Live from NPR News and Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston.
Iran says it's close to finalizing a deal that would reopen the state of Hormuz.
“Officials say the agreement is in its final stages, but still depends on the U.S. meeting”
Iran's conditions. The announcement comes as diplomatic efforts intensify to end the wider conflict. NPR's Lauren Fair reports British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C. yesterday.
Miliband and Rubio met briefly at a summit in Asia last month, but this was their first
bilateral meeting, and it lasted about 90 minutes. In the past, Miliband called President Trump, a quote, "racist misogynistic self-confessed groper." But he called his meeting with Trump's top diplomat, warm, and productive. "We talked about, yes, about Iran, but about how we can stand shoulders of shoulder
with Ukraine against Russian aggression." The hours later, the British government announced fresh sanctions against Russian banks, shadow fleet ships, and businesses.
“Rubio says he also discussed with Miliband what he called Europe's need to take a greater”
role in its own security. Lauren Freyer and Pierre-News London. President Trump used to stop in Las Vegas yesterday to promote his economic agenda, but as NPR's debauchiver on reports, some workers say it's not enough to combat rising prices. Mario Sandevall has been a server in Las Vegas for 40 years.
He's a tipped worker, but he says his salary is way down compared to previous years. The Las Vegas Convention in Visitors Authority says tourism dipped 7.5% in 2025, and that's a big hit for workers who rely on tourism and tips. Trump, meanwhile, continues to argue that his economy is doing great.
But a new Reuters ipso's poll shows that for the first time in nearly a decade, more Americans
prefer Democrats on handling the economy instead of Republicans. Deepish Ivaram and Pierre-News Las Vegas.
“The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first flu vaccine to use the same MRNA technology”
as COVID-19 vaccines. NPR's Rob Stein reports. The vaccine is called influseva. It was developed by Moderna, the same company that produced one of the two mRNA COVID shots.
Research indicates influseva may be more protective than traditional flu shots. It can also be updated to adapt to new strains and produced much more quickly. The fate of the mRNA flu shot had been endowed because of the Trump administration's hostility towards mRNA vaccines in the wake of the pandemic. In fact, the FDA initially refused to even consider the vaccine.
Virginia says the new shot can now be available for the upcoming flu season. Rob Stein and Pierre-News. This is NPR News in Washington. In the world of artificial intelligence, there's been another high-profile case of AI agents going rogue.
This time, the AI went off script and tried to deceive human testers at an AI safety lab in the UK, and PR's John Ruich reports. Britain's government run AI security institute ran cybersecurity tests on anthropics mythos, five, and open AI's chatGPD 5.6 soul. In a statement, the institute says AI agents took, quote, "deliberate deceptive actions
they had not been asked to take while trying to complete a task that they had been given." The institute says over more than 120 tests, it caught agents attempting different hacks 19 times. In one case, an agent was caught making fake identities so it could access secure systems. The institute says it caught the AI agents and stopped them. Neither AI model is available to the public yet, but the case highlights a growing concern
about AI and cybersecurity and adds to a list of incidents where AI has gone off-script, anthropic as a financial supporter of NPR. John Ruich and PR News. Firefighters are making progress against three major wildfires burning around spoke hand after cooler weather help crews strengthen containment lines. The fires have destroyed hundreds of homes and a force tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
A wildfire west of Athens Grease has displaced hundreds of animals across mountain and coastal communities, volunteers rescue nearly 300 pets and wild animals as shipping winds fueled the fire. This is NPR News. The midterms are coming and that means the new cycle which is already intense is about to get more intense this fall. So, the summer is a perfect time to make
sure your news diet is calibrated. I'm Leila Faldzill on up first. We unpack the three
biggest stories every morning so you can stay informed and get on with your day in less than 15 minutes. Follow or subscribe to up first today wherever you get your podcasts.
