Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor, Johnston.
The White House says it's preparing to send a U.S. delegation to Pakistan today for another
“round of peace talks with Iran, but it's still not clear whether negotiations will take”
place. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Erachie, arrived in Islamabad overnight, but the Iranian foreign ministry says he will not speak directly with the U.S., Betsy Jules reports from the Pakistani capital. In addition to Islamabad, Erachie said in a post on ex that he'll also visit Muskat
and Moscow. For discussions, on quote, "by lateral matters." Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement that Erachie would hold meetings with its senior leadership. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt told Fox News that Jared Kushner and Steve
Whitkov would travel to Pakistan on Saturday for talks. Erachie did not say if he would participate in talks with the U.S. in Pakistan.
“For NPR news, I'm Betsy Jules in Islamabad.”
Violence is continuing despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon with Israeli strikes and clashes still being reported in the South. Fatih Alama is the chairman of the Lebanese Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. He spoke to the BBC a day after Israeli air strikes killed six people in the South. Maybe it's called a slight de-escalation of what we have seen. It's almost a full-born war in the South.
So you've got ongoing military activities happening, especially within the stretch of eight kilometers that the Israelis declared as a yellow zone. So where you see the structure, you see demolition of homes and towns. The true sprogered earlier this month was meant to pause fighting, but official say it's been repeatedly tested by ongoing military activity.
With both sides accusing each other of violations, there are growing doubts about how long the ceasefire can actually hold. The police departments in Dallas and Houston are changing their policies on how officers interact with federal immigration agents. The shift comes after pressure from Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Houston Public Media's Dominic Anthony Laws reports the changes are already taking effect. Police officers in Houston and Dallas were forbidden from detaining people or prolonging traffic stops due to civil immigration warrants. Abbott threatened to revoke public safety grants unless the policies changed.
Houston had more than $110 million on the line while Dallas faced the loss of more than
$30 million on top of public safety funding for the FIFA World Cup in nearby Arlington. After the threat, both cities gave officers more discretion to hold people for immigration warrants. Civil rights advocates criticized the changes, while Abbott says he expects other cities to follow suit and Dominic Anthony Walsh in Houston.
This is NPR News in Washington. This weekend marks 40 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, the worst in history. The accidental explosion at the Soviet era plant sent radioactive material across much of Europe forcing mass evacuations and long-term health concerns. In recent years, the area has taken on new significance after Russian forces briefly occupied
the site during the war in Ukraine. The White House, correspondence dinner, will not be hosted by a comedian as in years past. Instead, mentalist O's permanent will appear to read the lines of those in the room, which include President Trump and PR's Rachel Treesman reports. Perman rose to fame on America's Got Talent in 2015.
He often goes viral on social media, appearing to guess the ATM pin codes and innermost thoughts of various celebrities. His audience on Saturday as a room full of political journalists, government officials and
Trump, who plans to attend the correspondence dinner for the first time as president.
Perman told NPR his job is to bring people together.
“You're going to leave the room in a better mood than you walked in, and I think as a country,”
we need that at times. In such a divisive political moment, that may take a magician's touch. Rachel Treesman and PR News. Members of the Screenwriters Union have approved a new four-year contract with Hollywood Studios. Union leaders say it includes gains in health coverage and increases in minimum pay.
Actors, though, are still negotiating their own contract. I'm Windsor Johnston and PR News in Washington. An honest pursuit of justice or just the latest example of the Trump DOJ targeting the president's political opponents, listen this week to the NPR Politics podcast.
