Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is now open to commercial vessels and ships have to coordinate
“their transit through Tairon during the fragile ceasefire with the U.S., but the White House”
says the U.S. blockade remains in place. Wall Street like the news that sent crude oil prices tumbling and stocks soaring, if you're Scott Horsley has more. If the Strait remains open long-term, and I will underscore if, that would remove a sort of cloud of uncertainty that's been hanging over the economy.
You know, when families or businesses are making plans, they like to have some idea of what to expect, and it's really hard to make a big purchase or planification or make an investment or hire a new worker if you don't know what your energy bill is going to look like in the next month or two. The good news is, even as gas and diesel prices soared over the last six weeks, we didn't see
people cutting back very much in other spending. And Pierre Scott Horsley reporting, the White House is pitching Congress on the largest defense budget request in U.S. history. And Pierre's Claudia Gilesala's reports, the one in half trillion dollar figure, doesn't include costs from the war with Iran.
The administration is also on track to ask Congress for a supplemental war funding plan that
could near the $100 billion mark that a McCullum top Democrat on a House defense appropriation
subcommittee told Army officials this week, they need a full picture to conduct oversight.
“That's the only way we can do our job properly to do the oversight that we are tasked with.”
To be clear, the size of the request for defense spending is shocking. Trump officials are calling the $1.5 trillion defense budget request so far, a paradigm-shifting investment. The Tufts University student detained by ICE last year for writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in her student newspaper has settled with the government on her immigration and federal
cases. GBH's Sarah Bettencourt has more in the case of Ramesa Ostork. Ostork, who spent over six weeks in detention, and her attorneys have agreed with the government to dismiss her pending board of immigration appeals case in another federal case. She's graduated and has already returned to Turkey.
Jesse Rossman of the ACLU of Massachusetts was one of Ostork's attorneys. "We'll make a canal move forward in her career without devoting another ounce of energy to the Trump administration's baseless campaign against her."
“There is no financial component to this settlement.”
Once the cases are dismissed officially, Ostork will have no pending immigration issues against her. The Department of Homeland Security told NPR, "It's glad to see Ostork herself deported, and that visas are a privilege, not a right. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Bettencourt in Boston."
While street hire by the closing bell, you're listening to NPR News from Washington. lawmakers in India have defeated a controversial bill to redraw party lines based on gender population.
Empires on car-candic car reports, it's the first time in 12 years the ruling BJP Party
failed to amend the constitution. Earlier this week, India's ruling party introduced a bill to amend a landmark act that guaranteed women at least 33 person seats in the legislatures. As per this amendment, the women's quotas would come into force after redrawing off voter constituencies based on a 15-year-old population survey data.
India's opposition said this would disproportionately increase parliament legislators from North Indian states, which tend to vote for the BJP. With the bill now defeated, the process to increase the number of women lawmakers will be delayed. It will now depend on redistricting based on the upcoming population survey, which is scheduled
to be completed only next year. Fans heading to the World Cup matches a new jersey need to be prepared for a hefty train fair $150 round trip. That's more than 10 times the normal cost for the 15-minute ride from Manhattan's Penn Station to the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
But driving won't help, on-site parking is unavailable for most people. Transit officials say they think around 40,000 fans will use mass transit for each match
and that it will cost $62 million to transport them, Boston fans also face sticker shock
of $95 for express buses to the Gillette Stadium. This is NPR. Right now we are living through some of the most tumultuous political times our country has ever known. I'm David Remnick, and each week on the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'll try to make sense
of what's happening alongside politicians and thinkers like Cory Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, and so many more. Just all in the New Yorker Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts.
