Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
President Trump says he has called off new military strikes on Iran hours after threatening
to escalate the war.
“He says a peace deal will be in place within the next few days.”
Trump has said several times before that the war is ending, but insists this time is different. "They've taken a pounding. They've taken a pounding like very few people could take and they want to make the deal a lot more than I do. And we could have had it done the other way, I guess, but it would have taken longer."
Earlier today, Trump threatened major strikes and deceased control of Iran's oil and gas industries as escalating attacks pushed the Middle East closer to a full-scale war. Trump told Fox News that while he would prefer to take over Iran's carg island oil terminal, he wasn't sure "America has the stomach for it." President Trump says he will nominate former SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, to be the next director
of National Intelligence, if confirmed Clayton would replace acting DNI chief Bill Pulti. Pulti has no background in intelligence and lawmakers balked at Trump's decision to place him in the interim role. A massive UFC cage fighting event is set to take over the White House this weekend, a towering temporary structure of lights, speakers, and wiring called the claw, has risen over
the south lawn.
“UFC is known for brutality, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio says this is part of America's”
soft diplomatic power, and as NPR's Michele Kalman reports, Rubio calls the UFC "the United Nations of Fighting." In a room full of international diplomat, Secretary Rubio signed a sports diplomacy agreement with Dana White, who heads the ultimate fighting championship. The UFC is staging a fight in a towering octagon on the White House lawn this weekend, and
Rubio says world leaders are clamoring to attend. The number of foreign leaders that want to come to this is unbelievable. It's to the point where we may have a diplomatic crisis, because it's like, you know, we can't bring everybody. He also got laughs when he said that perhaps the Trump administration will keep the octagon
for weekly fights between people in politics to, quote, settle our scores that way. Michele Kalman and PR News, the State Department.
The first game of the world's largest sporting event has kicked off Mexico as playing South
Africa in the legendary Estadio Azteca, and PR's A to Paralta is watching the game in Zokalo, the city's main square where many are using this time on the world stage to spotlight
“longstanding economic and social grievances, ranging from teacher pay to cartel violence”
to government spending priorities. The day here started with mass protests that choke traffic, and it made it hard for anyone to get anywhere. But Mexicans found a way and there is now sheer elation here, tens of thousands are gathered here, cheering their national team.
Historically, the Mexican team has been nothing but disappointment, but here, in the middle of this monopolist, there is nothing but faith. Ada Braalta, NPR News, in Mexico City's Sokalo. U.S. stocks rallied to their best day in two months today, the S.P. 500 jumped one in three quarters of a percent.
This is NPR. A man who assassinated the top Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband has pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. Man's bolter is also charged in the non-fatal shootings of a Democratic State Senator and his wife, he came to their houses disguises a police officer and driving a fake police
vehicle last year. A woman from the cruise ship hit by a haunt of Irish outbreak is still being held against her wishes at a quarantine unit in Nebraska, and here's Rob Stein reports. Most of the passengers from the ship have been allowed to quarantine at home, but Angela Paraman is being held in Omaha.
That's because the federal government is requiring anyone who wants to leave to have a guard to post it outside their home and get their temperature taken in person twice a day. In Florida, where Paraman has a home, has refused, saying those measures are unnecessary. Paraman told NPR in an interview that the confinement is taking a toll. "I haven't been able to eat or sleep properly, I've even had some chest pain due to the
anxiety of being here. I've struggled to not cry, I'm in severe distress." Another passenger told NPR, he became suicidal before he was finally allowed to leave. Rob Stein and Pyrnus. A man said to be the last child of a Union Civil War veteran has died, according to
sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, William Poole of Boulevard, Missouri died at age 101, Poole's father, Charles Parker Poole served in the six West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was 80 years old when William Poole was born in 1925. This is NPR News from Washington.
The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years. "This is open in your face to how are there no answers."
Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked
to police. "Did police ever call you? Not once." Listen to Weeky Bus Safe, a new true crime series on the embedded podcast from NPR.
