NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (June 19)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. Our top story tonight, President Trump gives TikTok another 90 days to make a deal. And abroad, he says he'll make a decision within two weeks on whether to strike Iran. Jack Bradley at the White House. Israeli forces strike another nuclear site in Iran. Meanwhile, an Iranian missile reportedly hits a hospital in Israel. Jason Perry reports. The Israel-Iran conflict threatening an important lifeline for the Chinese Communist Party. Nearly half of China's oil imports transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Luis Martinez explains. A SpaceX Starship explodes during a test launch in Texas. Video footage captures an enormous fireball. This is NTD Evening News. Live from our global headquarters in New York City, here's Tiffany Meyer. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. President Trump extends the deadline for TikTok. That says the pause to ban the company from U.S. app stores was set to expire today. He also says he'll make a decision on whether to strike Iran within two weeks. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has more from the White House. Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that. President Trump will decide over the next two weeks on whether the U.S. military will strike Iran. That says he's still giving the Iranian regime time to come to the negotiating table. Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt from the press briefing room reading out a statement from Trump. Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks. Leavitt said that Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff made a prior proposal, but Iran rejected it. The deal that Special Envoy Whitkoff proposed to the Iranians was both realistic and acceptable within its terms. Trump has been holding meetings in the Situation Room on this and about what to do with Iran. While the president supports Israel's military action in Iran, he's been pushing for a diplomatic solution. There's been no word on Trump's desire for a regime change in Iran, but rather ensuring that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. Leavitt reiterated that Trump gave Iran 60 days to come and make a nuclear deal, but that on the 61st day, Israel struck Iran. That was last week. Trump says that he wants to make a decision last second, as a lot can change in war. I'd like to make the final decision one second before it's too, you know, because things change. Meanwhile, President Trump also extended the ban on Thursday on TikTok for 90 days. This is his third extension, with the hope of TikTok divesting from its Chinese owner and becoming American owned over national security issues as the CCP can directly access the user data of TikTok users. There are 100 million Americans who use this app. It's widely popular. He also wants to protect Americans' data and privacy concerns on this app, and he believes we can do both things at the same time. The press secretary also added on Thursday that in May of 2025, ICE had released zero ICE officers are courageous heroes. The White House is also calling on Congress to pass the one big beautiful bill, saying that it will increase take home pay, increase wages, expands and makes the child tax credit permanent. And it has no tax on tips and overtime and takes illegal immigrants off of Medicaid. The Trump administration is hoping that Congress can pass the one big beautiful bill and it reaches Trump's desk by July 4th. Reporting from the White House, Jack Bradley, NTD News. In the Middle East, Israel reports striking another nuclear site in Iran. Meanwhile, an Iranian missile strikes a hospital in Israel. NDD's Jason Perry has the latest developments. Israeli forces released video of an Iranian nuclear reactor, which they say has a key component used in the production of plutonium. And on Thursday, Israeli forces reportedly struck the site. And afterwards, Iran's state-run media shows smoke rising from the nuclear facility in the city of Arak. Israel says the facility was inactive, but they struck it in order to prevent it from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson General Effie Defrin said they also struck the special forces headquarters of Iran's internal security forces. Our strikes are directed at every part of the Iranian military establishment, all of which threaten the state of Israel. Our actions are speaking louder than words. Those who act against us are paying a heavy price. Israel says they launched 100 strikes on dozens of military targets in Iran early Thursday. And included in those strikes were Iranian soldiers, surface-to-surface missiles, and even construction equipment that was being used to repair missile launch sites. And on the same day, Iran released more footage of what they say were missiles fired at Israel. Some of the missiles made it through Israel's air defense systems and struck multiple locations, including a hospital in southern Israel. Medical staff were seen evacuating patients, and debris was seen scattered throughout the building's interior. The director of the hospital said a fire broke out and several wards were completely demolished. This specific building, because it's an older building, was evacuated by us in the past two days. And the department that was directly hit was empty at the time it was hit. He said 40 people in the hospital were injured, some from broken glass and falling ceilings. