Have you watched any of the NBA Finals?
Huge, huge, um, no, I haven't. I've watched little clips of, um, who's the audience. Watch, oh, yeah, who's in the eye? [laughter]
I was about to tell you about the game, but never mind.
[laughter] I've watched a very side note in there. [laughter] [music playing] The United States attacked Iran again this time to try to force
Iranians to agree to American terms. The Secretary of Defense talked of negotiating with bombs and President Trump promised another strike tonight. I'm Steve Inscape with Leyla Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News. [music playing]
Families are facing the highest inflation levels in more than three years. Even though I'm making the most I've ever made at any job, we're going over what we're bringing in. President Trump says he loves that inflation wasn't even higher and promises prices will fall when the war he started in Iran is over.
And the World Cup kicks off today, the biggest sporting event in the world is taking place at a tense moment for the Rio's countries. We'll get a view from Mexico City where the first game will be played amid protests and celebrations.
“Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day.”
[music playing] This is our class. On this American life, when they mean like, it's a good mystery. Sometimes about really big things. But most times, the little mysteries are the best.
Our lost and found is currently filled with pants.
I don't know, I've never seen this happen.
This is true. This is true. Mysteries of every size each week, this American life, wherever you get your podcasts. The U.S. unleashed another round of air strikes against Iran Wednesday night. President Trump said Iran was, quote, taking too long to negotiate.
Iran has responded with its own fire that it says was directed at U.S. military bases. And Pierre's Greg Myri is in Tel Aviv and joins me now, good morning, Greg. Hi, Leyla. OK, so the ceasefire broken. It's the second straight night of U.S. attacks.
What do we know? Yeah, the U.S. targeted several sites along Iran's coast. These were military facilities in and around the straight-of-horse moves. These are the places where Iran fires missiles and drones at ships in the Gulf and neighboring Arab countries.
U.S. Central Command said the U.S. operation began a little after midnight here in the region and it lasted for nearly four hours. Now, toward the end of that President Trump spoke with Fox News, said the U.S. had fired 49 Tomahawk missiles. There were also jet fighter planes involved.
And he said this was taking place was because as we just noted, Iran was taking too long to negotiate.
“OK, so at this point, is it headed for a resumption of a full-scale war?”
Yeah, I'd hate to make a sort of definitive call on that right now. But this began a couple weeks ago with regular shooting incidents. And now we're seeing a significant fire in both directions. Just to recap the President this week on Monday, he told Iran and Israel to stop trading missile fire.
He said he was close to a deal with Iran to end the war. Then, an Iranian drone took it down, a U.S. Apache helicopter. Now, we've had two consecutive nights of the U.S. and Iran trading fire. And Trump is saying more will be coming tonight. If Iran doesn't reach a deal, so we're definitely moving up the escalation ladder.
Now, Iran has responded both nights with its own attacks. What are we learning about those strikes?
Yeah, Iran's revolutionary guard corps said it fired on 18 U.S. sites in the region.
It's specifically named U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in Jordan. So far, no reports of damage or casualties. And these three countries all have a sizable U.S. military presence. And we've seen Iran target them repeatedly. President Trump also said the U.S. was helping oil tankers slip past the Iranian blockade in the
state of harm moves. How significant is that? Yeah, Trump described this as a secret mission that began last month and has helped more than 200 ships go through the straight.
“Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil?”
Nobody knows. You know who doesn't know about Iran until right now? Well, that's probably not accurate. You know, this was not all that secret. Ship monitoring groups have been tracking oil tankers. There have been multiple media reports.
And even by Trump's own account here, we're talking fewer than 10 ships a day. And remember, before the war, 100 ships or more a day, we're going through the straight. Now, the U.S. has its own naval blockade. What's happening there? Yes. Central Command said the U.S. fired and disabled a tanker near the straight of horror moves as it was attempting to transport oil from Iran.
Second day in a row, this has happened.
But here's the broader point. The U.S. is trying to get oil tankers from friendly Arab countries out of the Gulf and block ships going to and from Iran. If you add up the numbers, they seem to be in the U.S. favor, but overall, we're still talking about a relatively small number compared to the pre-war shipping traffic. And Pierre's Greg Mayri in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Greg.
Sure thing, Leyla. President Trump had a surprising response to the highest level of inflation in more than three years. You can serve as to President about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning. Could that be a no, I'd love to put numbers which are in China.
“You know what, I really love, I love the inflation, you know why?”
The President told the New York Post later on that when he said, I love the inflation. He meant that he loved that inflation wasn't higher and that it will improve once he ends the worry started. The Iran War has driven up energy prices and consumer prices overall in May. We're up a little more than 4% over a year ago. And Pierre Scott Horsley has been crunching the numbers and joins me now. Good morning, Lela.
So how big a factor are gasoline prices in the broader inflation story? Well, gas prices have risen sharply in the months since the U.S. and Israel launched their war with Iran. Triple A's is the average price of gas today's about $4 13 cents a gallon. That's up about $0.15 and the war began. And energy prices were the biggest driver of inflation in both April and May. Because of those high gas prices, a lot of people are having to cut
corners elsewhere. Emily Inlow is a mother of two in Nicholasville, Kentucky. She says costs and driving distance have forced her to skip sending her 11 year old son to summer camp this year. It feels awful as a parent not being able to give these experiences to my kids that I find growing up and it just feels like I'm not doing great as a parent, but we got to do what we got to do. In those five-year-old daughter is in daycare and nationwide daycare
prices are also about three and a half percent. Are people's paychecks keeping up with these
rising prices? No, average wages are up 3.4 percent from a year ago and that's not enough to
cover the rising cost of living. Inlow works as an animal control officer, her husband works at the Toyota plant in Kentucky. They're both working full-time, but in most of it feels like they're falling behind. Even though I'm making the most I've ever made at any job, it's with grocery prices, gas prices, rent, and bills, and such. It's just we're going over what we're bringing in every month. And that's an unfortunate turnaround because for most of the last three years, wages were
rising faster than prices. So workers were seeing a real improvement in their buying power, but, you know, with inflation heating up and wage gain shrinking, that's no longer the case. You know, one of the Federal Reserve's main jobs is to keep prices stable. In other words,
“not have high inflation. And there's a new Fed chairman. What's he going to do?”
