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What recent developments are there in U.S.-Iran relations?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. President Trump says he's extending the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, at Pakistan's request, as he waits for a peace plan proposal from Tehran. This comes as last-minute talks between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan looked uncertain, and a day before the two-week ceasefire was to have expired. NPR's Franco Ordonez has more.
The president said Pakistan, which is mediating the talks, asked him to hold off on the attacks, but that the U.S. military would continue to stick around and that he was extending the ceasefire until the talks were concluded, quote, one way or the other. And this is quite a pivot from just a few hours ago when he warned that he was ready to restart the bombing.
It's not the first time that Trump has made a big threat before pulling back. such as he did two weeks ago when he threatened to wipe out the Iranian civilization before announcing the original ceasefire.
And Piers Franco-Ordonez. Trump says the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, and an advisor to the Iranian parliamentary speaker said on X that the extension by Trump, quote, has no meaning. A group of voting rights organizations are suing the Justice Department to stop the agency's efforts to scrutinize state election data.
As NPR's Miles Parks reports, the DOJ has never collected data of this kind before, and the organizations say it's part of a broader plan to interfere with the midterms.
As part of the Justice Department's efforts to search for voter fraud under President Trump, the agency has sought to acquire the voter registration lists of every state, despite the fact that those states have constitutional authority to run their own elections. A few Republican-controlled states have turned over their data, but most haven't.
DOJ has sued to try to compel those that are resisting, but it has yet to be successful, and a handful of lawsuits have already been dismissed. Now, a group of voting rights organizations led by Common Cause is suing to stop the broader project, arguing that DOJ is illegally building a national voter registration list that could lead to people being erroneously removed from voter rolls.
Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington.
In Virginia, polls closed at this hour in a special election with national implications, a redistricting measure that could net Democrats four more seats in Congress. Jag Khalil from VPM News has more.
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