Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor, Johnston.
Iran has carried out attacks on at least three ships in the state of Hormuz, and PR's
“Jackie Northham reports tensions are increasing in the waterway after President Trump”
extended as ceasefire with Tehran. Iran says that a ceasefire is meaningless unless the U.S. blockade of the state of Hormuz is lifted. And Iran sees a blockade as an active war and will continue to control the international waterway.
I spoke with Susan Maloney, and she's an Iran specialist at the Brookings Institution. She said it would be untenable for Iran to maintain control of a waterway through which a fifth of the world's crude used to pass before the war. That's MPR's Jackie Northham reporting. The Trump administration promised to expand access to obesity drugs for Medicare recipients
as hitting a snag.
And PR's in New Lupkin has more on the delay.
Through a test program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, wanted
“health plans to voluntarily add obesity drug coverage for 2027.”
But 80% of insurers had to sign on by April 20th, says Juliet Cubansky, a Medicare expert at the nonpartisan research group KFF. Even at the discounted prices that CMS had negotiated with the manufacturers, it just wasn't low enough, it seems, for the insurers to think that it was in their interest to participate in this model.
A separate temporary program that would allow Medicare beneficiaries to get obesity drugs for $50, will still go into effect in July. But Cubansky says it will now have to last longer and could cost taxpayers billions. Sydney Lupkin and PR News. In West Virginia, at least two people are dead, and more than a dozen others were injured
following a sudden chemical release outside of Charleston, Maria Young reports from West Virginia public broadcasting. Workers at the Catalyst Refiners site were decontaminating a tank Wednesday morning when the release occurred. Nearby residents and schools were ordered to shelter in place.
Here's Kenal County Emergency Management Director CW Sigmund. But I got there, firefighters, and the CMS personnel were doing CPR on two of the patients trying to revive them. I hate it. They got contaminated, but they were trying to save a life.
Sigmund says that at least 21 people were treated including seven EMS workers.
“What happened and why will likely be the subject of national state and local investigations?”
For NPR News, I'm Maria Young in Charleston. Knox closed higher today on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 340 points, then as the composite also traded higher up 397, the S&P 500 up 73 points. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed two men in a car and hit a house where journalists
had taken cover, wounding two. When was rescued, the other was left under rubble after Israeli gunfire forced an ambulance to withdraw. Jawad Raskala reports from Beirut. Red Cross crews retrieved one injured journalist and a two dead men.
But came under Israeli fire and were forced to leave the journalist a male hellie behind. She was found dead hours later. The Israeli military said the car exited the Hasbala used sight and that quote "operatives nearby" posed an immediate threat. Israel also reiterated past statements that it quote, "does not target journalists."
The committee to protect journalists says 7 journalists have been killed by Israel in Lebanon over the past month, classifying 3 as murder. Jawad Raskala and Beirut. Wildfires are intensifying across parts of the southeast, some of the largest fires are burning along the coast of Georgia and near Jacksonville, Florida.
Firefighters there are battling more than 100 active wildfires with conditions expected to remain dangerous. For castor-said drought conditions, low humidity and strong winds are fueling the rapid spread. United Airlines says ticket prices could go up by as much as 20% as the cost of fuel rises.
The airlines says higher fares are needed to offset a sharp increase in jet fuel prices tied to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Online Windsor-Jonstin and PR news in Washington, 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, great what it 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.
