Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman.
The Senate has approved a Russia sanctions bill with support from a broad bipartisan majority.
As Empire's Clawdiger Salus reports, the plan saw momentum after the bill's architect Lindsay Graham died last month. Senator Graham led the push for Russia sanctions as part of an effort to end the war in Ukraine. The legislation was named in his honor as the bill's supporter saw it as a tribute to the
South Carolina Republican, that includes his sister, Darling Graham, who was appointed to serve the remainder of his term. My late brother Lindsay was a foreign policy and national security expert. It was also a peacemaker who was determined to bring it in to the conflict in Ukraine. It would place sanctions on top Russian leaders and top importers of Russian oil.
It would also allow President Trump to place tariffs on those importers, which some Democrats say unnecessarily gives Trump more power. President Trump paired a very visit to the state's apartment today to talk about
“an issue that he calls an important matter of national security, which is investing in”
the U.S. mining industry. His own Paris Michelle Kellerman reports. He announced projects worth $3 billion. Mining experts and business leaders gathered at the state department's Ben Franklin Room as Trump spelled out his goals of making the U.S. a "minorals superpower."
Ensuring that America is never again reliant on hostile foreign nations for the resources
our country needs to dominate in the future. Specifically, the kind of rare earth minerals and metals that are vital to high-tech manufacturing. Trump also touted $81 million in grants to the Colorado School of Minds, the South Dakota School of Minds, and the Johns Hopkins RTX partnership. The Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls it a "hole of nation-afford."
Michelle Kellerman and PR news, the state department. The race for U.S. Senate in Maine is one of the most competitive of the midterms, Republican incumbent Susan Collins, is facing Democrat Troy Jackson, as NPR's Elena Moore reports to win in November the candidates need the support of women. Mane voters have a history of splitting their tickets.
Susan Collins is proof of that, winning in years where Democrats have also carried the state.
Emily Kane is a former Democratic state lawmaker, and says women are often the deciders
there.
“"Women voters in Maine are the majority of voters, and so you have to take them seriously."”
Both sides are targeting this group. Republicans are spending millions on ads trying to link Troy Jackson with Graham Platner. The former Democratic nominee who dropped out over rape allegations that Platner denies. But Democrats are also hitting Collins hard on her abortion record, highlighting key votes to confirm multiple Supreme Court justices who went on to overturn Roe V Wade, Elena
Moore, and PR news. "On Wall Street stocks finished up across the board today, the Dow finished up 151 points while the NASDAQ closed up 342 points, and you're listening to NPR news." The Pentagon has released a new set of files showing unidentified flying objects as NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports, "It's the latest round in an ongoing effort to document weird
things in the sky." A flock of mysterious lights flying over the South China Sea, a black triangle in the sky above Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan in 2002, and a report of a large metal sphere with a body inside that fell from the sky and landed in a city in Brazil in 1963. These are but a few of the oddities in the Pentagon's latest UFO files, or rather UAP files,
since these incidents are now called unidentified aerial phenomena. The Pentagon has released hundreds of files in videos since President Trump called for more transparency around UAPs, so far, number-by-clear evidence of alien visitors.
“It appears the truth is still out there.”
Jeff Brumfield and PR news. And fittingly, for all you ex-files fans today is David Dukovny's birthday. The Senate has confirmed Cameron Hamilton is set of the embattled federal emergency management agency. He was just one of 74 nominations approved on Friday.
Also included was Davis Cummins, who will now lead the Transportation Security Administration and Daniel Perez, as ambassador to Brazil. Los Angeles County Corner says Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clark died last May from the effects of heroin and cocaine, so the 29-year-old basketball player's death was ruled accidental.
Clark had been found dead inside a Los Angeles home. He was under contract to play for the Grizzlies through the 2026-27 season. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News. This week on the NPR Politics podcast, another progressive Democrat, Edges Out, and Establishment Candidate.
Abdul Elsayed, one Michigan Senate primary campaigning on affordability, health care, and ending U.S. military aid to Israel. Join us as we break down his victory and what it could signal for November's mid-terms on the NPR Politics podcast.
