Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.
The Trump administration is working to come financial market pressures by buying back its own debt. Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration could be spending double
at least $4 billion to do it.
He spoke to White House supporters about the $40 trillion in U.S. government debt, instability in the bond market, and the more than 2% rise today in global oil prices as the U.S. pursues economic warfare against Iran. We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action.
“And I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. military says the Asia-based U.S. has storage Washington aircraft carrier is in the Middle East to relieve the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln has been deployed in the region for more than 250 days, and has been the subject of inquiry following reports of mental health problems among members of the crew. North Korea fired off a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles for the third time
this month. The U.S. and South Korean military's are holding joint drills that were shortened following orders from President Trump, and Pierre Zamphanycune has a latest from Seoul. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said they detected around 10 short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Capitol Pyongyang eastward toward the sea.
Earlier in the day, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Jong-un, Kim Yeong, dismissed the downsizing of the allies' joint drills, saying it wasn't worthy of comment. She called them provocative and aggressive. President Trump said he planned to meet with Kim this year. He said he had contacted Kim and received a positive response.
Kim's sister said she had not heard anything about such contact. Kim acknowledged though the good personal relationship between her brother and Trump, despite the U.S. as hostile policies towards North Korea, Anthony Cune, in PR News Seoul. The federal government offers financial aid to low-income families that need help paying for child care.
But in Pierre Zamphanycune as reports in a third of U.S. states, those families may have to join a weightless. There were an estimated 400,000 children on weightless for child care assistance programs across the U.S. and the second half of last year, that's according to a report by the National Women's Law Center. That number has more than triple since 2024, the group said.
Childcare advocates say Congress has never appropriated enough money for the child care and
development fund, which helps subsidize care for low-income working families. But in recent years, weightless have grown for other reasons. Pandemic relief money that helped support the national child care system recently ran out. And advocates say more families are now applying for aid.
It comes at a time when U.S. child care prices are soaring. In some cases, rivaling the cost of a mortgage or college tuition, Joe Hernandez NPR News. This is NPR News. Faith leaders from across the South travel to Mississippi last night to take part in the National Prayer Rally honoring Nolan Wells, a black teenager whose death is under investigation.
“Remember, station WABE in Atlanta, the Lee Oppenheimer reports, he notes Speaker and Atlanta”
senior pastor of the New Birth Baptist Megaturge Jamal Bryant said this during the service.
"I bet you a million won, if it was fat, black boys and one white boy on the boat.
But now they would have been in the rest, they would have been a warrant." Wells was with a group of all white teens when he went missing during a July 4th Boding Trip to Mississippi's horn island, searched teams found his body two days later. Authorities have released few details during the investigation, and a state autopsy has not yet been made public.
An independent autopsy commissioned by the family, ruled Wells' cause of death, undetermined. The Congressional Black Caucus is also calling for a federal probe into the case. For NPR News, I'm Lily Oppenheimer in Atlanta. Liberia has received the first group of 1,200 migrants ordered to leave the United States under a third country immigration policy that President Trump defends as a lawful response
to a national security crisis. Twenty people were flown into Roberts International Airport outside Monroe via today. Liberia's information minister says some of the people sent to the West African country are from North America, South America and the Caribbean. Immigrant rights advocates say the Trump administration has deported thousands of people
to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own. It's NPR News. It's hard to refine your taste when everything in your algorithm is buying for your attention.
“Is that influenced or you follow giving you the right advice?”
Which should be actually paying attention to our social media feeds? This week on its been a minute, culture, critic, and host of the new podcast Feedback. Iron Man is in the third, takes our hand and shows us the way. Watch the full, it's been a minute episode on YouTube, or listen in the NPR app, or wherever
