Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, June 24, 2025…
- When the Trump administration moved in April to cancel about half a billion dollars in Department of Justice grants, it said the programs didn’t align with the administration’s priorities. But many of the programs targeted for cuts seem to be doing exactly the things the administration says it’s focused on.
- Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire after more than a week of exchanging bombs and missile fire. But President Trump lashed out at the two sides Tuesday morning, for possible violations of that agreement. This caps a whirlwind of events including the US bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran and Iran’s response, launching more than a dozen missiles at a US airbase in Qatar. Iranians living in LA have mixed feelings about the conflict.
She Left Her Abuser. Now The Shelter That Helped Her Is Losing Federal Funds
She came to the United States in 2017, after marrying her husband in their home country in the Middle East. “I left everything, everything, my family — I was working in my country, I had a life in my country — so I left everything for him and for the family,” she said recently, choking back tears. She had one baby, then became pregnant with their second in the U.S. But after arriving, she said, her husband turned violent. “He is not the guy I married in my country,” she said. “It’s abuse. I was abused,” she said.
She spoke with KQED in a conference room at a secure location, her voice soft and choked with tears. KQED is not naming the woman or her home country, because she is a survivor of abuse and still worries for her safety. She called the police, but says her husband blamed her and told the officers she was the one being abusive. She appealed for help at their family mosque, but says nothing changed.
In 2019, the woman first learned of the Asian Women’s Shelter, a San Francisco nonprofit that serves victims of domestic violence and human trafficking with a focus on immigrant and refugee communities. “I was pregnant, so I called them. And after, I just said, ‘OK, just take your time. You are pregnant, you have another baby, it’s gonna be hard.’ So I just took it easy … but he didn’t stop. My ex, he didn’t stop,” she said. It took two more years and multiple conversations with Rakya Ahmed, a case manager and advocate at the shelter, for her to finally leave. Now, she has an apartment, a driver’s license, and a car. Her young children are in school and she is studying to become an educator. She has an attorney to help with the ongoing divorce case. If not for the Asian Women’s Shelter, she said, “either I’m in a hospital or I’m dead.”
Asian Women’s Shelter is more than a shelter — in addition to providing emergency housing for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, they connect clients with everything they will need to rebuild their lives: food, clothing, health care, legal advocacy, transportation, counseling, job training. But programs like this one are losing federal funds under the Trump administration — part of the White House’s broader effort to decrease federal spending and cut off funding from programs it sees as unnecessary or counter to the administration’s agenda. In April, the Asian Women’s Shelter received a letter from the Department of Justice informing the nonprofit that a $500,000 grant awarded it last fall was being rescinded.
Iranians In Los Angeles Feel Pain Of Mideast Conflict
President Trump says a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has taken effect, after lashing out earlier Tuesday over alleged violations of the truce he helped broker, and excoriating Israel for its plan to resume strikes on Iran.