Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Dave Madingley.
President Trump says he's extending a ceasefire with Iran indefinitely and will maintain
“the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.”
The White House suspended Vice President Vance's plan trip to Pakistan for another round of talks as Iran dismissed efforts by the U.S. to restart negotiations on ending the war. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, has called the American blockade a violation of the ceasefire and an act of war. Iran's UN envoy says he believes negotiations could restart if Trump ended the blockade
of the narrow waterway. Iran fired on at least two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz today. There are no reports of injuries. The State Department is preparing for another round of ambassador-level talks this week between Israel and Lebanon.
As Rebecca Rosman reports from London, France says it's prepared to help Lebanon with the negotiations. French President Emmanuel Macron says France wants to help Lebanon prepare for upcoming
“negotiations with Israel, set for Thursday in Washington, over the truth-time defining”
with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Macron's offer came as he welcomed Lebanon's prime minister Nawaf Salam on Tuesday at the L.E.A. Palace, France and Lebanon have historic ties, but both Israel and the United States have been reluctant to include France in the talks. The offer also came days after Macron condemned the killing of a French UN peacekeeper
in Lebanon and blamed Hezbollah for the soldier's death. Hezbollah denied responsibility. For NPR News, I'm Rebecca Rosman in London. Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Chirphalus McCormick of Florida has resigned from Congress. She announced her resignation a day before the House Ethics Committee was expected to recommend
punishment for more than two dozen Ethics violations, NPR's Eric McDaniel reports.
Prosecutors say the representative and her family stole $5 million in federal disaster funds
through their health care company, which the governmental ledges was overpaid for services related to COVID-19 vaccinations. The third term representative who denies wrongdoing criticized the Ethics process saying the committee refused her attorney's request for time to prepare her defense and moved forward during an ongoing federal criminal process.
There's no fixed timeline for an election to replace her in the safe blue seat. State law gives Florida's Republican Governor broad latitude on went to schedule a special election. House Democrats may now move to expel Republican representative Cory Mills, who also faces an Ethics Investigation, Eric McDaniel and PR News, the capital.
The nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center is facing an 11-count indictment, a grand jury in Alabama accuses the group of secretly paying informants and right-wing extremist groups to provide information about activities, without informing its donors or financial institutions, the counts include wire fraud and bank fraud. This is NPR News.
A federal appeals court says the state of Texas can require public schools to display the 10 commandments. The ruling is a victory for conservatives who support the law, critics argued displaying the 10 commandments and classrooms amounts to religious indoctrination by the government. The American civil liberties union and other groups that challenge the Texas law say they
plan an appeal to the US Supreme Court. Similar laws have been passed in Louisiana and Arkansas and also face legal challenges. NASA is continuing preparations for the launch of a major space telescope. It's being shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of September's scheduled launch date.
As NPR's now Greenfield Voice reports, the telescope is expected to reveal new galaxies and planets. NASA officials announced the launch plan at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. There, in a giant clean room, was the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is named after NASA's first chief of astronomy.
The approximately $4 billion telescope has a primary mirror as big as the one in the Hubble
Space Telescope, but it has a much wider field of view than Hubble and will be able to survey the sky up to a thousand times faster. Nikki Fox is the head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Roman will discover tens of thousands of new planets outside our solar system. It will reveal billions of galaxies.
It should also help astronomers understand mysteries like dark energy and dark matter, nail-greenfield voice, NPR news. I'm Dave Madingley in Washington. Every episode of NPR's It's Been A Minute Podcast starts with a question about how culture shapes our lives.
“How are we spending too much on other people's weddings?”
Is social media bad for your mental health? We're here for your right to be curious. One big question at a time.