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited the site. We see the whole difference here. We are hitting with precision the targets of the nuclear and missile programs, and they're hitting a hospital, where people can't even get up and run away. An Iranian missile also hit the center of a building complex in Holon, near Tel Aviv, causing damage to five buildings around the area of impact. And some high-rise buildings near Tel Aviv were also damaged by an Iranian missile. Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, spoke with reporters after the attacks. He said that regime change in Iran is not one of Israel's goals in the conflict. Jason Perry, NCD News. A possible regime change in Iran is one of the big topics surrounding the recent escalations. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Netanyahu says no one in Iran should have immunity. Take a look. I instructed that no one in Iran should have immunity. Beyond that, I don't think it's appropriate or necessary for me to add anything. I believe actions should speak much louder than words. Also in Israel today, researchers at a science institute are looking at the damage caused by a recent Iranian strike. The scientists say the extensive damage could potentially set back their research for years. And they add that some of the research can't be recovered at all. Meanwhile, in Iran, the regime could reportedly close the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The strait is the entrance to the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean. About 20 percent of the world's oil exports flow through it. The Times of Israel reports that Iran could close the strait if the U.S. decides to join Israel in the fight against Iran. And American and United Airlines are suspending some flights to the Middle East. This comes as the State Department warns U.S. citizens of possible dangers in Middle Eastern nations due to current developments. Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the ongoing conflict with Israel. But it is China, not the West, that might bear the brunt of the economic fallout. Our Washington correspondent Luis Adorno-Martinez has more on the story. I think any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region with very, very bad consequences for the whole international community. We are in contact with almost all countries, including China and Russia, and we are trying our best in order to mobilize international communities' unified response against this act of aggression. Just as Iran had its so-called Axis of Resistance with Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen, the now-deposed Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and militias in Iraq, so does the Chinese Communist Party rely on its proxies to wage asymmetrical war against the United States through Iran, North Korea, and Russia. And just as Iran was left severely exposed after Israel and the United States dismantled its Axis, so can the Chinese Communist Party be severely weakened if its proxies fall. If we attack Iran, and it looks like we're going to do that, there's a number of things that people have warned about that are likely to happen. Closing the Strait of Hormuz, shutting off, therefore, about a quarter of the world's The only things that Iran can really pull off are attacking American troops with missiles in bases in Iraq, blowing up the Straits of Hormuz for a few weeks. Half of the oil that fuels the Chinese Communist Party's economy transits through the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran being its largest supplier. Israel has targeted Iranian oil infrastructure without affecting U.S. oil prices. It went after oil storage and oil refineries in those depots, as well as, of course, the targeting of gas facilities in Iran's south. A weakened Iran not only affects severely the flow of military drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but it also becomes a liability for the Chinese Communist Party's economy. If they don't have any deterrent capacity, that means that they're going to be essentially a Hamas-type threat, but much, much bigger. And so the long-term implications of that, I think, are much greater. The Chinese Communist Party took four days to respond to the outbreak of the conflict in between Iran and Israel and has offered to negotiate a peaceful solution. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. The last American hostage to be released from captivity in Gaza has returned home today. Edan Alexander returned to Tenafly, New Jersey today after nearly 600 days in captivity. He arrived by motorcade to his hometown where local supporters lined the streets. Edan, who is now 21 years old, went to Israel at the age of 18 to join the Israeli military. He was abducted on October 7th with several other Americans and Israelis. He was freed last month. The release was the result of indirect negotiations between the United States and Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Trump for helping facilitate Alexander's freedom. The FBI this week probing allegations of a scheme by the Chinese Communist Party to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Officials are investigating reports that the regime mass-produced fake driver's licenses and shipped them to the U.S. to get mail-in ballots. How are everyday folks reacting to the story? NTD's Sam Wong was out on the National in D.C. to hear from the people. The FBI is now saying that China was mass-producing fake U.S. driver's licenses, sending them to the United States during the 2020 election to interfere with the result. What are your thoughts on that? What's your reaction? I hadn't heard that story, but I wouldn't put it past them, I guess. I mean, the Russians did the same thing back in the 70s and 80s. Well, I hope that stops. That needs to stop. We need to have a fair election. Well, I know that that's a fact because I work at a university and