"Live," from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi, saying.
With Vice President J.D. Vance at the helm, the U.S. is embarking on what would be its
“highest-level meeting with Iran since 1979, Vance is on his way to Islamabad, Pakistan,”
which mediated a two-week ceasefire and is hosting this weekend's peace stocks. The stakes are not only high for ending a conflict that has 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 Frank Ordonias.
Speaking of reporters before departing for Pakistan, Vance said he expects positive talks. "If the Iranians are willing to negotiate a good faith, more certainly willing to extend the open hand.
If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not
that receptive." Vance is leading a high-level delegation on a meet 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 has
bill 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, or Doña's NPR News, the White House.”
A straw poll at last month's conservative political action conference favored Vance to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2028. The Democratic Party's 2024, presidential nominee, is not ruling out another run in two years. "Listen, I'm not. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it." Former Vice President Kamal Harris during a panel led by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City this
week. Today, we're seeing the Iran Wars impact on U.S. inflation and March consumer prices came
in 3.3 percent higher than a year earlier. Take out the volatile energy and food categories,
Labor Department finds core prices advanced 2.6 percent. Lower income Americans are cutting back on their discretionary spending. That is according to a new report from the Bank of America Institute. But, and for years, even Bazaar Ha says most Americans are still spending elsewhere, despite paying more gasp up.
“Lower income Americans are spending a bit less on things like travel and restaurants,”
possibly because of bigger portion their budget goes to gas. But, David Tinsley with the Bank of America Institute says, "Overall spending outside of gas is still up." Consumer sofa are weathering this gasoline shop quite comfortably. They're still finding room to spend on the nice to have parts of their basket. Lower tax refunds could be helping to cover those higher gas prices.
So far, the average refund is about $350 higher than last year due to tax cuts from Republicans one big beautiful bill act. Steven Masahah and PR News. Triple Lays says a national average today for a gallon of regular gas is $4.15. It's NPR News. The Artemis 2 crew is hours away from capping their historic trip around the Moon with a dramatic
splash in the Pacific. But before that happens, central Florida Public Media's bread and burn says, "The capsule will have to withstand thousands of degrees during reentry." The heat shield. This is the piece of hardware beneath the capsule that protects the crew from those extreme temperatures during reentry. Well, NASA tested it on the uncrewed mission that came before this one and they found the heat shield
wasn't performing as designed so NASA and the Artemis 2 crew worked on a way to mitigate the risk. Well, the solution was to hit the atmosphere steeper and faster. The crew was spent less time in those really energetic moments of return and that should keep the crew safe. That's Brendan Burn reporting. Some day, you might find yourself wearing fish, slime, and loving it. Macy Lipkin, if conversation KUER reports Utah State University researchers are looking to replace
some of the plastic common and bunch of things like clothing with the stuff one finds on Hackfish. Hackfish are long tubular deep seed wellers. They kind of look like intestines. Their bodies are grayish pink and they have teeth but no jaw. They're not cute, but Utah State Biology Professor Justin Jones says they have something else going for them. They exude a slime when they're bitten to clog the gills of predators and it's useful because of its fibers.
When you take those fibers out of the slime and you stretch them and you allow them to dry, they're a strong spider silk is. Jones's lab can make those fibers without any Hackfish involved. Now they're studying how to turn them into clothing. For NPR News, I'm Macy Lipkin in Logan, Utah. This is NPR News. On NPR's wildcard podcast, Julio Torres says he doesn't need to prove himself to anyone. When someone makes me feel like I have to prove something to them, I just walk away.
Really? I'm like, "I'll seek help." Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR wildcard.
