"Lie from NPR News in Washington," I'm Corva Coleman, the U.
ports continues, and Piers Quill Lawrence reports that, so far, 13 ships have turned around
“at the direction of the U.S. fleet off the Strait of Hormos.”
"At a news conference, the chairman of the joint chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kane, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hexeth, said since the blockade began on Monday, ships have made what they called the "wise choice of turning around," when confronted. The U.S. military has been broadcasting this message to any vessel coming from or heading to Iranian ports.
"You're not allowed to have the breach of the blockade. That's a little bit boarded for interdiction and sees her tracing tour from the Iranian port. Turn around and compare the boardings. You're not going to lie with this blockade, but you really use the force."
Hexeth also criticized the U.S. media for coverage of the war, calling reporters unpatriotic and comparing them to the biblical Pharisees who persecuted Jesus Christ. Quill Lawrence and P.R. News.
The blockade of the Strait of Hormos, by both the U.S. and Iran, has cut off about 20 percent
of the world's crude oil supplies, but it is also cut off other vital products, including fertilizer. About one-third of the world's fertilizer, transit the Strait of Hormos. John Malcom is a farmer in South Central Kentucky. He says fertilizer costs are skyrocketing.
Right now, we're seeing increases in the 25 to 30 percent range locally. Over what we had purchased previously, in my opinion, the real concern is this fall, depending on how long the closure drags on and what the long-term impact is. That's when we'll see potentially larger impacts on whether the impacts to crop selection and eventually yields fertilizer availability.
“So that's what's really concerns me longer term.”
He also tells NPR that increased fuel prices have also been costly. Stocks opened lower this morning as gasoline prices inched lower, NPR Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 50 points in early trading. The average price of gasoline fell by about a penny a gallon overnight, while diesel prices dipped about two cents a gallon, energy prices are still under pressure, though, as
tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormos remains at a standstill. Even before the wartime jump in gas prices, many shoppers were looking for discounts in the snack food aisle, Pepsi responded to consumer complaints with targeted price cuts on Doritos and potato chips. The move seems to be working.
The snack and soda pot maker reported better than expected quarterly results. A different kind of chip maker, Taiwan's TSMC reported a big jump in profits, thanks to what the company calls extremely robust demand for AI computer chips. Scott Horsley and Piano is Washington. On Wall Street, the Dow is now down a little more than 40 points.
You're listening to NPR news from Washington. Authorities in Virginia say that former Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife Serena this morning and then killed himself. Police say there was an ongoing domestic dispute. After effects, a Democrat served as Virginia's Lieutenant Governor from 2018 to 2022.
The defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban earlier this week has lessons for President Trump and, as Frank Langvitt reports, that is according to U.S. based Hungarian American experts. Lawrence ready to just politics the University of Texas at Austin. He says Orban tilted the electoral playing field to his advantage, making it much harder for opponents to win.
But the opposition turned out so many people Sunday, it overwhelmed the system designed to protect the incumbent. There's still competition.
And when there's competition, there's always the possibility that you might lose.
And if you lose, you might lose big. Political scientists say Trump is following some of Orban's playbook and that Orban's defeat shows it's vulnerable. But some conservative say people are reading too much into Orban's laws and that his quick concession Sunday, just proves he's not the autocrat, his critics portray him to be.
Frank Langvitt and PR News A new report says the share of first-time home buyers is dropped to a new record low. The National Association of Realtors says first-time purchasers were about 21% of all recent buyers. The youngest adults, Gen Z, are about 4% of first-time home buyers.
More than a third were single women. High prices and interest rates make it tougher to buy a home. This is NPR. We've all been there. Maybe somebody tells you too much about the twist ending of a movie or they tell you who
dies at the end. In other words, you've run into a spoiler.
“How should you handle spoilers and what even counts as a spoiler?”
We'll tell you how we handle spoilers as critics on NPR's pop culture hacky hour. Listen via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