I know that students who are underage can, for $300, they can get two or three copies of a very real-looking fake driver's license. So, that is concerning. I think that that's something we need to be very concerned about is our voting and our ballots. Keep them up in the forefront and knowing where everything's coming from. And we need to make sure that people are being checked and that we still have our right to vote, but it needs to be done the right way. Are you concerned about foreign influence in our electoral system specifically when it comes to China? Yes, I am. I am concerned about that. And I think, again, if anybody can get to the bottom of it and cure the problem, we've got the right man in office. I'm worried about any foreign entity that's over, that infiltrates our elections. I mean, that's one of the major things that I love about America is that we're able to freely vote and vote our people in and everything. I read some of the headlines that say that they had interference in our voting systems. We need to stomp that out. We need to have people here legally. We need to have them vetted. They need to come in through the front door. If Trump's behind it, I'm not as concerned as much. Right now, I feel that our country is in a position that we are being held accountable and we are being held to a higher position to be doing things correctly. And I'm happy about that. A SpaceX rocket exploded in Brownsville, Texas last night. Video footage captured the explosion and an enormous fireball. SpaceX said the Starship experienced a major anomaly around 11 p.m. while on the test launch pad. The company said there were no hazards to nearby communities but asked people not to approach the site. Last night marked the 10th test flight for SpaceX's Starship. CEO Elon Musk's spacecraft is designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars. The rocket consists of two components, 33 Raptor engines using sub-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen power, the Super Heavy booster. The 171-foot-tall second-stage spacecraft is known as Starship. Both are designed to be fully reusable. Coming up, the White House border czar says more resources are being sent to so-called sanctuary cities to tackle public threats. Jason Blair has more on that and other immigration updates. The Los Angeles City Council has approved funding to cover LAPD overtime costs related to recent protests. Meanwhile, demonstrations continued outside a Southern California hotel where ICE agents were believed to be staying. And in a world of processed food, one community has remained steadfast in preparing homegrown meals. Janja Kellick shows us what's cooking in Ohio's Amish country when we come back. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Border czar Tom Homan says authorities are sending more resources to so-called sanctuary cities to take quote public threats off the street. Homan also says that work sites are being prioritized because they have the highest number of human trafficking victims. KNDC correspondent Jason Blair has the update. Outside the White House, border czar Tom Homan says more resources are being sent to so-called sanctuary cities. That's where the problem is. They knowingly release public safety threats, illegal aliens to the community every day. Homan says they are focusing on criminal activity and catching criminals. Work site enforcement operations are just like at-large operations. We're going to base them on priority, right? For those that we have a criminal nexus of trafficking, of forced labor, of tax fraud or tax evasion, we'll prioritize those who have a criminal nexus first. Inside the White House, Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt gives the latest stats from the Trump administration on illegal immigration. According to newly released numbers, last month, Border Patrol saw a 93% decrease of illegal aliens crossing the Southwest border between ports of entry from May 2024 under Joe Biden when they encountered more than 117,000 illegal aliens. In the month of May under the Trump administration, zero illegal aliens were released into our country by Border Patrol. Leavitt also praises the work being done by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE officers are courageous heroes upholding the rule of law and keeping our citizens safe. And they have the full and unwavering support of this president. And in San Diego, the Border Patrol seized a 3,000-foot tunnel extending to Tijuana, Mexico. The agency says the tunnel was sophisticated with electrical wiring, lighting, ventilation and a track system to transport large amounts of illegal items. San Diego's acting chief patrol agent says disruption of narcotics smuggling tunnels is critical to protecting American lives. I'm grateful for the exceptional work of the tunnel team agents who placed themselves in danger as well as the cooperation of our Mexican law enforcement partners. The entrance to the tunnel was found inside a residence in Tijuana, Mexico, covered with freshly laid tile. Authorities say they plan to fill the tunnel with thousands of gallons of concrete to prevent its further use by quote foreign terrorist organizations. Jason Blair, NTD News. Student visa appointments are set to resume but with stricter rules for applicants. This comes after the Trump administration paused visa appointments last month. New State Department guidance now requires embassies to check applicants for what could be deemed as hostile attitudes toward the U.S. Applicants will be expected to set their social media profiles to public to allow screening. Failure to do so could be interpreted as an effort to hide certain online activity. Officials say they're