"Live from NPR News in Washington.
between the U.S. and Iran indefinitely, until negotiations conclude. NPR as Franco or Donas
“reports, Trump backed away just hours after issuing aggressive threats of new strikes."”
The President said he extended the ceasefire to request the Pakistanis who are mediating the talks. The Iranians so far have dismissed the extension, saying it means nothing. The Trump has mentioned so many different objectives for this war, regime change, helping protesters, preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. But the current priority is about control of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has maintained a steel grip on over
the last several weeks. The Trump administration has tried everything to reopen the strait, including aggressive threats, to now launching its own blockade of Iranian ports, preventing ships from entering or leaving. Franco or Donas, NPR News, the White House. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is testifying before two Senate committees today. The hearings are about the health department's budget. But as NPR's Salinas Simmons'
“Duffin reports, Kennedy's moves on vaccines are a key topic.”
The tie-breaking vote for Secretary Kennedy's confirmation last year was cast by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Chair of the Senate Help Committee, which oversees HHS and a member of the Finance Committee. Cassidy is a physician who supports vaccines. He only agreed to support the nomination after Kennedy promised not to change vaccine policy, and to appear regularly before the help committee. The opposite has happened. Kennedy has made
dramatic, unprecedented changes to vaccine policy and hasn't testified before the help
committee since September. Since then, Cassidy has issued statements critical of the Secretary's
moves on vaccines, but now he has the opportunity to question him publicly. Salinas Simmons Duffin and PR News, Washington. Voters in Virginia have approved a redistricting plan that could boost Democrats' chances
“of winning four additional house seats in November's midterm elections. The constitutional”
amendment narrowly passed at the polls yesterday. It allows lawmakers to draw a new congressional map, and PR's Ashley Lopez. The new proposed map could position Democrats to win 10 out of the state's 11 congressional seats, right now the maps are drawn to favored Democrats in about six of the 11 seats, so a four-seat boost could play a pretty big role in Democrats' efforts to retake the U.S. House this fall because Republicans currently only have an edge
that's about a couple of seats. The Virginia Supreme Court has yet to rule on challenges to this redistricting effort, which could stop any new districts from being used in this year's elections. Virginia's move comes after potential gains that Republicans made in redistricting efforts in states, including North Carolina and Missouri. This is NPR News.
Scientists using instruments on NASA's Curiosity rover report they found organic molecules never
before seen on Mars. As Joe Palco reports, the discovery could help determine whether Mars could once have harboured life. Today Mars is a dry, inhospitable place not likely to harbor living organisms. But three billion years ago, researchers say the planet was wetter and warmer, a place some kind of microbial life could have existed. They hoped to find evidence for that hypothesis in rocks on Mars that have been on the planet since those warmer wetter days. The new results
published in the journal Nature Communications come from a rock sample the rover collected in 2020. The sample was analyzed using the rover's on-board cam lab. It then took scientists on Earth years to analyze and understand the analysis. The Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2013 with the goal of making just this kind of finding. For NPR News, I'm Joe Palco. Pope Leo was calling for equality and justice during his tour of four countries in Africa
at a mass today in the small nation of equatorial Guinea, he urged people to close the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged. Among those in the audience, equatorial Guinea's president, who's been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism in his more than four decade rule, and his son, the vice president, who was convicted of investment by a French court. Today is Earth Day, started in 1970 amid concerns about pollution, chemicals in the environment,
and in reaction to an oil spill off California's coast. 56 years later, it's a global day to mark environmental protection. This is NPR. Across the country, parents are taking their kids out of traditional public schools and opting for private or charter schools instead.
My kids have to come first for me. The great of good has to come second.
On the Sunday story, we go to Cedar Rapids Iowa to see how going all in on school choice is leaving some students behind. Listen now on the up first podcast on the NPR app.
