The Morning: Travel secrets

June 15, 2025

Good morning. Here’s the news you need to start your day:

Manhunt: The authorities are searching for a suspect they say assassinated a Minnesota state representative and wounded a state senator.
Middle East: Israeli jets attacked Tehran’s main fuel depot, while dozens of Iranian missiles rained down on Israel.
Shows of force: Tanks paraded through Washington as anti-Trump protesters marched in cities across the U.S.

We have more on these stories below. But first, a renowned travel writer reflects on his role sending tourists to quiet corners of the world.

A bright orange gate sits at the end of a bridge. A boat passes beneath the bridge.

A torii gate outside a shrine in Kyoto. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Hidden gems

By Lyna Bentahar

I’m a member of the Morning team.

I spent September traveling by myself along the length of Japan, from Nagasaki to Tokyo. I spent some of the hottest days of the late summer lying in the forested onsens of Mount Aso and eating sushi with strangers in Tokyo. I walked dozens of kilometers every day, sweating under cloudless skies.

Along the way I visited Kyoto, a city steeped in both history and novelty. I had a plan to see the sights: the hundreds of torii of Fushimi Inari, the bamboo forest of Arashiyama. I did not expect that I would spend much of my time in one little bar filled with an eclectic mix of regulars, who pointed me to the city’s hidden gems. This bar made my whole trip.

It’s every right of a travel writer to share with you the name of this bar. But should I?

For 30 years, the writer Pico Iyer lived near a different, noiseless Kyoto. In an essay for today’s Travel section, he wrote about the difficult choice between sharing the secrets of his chosen home or protecting the quiet city from being trampled by tourists:

“What’s a travel writer to do? The very premise of the job is to tell you about attractive possibilities that you might not otherwise know about. But as those little-known jewels become better known, readers grow understandably indignant (that quiet and reasonably priced cafe is suddenly unquiet and unreasonably priced), while locals wonder how much to curse the onslaught of visitors and how much to try to make the most of them.”

The various signs warning foreigners away from private residences made clear that my presence in Kyoto was an inconvenience. Posters on crowded buses encouraged tourists to please take the train instead. When I walked among the crowds of Kiyomizu, I felt less like a traveler and more like a body in a mob.

Iyer told me he believed this was evidence of a change not just in Japan but in the culture of travel itself. Travel writers should share the secrets they find, he said, but also encourage travelers to get lost in the places they visit.

“If you travel in search of consumption, then you’ll be really frustrated these days,” he said. “If you travel in search of curiosity, you’re never going to be disappointed.”

For more: This weekend, The Times’s Travel section is devoted to stories about the secrets of travel.

If you’re trying to take the road less traveled, you can do so for cheap by visiting during the off-peak season, our Frugal Traveler columnist writes.
If you’re in New York, you can plan a day in one of these six appointment-only shops.
And if you want to go even more underground, have a drink at one of the world’s 10 most alluring hidden bars. (Don’t worry, we’ll tell you how to find them.)

THE LATEST NEWS

Minnesota Shootings

Tim Walz, in a blue windbreaker, speaks at a dais.

Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor, called the shootings “an act of targeted political violence.” Jerry Holt/Star Tribune, via Associated Press

A gunman impersonating a police officer killed a Minnesota House member and her husband, and seriously wounded a state senator and his wife, in the Minneapolis suburbs. The police are still searching for him.
The police identified the suspect as Vance Boelter, 57. Records show that he had served on a state board with one of the victims.

Both of the targeted politicians — State Representative Melissa Hortman and State Senator John Hoffman — were Democrats. Read more about them.
The police said the gunman’s car contained a manifesto and a list of about 70 more potential targets, including politicians, doctors and Planned Parenthood sites.

Israel-Iran Conflict

The fighting between Israel and Iran is growing increasingly destructive and deadly. In Israel, at least eight people were killed as Iranian missiles struck cities in the north and just outside Tel Aviv.
Israel’s latest wave of attacks on Iran took out Tehran’s main gas depot and its central oil refinery, engulfing the city’s sky in smoke and flame.
These maps show the locations of attacks in both countries.

Parade and Protest

A split image: On the left, green tanks roll down a wide street. On the right, protesters march with signs.

Washington, D.C., left, and Portland, Ore. Haiyun Jiang and Jordan Gale for The New York Times

President Trump hosted a military parade the same day that hundreds of protests took place, in what amounted to a split-screen show of force, David Sanger writes.
In around 2,000 places across the U.S., including major cities and rural communities, people marched in so-called No Kings demonstrations against the Trump administration. See photos here.
Trump spent hours watching the parade in Washington, which honored the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — on his own 79th birthday. On Fox News, hosts gushed over the display.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

Should Trump have deployed the National Guard to quell the Los Angeles protests?

No. Trump deployed the National Guard without an invasion or rebellion — just protests. “A president who can mobilize military forces against protesters, and chooses to target those upset with his policies, is assuming the power to suppress speech he personally finds threatening,” Bloomberg’s Noah Feldman writes.

Yes. There is a long history of presidents sending troops where protests threaten the enforcement of federal law. “Trump is doing nothing more than his job, something the Biden administration and Newsom himself largely abdicated,” David Mastio writes for The Kansas City Star.

FROM OPINION

Trump should not let Israel drag the U.S. into a doomed war with Iran, Rosemary Kelanic writes.

A successful protest doesn’t bring immediate, easily visible change. It succeeds when it leads to change over time, David Wallace-Wells argues.

Here are columns by Ross Douthat on assisted suicide and Thomas Friedman on Iran and Israel.

Save up to 75% on Games. Our best offer won’t last.

Add some play to your day with Wordle, Spelling Bee, Connections, the Crossword and more. Subscribe to New York Times Games and save up to 75% on your first year — get full access to our puzzle archives, play ad free in the app, use tools to help you improve and more.

SPORTS

W.N.B.A.: In her first game back from an injury, Caitlin Clark went off for 25 points in the first half, leading the Indiana Fever to victory over the previously unbeaten New York Liberty.

Minnesota shootings: The attacks on lawmakers cast a somber mood over a nearby W.N.B.A. game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks. The tragedy “puts basketball into perspective,” the Lynx star Napheesa Collier said.

Advice for grads: What do Derek Jeter, Simone Biles and Carmelo Anthony have in common? They all gave commencement addresses this year. Read highlights from the speeches.

MORNING READS

An aging man and a younger man look at the camera, their faces close together.

Peter Listro and his son, Matt. Elinor Carucci for The New York Times

From beyond: As their father grew ill, a family decided to create an A.I. avatar of him that they could talk to after he was gone.

Modern men: On a recent workday in Manhattan, dads attended a summit on the future of fatherhood. (It was organized by moms.)

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about the sole survivor of the Air India crash.

Rabbit holes: They asked a chatbot questions. Its conspiratorial answers sent them spiraling.

Vows: What’s black and white and began with a message on LinkedIn? This wedding.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

This is the cover of “The Doorman,” by Chris Pavone

	By Elisabeth Egan

“The Doorman,” by Chris Pavone: Welcome to the Bohemia, one of the Upper West Side’s most opulent apartment buildings, where priceless art and designer dogs are de rigueur and every resident has a secret. So does Chicky Diaz, who holds the door, collects packages and functions as the eyes and ears of the place. In Pavone’s sixth (and, arguably, best) thriller, citywide unrest begins to penetrate the Bohemia’s fortresslike walls, edging uncomfortably close to the Big Apple’s most cosseted denizens — and to Chicky himself. Our reviewer described the book as a “laser-sharp satire” that “gathers force like an impending storm.”