looking for views in support of terrorism, anti-Semitic content or signs an applicant might undermine national security. The new guidance applies to both new and returning applicants. Los Angeles City officials are moving to cover millions in police overtime costs tied to immigration related protests. Meanwhile, demonstrators returned to an L.A. County hotel targeting ICE agents who are believed to be staying there. NTD's Christina Corona tells us more. The Los Angeles City Council approved a five million dollar loan to help cover LAPD overtime costs tied to recent anti-ICE protests. The 13 to 2 vote allows a transfer from the city's emergency reserve fund pending approval from Mayor Karen Bass. Council members Eunice Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez opposed the motion citing concerns about LAPD spending. City records show 19.7 million dollars has been spent responding to the protests, with 87 percent or 17.2 million going to LAPD, including 11.7 million in overtime. LAPD says it does not yet have a breakdown of overtime figures for the most recent pay period, which ended June 14th. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to address the recent immigration raids on Thursday, which have caused concern among many fans. Latino advocacy groups have been urging the team to take a public stand. Early Thursday, the Dodgers posted on X that ICE agents requested access to their parking lots. This morning, ICE agents came to Dodgers Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight's game will be played as scheduled. However, ICE says that their agents weren't at the stadium responding on X. False. We were never there. The Department of Homeland Security later clarified that the agents were from Customs and Border Protection and that their presence was not related to an enforcement operation. The Dodgers said they would soon announce plans to support immigrant communities affected by the raids in Los Angeles. And in Pomona, protesters gathered outside a Hilton Garden Inn for the second night in a row, targeting ICE agents believed to be staying there. About 150 demonstrators waved flags, honked horns and banged drums, trying to disrupt the agents' stay. Hotel staff have not confirmed whether ICE agents were staying at the hotel in Pomona. And so far, there have been no reports of injuries related to the protests. Reporting from downtown Los Angeles, Christina Corona, NTD News. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is in the spotlight for her recent clash with President Trump over how to handle unrest in the city. Now, another issue is coming to light. New reports suggest potential ties between her close aides and a Beijing-backed intelligence group. Facing scrutiny is Adam Ma, Mayor Bass's Asian-American liaison and Commission Appointments Director. His father, Derek Ma, also known as Ma Xuerong, holds top roles in U.S.-based nonprofits controlled by Beijing. These groups are linked to China's United Front Work Department, Beijing's propaganda and intelligence arm, working to influence Chinese communities in the U.S. Chinese state media also showed Derek Ma has close ties to key regime leaders. Five years ago, he was caught attending an event featuring the regime's leader, Xi Jinping. At the Chinese Communist Party's 100th anniversary in 2021, Derek Ma publicly declared his loyalty, stating, quote, if China didn't have the CCP, there'd be no strong China today. Meanwhile, he was busy fundraising for then-Congresswoman Karen Bass's mayoral campaign. Reports say Derek raised tens of thousands of dollars through his influence in local Chinese communities. Shortly after taking office, Mayor Bass hired Derek's son, Adam Ma, for key positions on her team. This news comes as lawmakers investigate potential Chinese influence behind the L.A. protests, including ties to pro-CCP billionaire Neville Singham. While Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, it's held significance among Black Americans for a long time. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in 1863, but that couldn't be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. Here's how an order given by Union troops in Texas set the stage for what we now call Juneteenth. As Union troops arrived in Texas at the end of the Civil War, they issued several orders. One of them declared that all enslaved people in the state were now free and had absolute equality. General order number three is the genesis of the Juneteenth celebrations marking the end of slavery in the U.S. When Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation, that was kind of, for the rest of the country, it was hard for word to get around. So by 1865, people in Washington decided we needed to send something to Texas so that they knew that the slaves were free. So they called it general order number three. Word spread across Texas as troops posted handbills of the orders and newspapers published them. But once you get to Texas, how do you let people know that this is happening, right? So what you do is you print these handbills, as they call it, so you can hand out to people. Oftentimes they would nail it onto a pole or take it to the post office, but it's somewhere where people can see. It was like an advertising piece for people to know what was going on. The only one of those handbills still known to exist resides at the Dallas Historical Society. It will be on display from June 19th through October 19th. This Historical Society was founded by George Bannerman Dealey. Mr. Dealey was a newspaperman from Galveston, Texas, who came to Dallas to start the newspaper. And when he came up to Dallas, he kind of took a lot of his items with him. And one of those items was the Juneteenth document. For generations, Black Americans have commemorated the end of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history. The day is marked with parades, street festivals, musical performances, and cookouts. Juneteenth has also been called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Black Fourth of July, and Second Independence Day. Coming up, President Trump says he'll decide what actions to take in Iran within two weeks. What factors could he be weighing? And what role is China playing in the Israel-Iran war? Former diplomat and Energy Department official Bart McCoy shares his insights after the break. