"Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
The fragile U.S. Iran ceasefire continues, though Iran has restricted the straight of
“Hormuz again, angry that Israel continues to bomb Lebanon.”
Iran says Lebanon was covered in the two-week deal, but Israel and the U.S. say it wasn't. Lebanese officials say more than 250 people died in the bombing's yesterday and declared a day of mourning. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will start direct negotiations with Lebanon on disarming the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
And Vice President J.D. Vance is leading peace talks between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan, which are scheduled to take place Saturday. And here's Ayah Batrawi has more on what's on the table for the talks. The U.S. Israel and Gulf partners want Iran to stop nuclear enrichment, pause its ballistic missile production, and support groups like Hezbollah and open that straight fully.
Iran on its part wants compensation for the war.
Sanctions lifted. It says its missiles are a red line and maintains that it has a right to enrichment.
“So if these talks take place, it says Israel and Iran each say they "have their finger”
on the trigger and with each side including President Trump claiming victory going into these talks." And here's Ayah Batrawi. Energy traffic in the Middle East remains snarled, despite that tentative ceasefire. One of your Scott Horsley has more on the economic ripple effects here at home.
Crewduel prices rose as a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran failed to provide much relief for bottleneck tanker traffic in the straight of Hormuz. Triple A says retail gasoline prices showed little change overnight, hovering around $4.16 since the gallon. Diesel prices rose, about two cents a gallon.
High gasoline prices are expected to push the government's cost-deliving measure up when March inflation numbers are released tomorrow, even before the war prices were climbing faster than the Federal Reserve would like.
“The Commerce Department says the U.S. economy grew more slowly than the final months of”
2025 than earlier reports had indicated. A final tally says GDP grew at an annual rate of just half a percent in October, November, and December. Scott Horsley and Pernu is Washington. Performing Army employee is facing federal criminal charges for allegedly leaking classified
information. And here's Ryan Lucas Sessmore. Courtney Williams has been charged with communicating and transmitting classified information. Court papers say the 40-year-old worked for a special military unit at Fort Bright, North Carolina. And that between 2022 and 2025, Williams had phone calls and text messages with a journalist
in which she provided details about tactics, techniques, and procedures used by military operators. The journalist later published in article and a book containing statements attributed to Williams that allegedly contained classified information. Court documents also cite text messages Williams allegedly sent afterwards in which she expressed concern about the amount of classified information in the published materials and said she
could get arrested because of it. Ryan Lucas and Pernu's Washington. This is NPR News. Israeli strikes have killed three journalists in Lebanon and Gaza since the ceasefire. The committee to protect journalists as one worked for a Hezbollah news outlet in Lebanon
while another worked for Al Jazeera in Gaza. Al Jazeera says Mohammed Wishaw is the 11th journalist from their network to be killed in Gaza. CPJ says Israel's attacks on the press should be independently investigated as war crimes. Federal Forecasters say it's looking increasingly likely that an El Niño weather pattern
will emerge this fall. It appears Lauren Summer reports that the natural climate shift can have major effects on rain and temperatures. You can think of El Niño as the planet redistributing its heat. Warm ocean water develops in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which has a big effect on the atmosphere.
Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say El Niño will likely begin this summer or fall and it could be a big one, a super El Niño.
That doesn't always produce big weather impacts, but typically it means more rain in the
southern U.S. and dryer weather in the northern U.S. globally the hottest years on record have been El Niño years, more in summer and PR news. Initial jobless claims last week rose slightly. The Labor Department says the number of people filing for first time unemployment benefits rose 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted to 219,000 from the week before.
That's the highest since early February. The less volatile four week moving average rose 1500 to 209,500. All street trading higher at this hour, I'm Janine Herbst and PR News in Washington.
