid, and claims from all parties should be read with caution.
Tomorrow’s Watch
Supreme Court opinions. Monday, June 29, is a scheduled opinion day, with several argued cases still undecided as the term winds down. The birthright-citizenship challenge in Trump v. Barbara is among the marquee matters that could be released Monday or in the days that follow; SCOTUSblog’s tracker is the place to watch.
Energy and the Gulf. Oil markets reopen Monday against the backdrop of the Hormuz exchange. Watch crude benchmarks for any premium tied to shipping risk, and watch for whether the U.S.-Iran tit-for-tat continues or de-escalates following the weekend’s strikes, per CNN’s rolling coverage.
Venezuela relief. Search-and-rescue operations move past the critical 72-hour mark, and officials expect the confirmed death toll to climb as crews reach more sites. International aid logistics—complicated by damage to the capital’s main airport—will be the story to track, per NPR.
Confirmation calendar. Attention turns to the Senate, where the path for the ICE director nomination will begin to take shape. Expect scheduling signals on hearings in the days ahead.
The Investigative Journal will update these items as official records and verified reporting develop. Where parties have a right of reply, we will note responses as they are received.