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Joining us now to discuss the latest in the Israel-Iran war is Bart McCoy. He's a former career diplomat and Energy Department official. Bart, thank you so much for joining us. Great to see you again. Now, President Trump has signaled he'll allow two weeks for diplomacy to proceed before deciding on whether the U.S. will launch a strike on Iran. What do you see as the factors here that the president is weighing? I think the main factor can be summarized in two words, unconditional surrender. He has taught the Iranians that when he gives them a timeline, he means there is a timeline. And he has told them very clearly that what he expects from them is unconditional surrender. If they surrender unconditionally before two weeks are up, then they will not be attacked further. We will not get involved. We will not need to. Now, right now, the Fordow facility is getting a lot of attention given it's housed beneath a mountain. And as the site many say is capable of producing a nuclear warhead in as little as a few days. Given how deeply buried the site is, Israel would need so-called bunker buster bombs, which only the U.S. has. What is the likelihood of U.S. involvement in taking out Fordow? I think you have to hand it to the Iranians when people question whether or not they're actually serious about making a nuclear weapon. When you bury the lab 400 feet beneath a mountain, that's a pretty good sign that you're not developing anything for civilian use. We don't really know whether the bunker buster bombs that we have are capable of taking it out. We don't know that the smaller bombs that Israel has are not capable. And we don't know what else Israel may have up its sleeve. They may consider some sort of ground-based assault, a special operations assault, that would go in and ensure that the facility is taken out. I think that's another indicator, another factor President Trump is looking at. Can the Israelis do it on their own? If they cannot, and if the Iranians have not surrendered at the end of two weeks, then I think it's highly likely that we will see a couple of B-2 bombers take off from Diego Garcia or Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and will bomb. Each one will have two GBU-57 bunker buster bombs. The first one will open up a very deep hole. It'll burrow down into the ground and explode. And the second one will go into the hole that it created and burrow deeper and explode. And then the second plane will deliver two more bombs for good measure. After that, we'll have to have some sort of eyes-on contact to verify and confirm that the facility has indeed been destroyed. Now, in terms of response so far, we saw anti-Israel protesters taking the streets in New York, chanting, no war on Iran. What do you make of these protests and what they're trying to achieve? I think about half of those are actual protesters who are probably Palestinians or Palestinian Americans or other Arab Americans that are deeply opposed to Israel. But the other half, and probably the majority, are bought and paid for. And probably even the ones who feel it genuinely are paid to be out there. The Justice Department has said that they're starting to research the funding of some of the rioters in Los Angeles. I hope they get around to researching the funding of these protesters as well, because I think a lot of that is coming from foreign sources. And it's just meant to try to separate the American people from the nation of Israel, to blind them to what was done on October 7th, and to all of the statements made by Iran and by Hamas and by so many other groups, that they would do it all over again 10,000 times as soon as they get the opportunity. These are people that want to kill every last Jew, not just every last Israeli, but every last Jew, and then start on the rest of us once they finish those first two tasks. Well, zeroing in on the Middle East region, China has popped up calling itself a mediator. As for why Beijing has such a stake in the conflict, the Wall Street Journal reports that Iran is exporting about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day, and more than 90 percent of that goes to China. What do you make of China buying sanctioned Iranian oil? And are we seeing something similar to Russia, as in China is propping up their economy? You're asking me questions, Tiffany, that make me look very cynical in all of my answers. I apologize to your viewers if they think I'm too cynical. The Ayatollahs are finding out that China is not a reliable friend. It's not a durable ally. China acts only in the interest of China. They will buy Iranian oil as long as Iranian oil is for sale, and especially as long as it's for sale at much lower prices than the world markets charge. When we sanction a country's oil, it doesn't mean they can't sell it. It means they can't sell it on the spot market, on world markets and long-term contracts, and so they have to charge less for it. China steps into that breach very happily, and they'll gobble up everything that Iran can