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Chapter 1: What high-level meeting is the U.S. holding with Iran?
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. With Vice President J.D. Vance at the helm, the U.S. is embarking on a high-level meeting, perhaps one of the highest with Iran since 1979. This morning, Vance left the Washington, D.C. area for Islamabad, Pakistan, which will host the peace talks this weekend.
The stakes are not only high for ending a conflict that has killed thousands of people since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes targeting Iran's leadership and military capabilities. It's a high-stakes political moment for Vance. We have more from NPR's Franco Ordonez.
Speaking to reporters before departing for Pakistan, Vance said he expects positive talks.
If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.
Vance is leading a high-level delegation that will meet for the sensitive talks in Islamabad. It'll be perhaps his biggest test yet as he seeks to find common ground between two countries that have been enemies for decades. The state of the ceasefire continues to face challenges as Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah forces continue to launch strikes against each other.
President Trump is accusing Tehran of doing a, quote, very poor job of reopening the strait, a key part of the ceasefire. Franco, Ordonez, NPR News, the White House.
A wartime surge in energy prices caused a spike in inflation last month in the U.S. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on latest figures from the Labor Department.
Consumer prices in March were up 3.3 percent from a year ago. That's the biggest annual increase in almost two years. Prices jumped nine-tenths of a percent between February and March, with a spike in gasoline prices accounting for nearly three-quarters of that increase. Gas prices have jumped by more than a dollar a gallon since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.
Pump prices have remained high this week, despite the tentative ceasefire. Higher prices for jet fuel also pushed up prices for airline tickets last month, while grocery prices were down. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation in March was 2.6 percent, a rate that's likely to make the Federal Reserve cautious about any further cuts in interest rates.
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Chapter 2: How are rising energy prices affecting inflation in the U.S.?
NPR's Joel Wright says the energy crisis in Tanzania has become pretty bad.
President Samir Sulu Hassan says her motorcade, which previously consisted of more than 30 cars, will now be reduced to four. Aids and security personnel who previously accompanied the president in luxury SUVs are now required to travel together in a bus. The announcement comes as fuel prices in the country surged by more than 30 percent amid the conflict in the Middle East.
Other governments across the continent have also announced steps to tackle ongoing shortages. In Senegal, all non-essential travel by government officials have been banned, and in Madagascar, an energy state of emergency has been declared.
That's Jewel Bright reporting. It's NPR News. First Lady Melania Trump denies she had any connections to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein or any knowledge of his crimes. It's unclear what prompted the first lady to bring up Epstein. Reading from a statement at the White House, she says she and her attorneys are fighting, quote, unfounded crimes.
baseless lies, including the notion that Epstein introduced her and Donald Trump. A federal judge is admonishing the Defense Department for failing to comply with a court order to return credentialed reporters to the Pentagon.
NPR's David Fokenflik reports the New York Times challenged the Pentagon over rules critics say seriously undermine journalists' ability to hold the government accountable for its actions.
U.S. Judge Paul Friedman started and ended his opinion by stressing the importance of the First Amendment and of a free press. The rest of it was just as heavy sledding for the Defense Department. The judge knocked down new rules requiring reporters to work from a remote annex and to be accompanied by an official escort at all times.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the new policy addressed every element of the judge's prior ruling and that the department would appeal. Ted Boutros, the trial attorney for The New York Times, called the decision both a vindication of the court's authority and of the First Amendment's protections of independent journalism.
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Chapter 3: What impact is the Middle East conflict having on global fuel shortages?
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 231 points, or nearly half a percent, at 47,953. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.
This week on the NPR Politics Podcast. In Iran, President Trump is both escalating and de-escalating, pausing strikes on energy sites, claiming Iran wants to make a deal, but also moving troops to the region. We unpack what we know about where those troops are headed and how talks are playing out behind closed doors. This week on the NPR Politics Podcast.
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