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At this time’s high tales
Lebanese and Israeli navy officers are set to fulfill at the moment in Washington. Iran has insisted that it’ll not signal a cope with the U.S. until there’s an finish to the conflict in Lebanon, the place Israel is combating the militant group Hezbollah. Vice President Vance stated final night time that there wasn’t but a U.S.-Iran settlement, however that officers are very shut. Over the previous week, U.S. and Iranian officers have mentioned potential agreements to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and suspending nuclear talks for later. A sticking level in these negotiations has included Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium.
A fireball and smoke erupt from a constructing following an Israeli strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, on Could 28, 2026.
Kawant Haju/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Kawant Haju/AFP by way of Getty Photos
- 🎧 The Lebanese authorities does not have loads of leverage going into at the moment’s assembly, NPR’s Jane Arraf tells Up First. Since its formation within the Eighties in response to an Israeli invasion, Hezbollah has change into an integral a part of the Lebanese state and wields appreciable energy within the nation. Just lately, Arraf sat down with Hezbollah spokesman Youssef al-Zein in Beirut, who stated the group wouldn’t disarm whereas Lebanon is below assault. At the moment, Lebanon is meant to be below a ceasefire, however Israeli strikes have endured. Lebanese tradition minister Ghassan Salameh tells NPR these strikes have put vital Roman websites and a crusader citadel in danger. He says he hopes there can be a ceasefire quickly to allow them to assess the injury.
- ➡️ After greater than three months of a government-imposed web blackout, individuals in Iran can log on once more.
The Justice Division has launched an investigation associated to author E. Jean Carroll, a perceived political adversary of President Trump. Carroll received two separate lawsuits in opposition to the president for sexual abuse and defamation. Investigators are trying into whether or not Carroll dedicated perjury throughout her deposition associated to civil lawsuits she introduced in opposition to him.
- 🎧 The focus of the investigation is the nonprofit group American Future Republic and the funding it supplied for a few of Carroll’s authorized bills, a supply acquainted with the matter tells NPR’s Ryan Lucas. This nonprofit is backed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who’s a significant donor to Democratic causes. Investigators are trying into potential cash laundering and obstruction. In a 2022 deposition, Carroll stated no exterior events have been serving to with these authorized payments, but it surely later emerged that Hoffman’s nonprofit was. An appeals courtroom discovered that there was no proof indicating Carroll personally secured the surface funding. There may be conflicting info relating to whether or not Carroll herself is at the moment below investigation. The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Chicago issued a press release final night time denying reviews that it had opened an investigation into her. Throughout the 2024 election, Trump stated he would search vengeance on his perceived enemies if he received. Lucas says the Justice Division has repeatedly used its powers to try this, however has additionally “repeatedly flamed out” in these instances. Even so, these investigations and prosecutions impose actual prices and hardships on those that are focused, Lucas says.
CBS Information editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is working to revamp the community’s most prestigious program, 60 Minutes. Yesterday, she dismissed the chief producer who was a veteran of a number of many years, two correspondents and a pair of senior information leaders from the present. Weiss has appointed Nick Bilton, who hasn’t achieved broadcast information work, as the brand new govt producer of the present. The brand new homeowners of CBS introduced Weiss in final fall with the aim of shifting protection away from what they consider to be a “woke” and anti-Trump tilt.
- 🎧 Bilton goals to reinvent 60 Minutes for the digital age, making it extra accessible than simply on Sundays, NPR’s David Folkenflik says. All main information shops are in search of a path to digital success, however Bilton has the help of the Ellison household, which owns not solely CBS but in addition Oracle and TikTok U.S. If Weiss makes the present a success each on-line and on-air, she’ll profit from that success for a very long time. However Folkenflik says if it fails, the blame will fall on her, and her critics will see that as validation.
A federal choose has determined to not block Trump’s govt order that requires limiting voting by mail. U.S. District Choose Carl Nichols, a Trump nominee primarily based in Washington, D.C., issued the ruling yesterday, permitting the order to stay in impact for now. This govt order, launched on March 31, directs the Division of Homeland Safety to collaborate with the Social Safety Administration to compile lists of grownup U.S. residents in every state and supply these lists to state election officers. It additionally requires the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of eligible voters and solely ship mail-in ballots to these people. Choose Nichols discovered that it’s too early for the courtroom to situation an emergency ruling to halt key features of Trump’s order, since these directives haven’t but been carried out. His ruling comes as one other federal choose prepares to situation a choice in an analogous set of lawsuits primarily based in Boston, anticipated as early as June.
Church and State
Ohio State Rep. Gary Click on, a Republican from the 88th District and a Baptist pastor, poses for a portrait in his workplace on the Riffe Tower in Columbus, Ohio on February, 24, 2026.