produce. On top of that, there are reports that China has been sending missile fuel materials to Iran since January, and some believe that support may still be happening. What is China's calculus in this region? Why help Iran? For one thing, they want to keep the fuel supplies coming. They need those. They want those. But also, their interest is in stirring up any kind of difficulty for the United States, NATO, the Western alliance, the civilized countries. The Chinese communists will take every possible opportunity to stir up mischief and chaos in the world because it allows them to try to rescue their failing economy without being overtaken and outperformed by the Western economies. A lot at stake for sure. Bart Marquois, as always, thank you so much for joining us. It was my pleasure. Thank you. In a world of processed and fast food, there's a movement promoting homegrown and homemade alternatives. That's the theme of this year's Food Independence Summit, which prioritizes healthy living and self-sufficiency. The two-day event wrapped up this afternoon. Let's see Janja Kellick, host of Epic TV's American Thought Leaders, in the heart of Ohio, Amish country. Hello, everyone. We're here at the Food Independence Summit in Walnut Creek, Ohio. People come here to learn how to be less dependent on other people, particularly for food. You can find out how to do it here. We've got 48 concurrent workshops this afternoon. When we do something, we do it with all our might. Please show me some of what you've got happening over here. Okay, let's go. That's a mighty fine looking sausage. It's powered by the two burner propane burner on the bottom with literally a slab of apple firewood right on top. Oh wow, that's fantastic. We're working on pressure canning beef tacos today. And this is actually really super simple. My family has been doing this for hundreds of years. You just fill the jars, you put them in the canner, and you put the lid on, and then you run the canner. And so what that does is it creates an environment inside the jar, where then you can put it on your shelf and you don't need any refrigeration. All of our food falls on an acidity level. So things that are more acidic, like apples and oranges and fruits and fruit juices, jams, jellies, they only need to be heated to 212 degrees. So that can go in this large pot, because we can boil water in here Here's your superb lids and your superb rings. So we just put that lid and that ring on. And then once it goes into the canner, the lid will actually kind of bounce up and down, and it will push all the air out of the jar. It will push all the oxygen out of the jar. And you just put it on your shelf like this. The lid is what holds the suction to the jar, not the ring. It's very inspiring to people who would love to have a piece of property, make a full-time living with their family, and serve their community with good stuff. When you realize that everything starts at seed and that soil, then you change your lifestyle once you start to learn. I'm teaching generations of skills to my children. John, this has been absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for arranging everything for us to be able to insert into every part of the event. It's our pleasure. The fact that you came out here means so much. This is Jan Jekielek reporting for NTD from Walnut Creek, Ohio, at the Food Independence Summit. And that was just a bite-sized snippet of Jan's reporting. Watch the full report on an upcoming episode of American Thought Leaders here on NTD or on Epic TV. Coming up in the NBA, the Thunder can clinch the title with a win tonight, but the question remains, will Tyrese Halliburton suit up for Indiana? Dave Martin joins us to discuss. And step into a mansion and into the heart of 17th-century Dutch life with a rare exhibition at the newly-reopened Frick Collection. Stefania Cox takes us there after the break. And now for your sports news, we're joined by NTD's Dave Martin. Dave, plenty going on today, but let's start in the NBA as Oklahoma City could clinch the title tonight with a win, but the big question is still, what's the status of Indiana's Tyrese Halliburton? Yeah, Halliburton, he's actually listed as questionable to play for tonight's game. He's actually confirmed also he does have a right calf strain. Now naturally, of course, he said he's wanted to play, but he's got to probably weigh that against your long-term risks of playing on an injured leg. Plus, of course, how effective can he actually be with this kind of injury? Now we saw in the last game, Game 5 on Monday, he scored just four points in 34 minutes, missed all six of his shots from the field. That was his lowest scoring output of the playoffs. Now yesterday, they had practice that head coach Rick Carlisle said he did participate in, but it was just a light walk through as well as watching film, so it doesn't really tell us what his status might be. Now Carlisle himself said it'll likely be a game-time decision for tonight. That game starts in just a couple hours in Indiana. That'll be 8.30 Eastern time tonight. If the Pacers win, we've got a Game 7 on Sunday, but if the Oklahoma City Thunder win, they'll win the title. And what are the Pacers' options without him? You know, mainly it's going to be T.J. McConnell. Now he's been their backup point guard. He played really well, actually, in Game 5 there on Monday. He scored 18 points in just 22 minutes. 