Yeah, usually the Fed fights inflation by raising interest rates or keeping them high. Of course, President Trump has been demanding lower interest rates. So it's going to be a
challenge for the new Fed chairman, Kevin Wars, when he leads his first rate setting meeting next week.
The good news if there is any is that for the most part, the sky high energy prices are not rippling through to the rest of the economy, with the exception of air fares, which are up because jet fuels costing more. Most prices outside of energy have risen only modestly. Nevertheless, I think interest rates are likely to remain elevated for some time to come. So no big changes for people looking for mortgage prices to fall then? No, mortgage rates briefly dip below 6% before
the war, but now they're back around 6.5%. And that means many people like in low are feeling priced out of buying a home. It would be nice to have like a home of our own and have our rent money going towards a mortgage. But there's just nothing within the area where we work that would even be close to what we could afford. This week, the National Association of Realtors
did report a modest pickup in home sales last month. And the share of first time buyers rose to
35% which was the highest in almost six years. But with high prices and high interest rates, it's really a heavy lift. And Pierre Scott, Horsley, thank you Scott. You're welcome. We're just hours away from the kickoff of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Billions of people
“will be watching the world's biggest sporting event. Do you sound excited, Leila?”
In the opening match. People will be watching. In the opening match South Africa, takes on Mexico, which is the home team. It's in Mexico City. The U.S. and Canada host games starting tomorrow. Now, the run up to this tournament has been full of geopolitical fights, as well as protests in Mexico City that threatened to disrupt some of the events. And PR's Aitor Per out to joins us from Mexico City. Good morning, Aitor.
Hey, good morning, Leila.
Well, if you were here, you would be excited. Because for Mexico football is a religion.
“And over the past few weeks, it's all anyone can talk about. The whole city is plastered”
with billboard of Mexican players. And everyone is wearing a soccer jersey. Even the baby Jesus at the Metropolitan Cathedral is wearing the whole Mexico kit right down to the socks. It's a celebration, but it's also tense. As we said, the world is watching and everyone who has beefed with the Mexican government is out on the streets. The families of the missing, the workers of the electric company, sex workers, one of the big teachers unions has set up a
protest camp on the outskirts of the main square here. And they're threatening to take their protests to the legendary Estadio Astecca, where the opening game is being played. So today might be eventful on and off the pitch. Okay, so things are tense there, but this is also coming at a
tense time for the world, right? Yeah, I mean, this is the first time a host country is
welcoming a team of from a country they are at war with. That's Iran, which will play in L.A. next week. Iran's national team was actually supposed to set up camp in Tucson, Arizona, but the US basically said they weren't welcomed. So they had to move their camp south of the border to Tijuana. I was just there. And the team is holed up at a Marriott hotel. The players would only leave to go train. They didn't talk to reporters, but one of their super fans,
Razza Mansour, who is staying with the team, says they're trying not to let the war or politics affect them, but he said the team has already been put at a disadvantage. We don't even know
“what's going to happen with these guys once they want to enter USA. Are they going to keep them?”
Are they going to hassle them for like five hours, six, seven hours? And it's not just Iran, Leila. The US denied entry to an Iraqi team photographer. One of their stars was held up by US immigration for hours. As a molly referee was also denied entry. You know, one of FIFA's main campaign stresses that football unites the world, but this is not that, even with the host countries. Mexico, Canada, and the United States. They seemed like unshakable allies, but this world cup
is coming at a time when they are trading barbs about sovereignty and President Trump is threatening to annex Canada and strike Mexico militarily. Okay, let's talk soccer. What's the outlook for the home teams who are the favorites? The favorites are who you might expect. Spain, France, Portugal,
“England, and the defending champion, Argentina, the US and Mexico are very likely to get out of the”
group stage, but it's hard to believe they'll make it much further than that. But I'm not going to say that too loudly here. Historically, the national team here has been nothing but disappointment, but this tournament is yet to start, so hope is intact, and everyone wants a miracle for the God's so intervening and give this country a big party. And I'll be honest, Leila. I want to see that party, so I'm about to head out to one of the big watch parties, and I will be wearing my
Mexico jersey. That's MPR's Aterparalta in Mexico City. Have fun. Thank you, Leila.
And that's a first for Thursday, June 11th. I'm Leila Faldin.
And I'm Stephen's keep today's up first, was edited by Tina Crya, Palavi Gugoy, Tara Neol, Muhammad al-Bardisi, and John Stolenus. It was produced by Ziyan Bach and New Demos. Our director, is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Heines, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us tomorrow. [Music]
Every episode of It's Bene Minute, NPR's What's Happening in Culture Podcast starts by asking three questions. Who? How? Why now? If the culture's asking it, we're talking about it. At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious, and indulge your cultural curiosity. Follow it's Bene Minute wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll break down the Ziyan Geistie topics that are filling your feed.
