Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey.
Vice President JD Vance is on his way to Pakistan, to head a U.S. delegation in peace talks with Iran. President Trump spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews this afternoon and said expectations. "Well, I wish him luck. He's got a big thing.
I will find out what's going on. They're militarily defeated. And now we're going to open up the Gulf with them, with them without them. That will be open, we're going to be, or the straightest they call it.
“And I think it's going to go pretty quickly.”
And if it doesn't, we'll be able to finish it off one way or the other." Trump was on his way to a fundraiser at the Trump winery in Virginia. He said a good deal would mean no nuclear weapons capability for Iran. Trump said the straight of Hormuz will be opened up, although the President, again, said other countries will have to take that on, or that Iran would reopen the straight out of its
own interests. According to Iranian media, the head of Iran's forensic medical agency says that over 3,000 people have been killed so far in the war. The Iranian red crescent has also released some figures on the number of damage civilian facilities.
NPR's Deeper Vaz has more from Von Turkey. The head of Iran's forensic medical agency says the country's death toll in the war over the past six weeks, has surpassed 3,000.
State media outlets, quote, "A bus, not should the adornee as saying that some 40 percent
of the bodies are an agentifiable."
“And this casualty figure differs from what human rights groups have estimated.”
They put the number of civilian deaths at summer between 1,000 and 1,700 and recent days, and they've also estimated that over 6,000 military and revolutionary guard members have been killed. Additionally, 857 schools, 32 universities, and 338 hospitals were damaged or destroyed by air strikes, according to the Iranian red crescents.
Deeper Vaz and PR news, Von Turkey. Lower income Americans are cutting back on their discretionary spending because of higher gas prices, that's according to a new report from the Bank of America Institute. But MPR's Steven Bazaha says most Americans are still spending elsewhere. Lower income Americans are spending a bit less on things like travel and restaurants,
but David Tinsley with the Bank of America Institute says overall spending outside of gas is still up. Consumers so far are weathering this gasoline shop quite comfortably. They're still finding room to spend on the nice to have parts of their basket.
“Large or 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 Bazaha and PR news. Large saw a sharp spike in inflation because of the largest monthly jumping gas prices in six decades as a result the Federal Reserve may postpone any interest rate cuts for
months. This is NPR News Live in Washington. A top UN official is raising alarms about the humanitarian situation in Haiti where half
the population is in need of food aid and 12 percent of the population has been displaced
by gang violence and PR's Michelle Kelliman has an update. Briefing UN reporters about her recent trip to Haiti, the director of the crisis response division at the office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs calls the situation stark. Edam Wassornu says Haitians are facing, in her words, relentless violence, mass displacement
and shocking levels of gender-based violence. We're not in the famine thresholds yet, but we don't want to get there. So we sound the alarm at this early stage. The UN is trying to raise $880 million for Haiti. The U.S. is pledging about 10 percent of that.
Michelle Kelliman and PR News Washington. Greece is the latest nation to ban social media for children under age 15. The new law is expected to take effect on January 1st, 2027. It's targeting social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Greece's Prime Minister shared the news directly with kids via social media this week telling
children that the ban is for their own good, because parents and young people have told him that hours on social media platforms have induced stress, anxiety and sleeplessness.
Australia was the first nation to ban social media for children under 16 in December.
Turning to Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 269 points, the Nasdaq composite rose 80 points. This is NPR News. So, this is Ira Glass. On this American life, we tell stories about when things change, like for this guy David,
his entire life took a sharp and expected and very unpleasant term, and it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right, because the monkey pressed the button.