13 of those were in that third quarter, and he's really the one that most people think he kind of helped spark that rally. They were down 18 points at one point. He got them all the way back to within two. Now they took him out in the fourth quarter, put Halliburton back in. I was actually kind of surprised that they didn't go back to McConnell when Oklahoma City upped the lead again. My guess is they're going to start Halliburton tonight, see how effective he actually is. But McConnell will likely play a lot of minutes. It's actually, I mean, it's obviously a very tough spot for the Pacers to be in with their best player injured here right in the finals. Well, looking at NFL News, former Jets and Ravens Pro Bowl linebacker C.J. Mosley announced his retirement today. Yeah, today is actually his 33rd birthday, so to mark the occasion, he decided to retire. Now, he actually posted a highlight video to Instagram account and said, quote, Today it is time to wake up from my childhood dream and share it with the next generation. Now, Mosley was a very good linebacker for both the Jets and the Ravens, made five Pro Bowls, was named a five-time All-Pro second team selection at middle linebacker, and he started his career in Baltimore, was the first Raven ever to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie. A few years later, he signed the biggest contract ever for middle linebacker, five-year $85 million deal with the New York Jets. He really was the Jets' leader on defense, made his fifth Pro Bowl selection in 2022. Last year, though, he was limited to just four games with injuries, so it wasn't a surprise that he decided to go ahead and retire. So there's going to be a certain changing of the guard, for sure, with the Jets' defense this year. Switching gears to baseball, the Dodgers have announced Shohoutani will pitch again Sunday against the Nationals. Is he expected to go starters innings? You know, the Dodgers haven't actually said yet, but it seems unlikely he would go five innings this time after going just one inning on Monday. Now, this is somewhat of an unusual situation. Shohoutani had not pitched for nearly two years for his outing on Monday. Normally, this is where you would send a pitcher to a minor league for a 30-day rehab assignment, where they would make several minor league starts. But of course, Shohoutani is the only two-way player in the game, so he's already on the roster as a hitter. So essentially, he's doing his rehab starts really as a reliever, it looks like. This is how they're going to do this. Now, Monday's game, as I mentioned, threw 28 pitches, reached 100 miles an hour on the radar gun, gave up just one run in that outing. Now, a tip, incidentally, this game was on MLB TV. It was the highest, which is Baseball Streaming Service. It was actually the highest rated game in their TV service history, just as you called, by the way, a couple days ago when we were talking about this. So I don't know, maybe you should be up here answering these questions instead of me, I don't know. Yeah, maybe I should go into sports. Well, Dave, as always, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Tiff. Now to New York's Upper East Side, where a jewel of the classical art world has reopened its doors, and with it, an extraordinary Rionian. For the first time, three paintings by the Dutch master Johans Vermeer, all exploring the theme of letter writing, are being shown together in a single gallery. A woman pauses with a quill in hand. A maid offers a sealed letter. Another, in a golden interior, seems poised to read something that's only for her. These are Vermeer's love letters. Domestic, enigmatic, timeless. Three masterpieces, now for the first time, side by side in New York. Vermeer's love letters brings together the Frick's own mistress and maid, alongside loans from the Rijksmuseum and Ireland's National Gallery. They're here together in a single gallery, shown side by side for the very first time. So in very classic Frick style, this is an exhibition that encourages, fosters, invites close looking, deep thinking, and simply marveling at staggering works of art. Only around 35 Vermeer paintings survive. Of those, six portray the act of writing or receiving a letter. That makes this show, focused solely on that theme, all the more extraordinary. I think one of the key aspects of letter writing for Vermeer was the mental activity involved. What is the greatest challenge for an artist is to depict what we're all conscious of, but it's not visible. And that's sort of the magic of consciousness generally, is that these thoughts, these emotions, you can read them on faces a bit or read them in people's postures, but how do you convey that as a painter? It takes a great deal of mastery to be able to convey these subtleties. Vermeer's magic lies in the everyday. His use of light, space, and detail, elevating the ordinary into the eternal. Some even speculate that he used a camera obscura to achieve such precision. I think he replicates in his picture some of the effects that the lens creates, but I do not believe that he painted his depictions one-to-one from an image projected by the camera obscura. The show also marks a new beginning. It's the debut exhibition in the Frick's newly renovated exhibition galleries, a setting that once again places art within a space of classical art. We just love this space and everything, and we're very excited. What do you like about classical art? I would say that it talks to me. I see that, I see the real parts, and I, even though it's a painting, but I feel like it's moving, like the energy. This is what I was always about with it. For lovers of art, it's more than just an exhibition. It's a return of Vermeer, of the Frick, of a tradition that still speaks to us. In Manhattan, Stefania Cox, NTD News. And that's all for today's news. For on-the-clock coverage, visit us at ntd.com slash live or download our NTD app. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Good night.