"Live," from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi, saying.
With Vice President J.D. Vance at the helm, the U.S. is embarking on a high-level meeting,
“perhaps one of the highest with Iran since 1979.”
This morning, Vance left the Washington D.C. area for Islamabad, Pakistan, which will host the peace talks this weekend. The stakes are not only high for ending a conflict that is killed thousands of people since the U.S. and Israel launch strikes targeting Iran's leadership and military capabilities, it's a high-stakes political moment for Vance. We have more from NPR's Franco-Ordonias."
Speaking of reporters before departing for Pakistan, Vance said he expects positive talks. "If the Iranians are willing to negotiate a good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive." Vance is leading a high-level delegation, an omit for the sensitive talks in Islamabad. It'll be perhaps his biggest test yet,
as he seeks to find common ground between two countries and amenities for decades. The state of the ceasefire continues to face challenges as Israel and Iran backed asable of forces continue to launch strikes against each other. President Trump is accusing Iran of doing a "very poor job of reopening the
“straight, a key part of the ceasefire." Franco-Ordonias and Piani is the White House. A wartime”
surge in energy prices cause a spike in inflation last month in the U.S. and Piers God Horsely reports on latest figures from the Labor Department. "Consumer prices in March were up 3.3 percent from a year ago. That's the biggest annual increase in almost two years. Prices jump nine-tenths of a percent between February and March with a spike in gasoline prices accounting for nearly three-quarters of that increase, gas prices have jumped by more than $1 a
regalance as the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran. Pump prices have remained high this week, despite the tentative ceasefire. Higher prices for jet fuel also pushed up prices for airline tickets last month, while grocery prices were down. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices
so-called "core inflation in March" was 2.6 percent, a rate that's likely to make the federal
reserve cautious about any further cuts and interest rates. It's got horse lay in Piani who's watching them. Fuel shortages from the war in the Middle East are rippling around the globe, and Piers' dual rights as the energy crisis in Tanzania has become pretty bad. "President Samiya Suzuhu Hassan says have located which previously consisted of more than 30 cuts will not be reduced to four. AIDS and security personnel who previously accompanied
the president in luxury SUVs are now required to travel together in a bus. The announcement comes as fuel prices in the country, search by more than 30 percent are made the conflicts in the Middle East. Order governments across the continent have also announced steps to tackle ongoing shortages.
“In Senegal all known essential travel by government officials have been banned,”
and in Madagascar, an energy state of emergency has been declared. "That's dual-bright reporting. It's NPR news."
First lady Malania Trump denies she had, any connections to the late-convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein or any knowledge of his crimes, it's unclear what prompted the first lady to bring up Epstein, reading from a statement at the White House. She says she and her attorneys are fighting "unfound and baseless lies," including the notion that Epstein introduced her and Donald Trump. A federal judge is admonishing the defense department for failing to comply with a court order to return credentialed reporters to the Pentagon. NPR's David Fokenflick reports
"fineer times challenge the Pentagon over rules," critics say, seriously undermined journalists' ability to hold the government accountable for its actions. "U.S. Judge Paul Friedman started and ended his opinion by stressing the importance of the first amendment and of a free press. The rest of it was just as heavy sledding for the defense department. The judge knocked down new rules requiring reporters to work from a remote annex,
and to be accompanied by an official escort at all times." Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the new policy addressed every element of the judge's prior ruling, and that the department would appeal. Ted Bootrose, the trial attorney for the New York Times, called the decision both of vindication of the courts' authority
and of the first amendment's protections of independent journalism. David Fokenflick and PR news.
At last, check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 231 points or nearly half a percent at 47,953. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News. This week on the MPR Politics podcast, in Iran, President Trump is both escalating and de-escalating, pausing strikes on energy sites, claiming Iran wants to make a deal, but also, moving troops to the region. We impact what we know about where those troops are headed,
and how talks are playing out behind closed doors. This week on the MPR Politics podcast.