Andrew Spear for NPR
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Andrew Spear for NPR
This week at NPR, we will discover the elevated intermixing of God and authorities in a brand new collection we’re calling Church and State. It is an concept that has been gaining momentum by means of the primary and second Trump administrations, not solely inside U.S. politics but in addition all through American tradition, in songs and work, schoolbooks and worship occasions infused with religion and politics.
Ohio state Rep. Gary Click on has been working to go the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act since final yr. The invoice would allow the instructing of the constructive impression of “Judeo-Christian” values in U.S. historical past. The state Home has already handed the laws, and it’s now within the Senate. Whereas a few different states have related payments, none are named after Kirk, the conservative activist whose rhetoric has each offended and resonated with many. Click on hopes his invoice will function a mannequin for different potential laws. Opponents argue that the invoice is pointless and will provide a skewed perspective of historical past. They specific issues in regards to the potential mixing of Christianity with lawmaking. Dive into either side of the argument right here.
Behind the story
by Right here & Now’s Chris Bentley and Peter O’Dowd
Sheep graze round photo voltaic panels in Dunlap, Sick.
Chris Bentley/Right here & Now
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Chris Bentley/Right here & Now
Not even essentially the most distant corners of the nation are past the all-consuming gaze of synthetic intelligence. This month, we made a whistle-stop tour of three states within the West to learn the way AI helps battle wildfires, as a part of Right here & Now‘s environmental collection Reverse Course. And we drove south from Chicago to Illinois farm nation for a glimpse at how photo voltaic farms and agriculture are sharing the land.
Driving by means of Illinois, you see a lot of corn and soybeans. It is also more and more widespread to see photo voltaic panels lining fields the place sheep feed on grass, unaware of the pocket-size energy crops over their heads. Whereas they usually compete for a similar land, renewable vitality and agriculture can even work collectively in a system referred to as agrivoltaics. In Illinois, state incentives for group photo voltaic are fueling a increase regardless of cuts on the federal stage.
Native governments are additionally searching for new methods to battle wildfires because the U.S. Forest Service offers with job cuts and restructuring. Synthetic intelligence is filling the hole. A rising community of cameras atop mountains and powerlines alerts hearth managers of hazard on the first signal of smoke.
Typically synthetic intelligence will get confused. A cloud of mud appears to be like so much like a smoke plume, in any case. However the business is creating quick. We noticed the know-how at work in Arizona and Colorado. And after a go to to Alert California’s headquarters in San Diego, the state hearth company advised us its cameras caught 915 fires final yr earlier than any human referred to as 911.
Each tales confirmed how economics and native insurance policies are pushing new know-how with implications for local weather change, which match properly into the “local lessons” theme of this yr’s NPR Local weather Options week.
Weekend picks
Clockwise from high left: The Odyssey, Toy Story 5, Scary Film and Disclosure Day
Common; Disney/Pixar; Paramount Photos; Niko Tavernise/Common Photos
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Common; Disney/Pixar; Paramount Photos; Niko Tavernise/Common Photos
Take a look at what NPR is watching, studying and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Films: There can be one thing for everybody on the film theaters this summer time, from sequels and reboots to romance and action-packed movies. Listed here are 15 titles to sit up for.
📺 TV: In Netflix’s new sci-fi monster thriller, The Boroughs, one thing unusual is stirring at a retirement group within the desert and a septuagenarian Scooby Gang is investigating precisely what it could possibly be.
📚 Books: The Finish of the Sahara by Saïd Khatibi focuses on the homicide of a nightclub singer, whereas An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini follows a detective investigating the disappearance of three individuals. “These new books could hardly be less alike, except for one thing: Each is, in its unconventional way, quite brilliant,” NPR’s Contemporary Air popular culture critic John Powers says.
🎵 Music: It is Drake Week on the Billboard charts, because the rapper breaks data for sheer amount. His three new albums have debuted within the high three, with ICEMAN main at No. 1.
🍗 Meals: Get the grill prepared as a result of summer time barbecue season is approaching. In search of new recipes to strive? WBUR has you coated with these choices.
❓Quiz: I hope you have been taking note of this week’s newsletters, as they are going to have ready you effectively for a lot of the questions. Check your reminiscence abilities right here.
3 issues to know earlier than you go
The FIFA World Cup 2026 Match Ball “Trionda” is proven at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York Metropolis final October.
Sarah Stier/Getty Photos North America
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Sarah Stier/Getty Photos North America
- Nutmeg is a generally used spice, however additionally it is one of the vital sought-after soccer tips. With the World Cup simply across the nook, there is no such thing as a higher time for this week’s installment of NPR’s Phrase of the Week targeted on the time period.
- After years of authorized battles, Orthodox Jewish girls in Israel can now take the official rabbinic exams. Whereas the nation’s Orthodox non secular authorities nonetheless refuse to formally ordain girls as rabbis, this chance may open doorways to different management roles.
- Officers say deadly subway browsing incidents in New York Metropolis stay persistent resulting from simply accessible subway keys, MTA radios and an underground, engagement-focused social media group. (by way of Gothamist)
This text was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
