Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey.
Despite a continued ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, Iran has fired on three ships
“in the Strait of Formus and seized two of them, and the U.S. is continuing its blockade”
of Iranian ports. Security analyst Jim Walsh with MIT's Security Studies Program says neither side is accomplishing what it wants. Iran can close the strait, yes, yes they can, and plus the U.S. can blockade Iran. Yes, that's also true, simultaneously true, but neither action undoes the other side's
action. It's simply punishes them for what they're doing. And so we will continue to have the strait blocked, and we will continue to have Iran blockaded. And then the question is, who can take the punishment more, who's on the clock, who's
going to cry uncle? President Trump says he is winning the war, but Walsh says right now it's more politically painful for the U.S. to continue fighting amid voter frustration with high gas prices and midterm elections coming in November. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent another day on Capitol Hill, he's up to
“seven hearings over next year's budget request.”
As NPR's Selena Simmons' Duffin reports, many Democratic senators pushed Kennedy on his position on vaccines. After a history of anti-vaccine activism, Secretary Kennedy has made dramatic changes to vaccine policy. He often describes vaccines as effective for those who want to take them, framing it as
a personal choice. He seemed to shift that rhetoric and it exchanged with Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado in the finance committee. Are you taking the position that the measles vaccine is vital to keeping American children healthy in this country?
Are you taking that position today? That has not been your position. That's my position. We promote the measles vaccine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
“Some Republican pollsters have warned that Kennedy's stance on vaccines is unpopular.”
Selena Simmons, Duffin and Pierre News, Washington. The Trump administration wants to spend less money next year on the IRS. NPR's Scott Horsey reports Senate Democrats say that would make it harder for the agency to go after wealthy tax cheats.
The President's budget calls for a $1.4 billion cut in IRS funding next year, with most of the
reduction coming from tax enforcement. Senate Democrats, like Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, challenge that proposal during a budget hearing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bassett, who oversees the IRS. What you've done is provided a windfall to very wealthy people who don't pay the tax. Why would I do that?
Why would I do that? The government already cut more than a billion dollars from the IRS budget this year, but Bassett says collection of unpaid taxes still increased by 12%. Scott Horsey and Pierre News, Washington. At last, check the Dow is up more than 300 points the NASDAQ has surged almost 400 points.
It's NPR. An experimental new gene therapy is continuing to show strong promise for restoring hearing to people born with a rare form of genetic deafness and PR's Rob Stein has the story. Researchers infuse the experimental gene therapy into the ears of 42 babies in adults born in China with the rare form of genetic deafness.
The gene therapy was designed to restore a protein necessary for hearing that the patients were missing. In a paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers report that gene therapy appears to restore hearing to 90% of the patients. The quality of the hearing varied, but many gained the ability to hear normally.
While this form of deafness is very rare, researchers are hoping to develop similar gene therapies for more common forms of deafness. Rob Stein and Pierre News. The UK Parliament has passed a bill aimed at banning cigarettes for future generations. People born after 2008 would not be able to legally buy cigarettes under the canoe to
back-o-end vape spill. The legislation awaits formula approval by King Charles and is one of the toughest anti-smoking measures globally. A two-month-old Asian elephant made her public debut today at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington.
Lynn May is the first Asian elephant born at the zoo in nearly 25 years. Officials say she is about three feet tall and weighs 498 pounds. Today's Earth Day started in 1970 amid concerns about pollution, chemicals in the environment and reaction to an oil spill. It's now 56 years later, a global day.
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