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What recent developments have occurred in U.S.-Iran relations?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey. President Trump has extended the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran indefinitely. That announcement came hours after Trump issued aggressive threats of new strikes. Even as the ceasefire stayed in place, Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them.
The effective closure of the strait has sent gas prices skyrocketing. NPR's Franco Ordonez.
The Trump administration has tried everything to reopen the strait, including right now its own blockade, preventing Iranian-tied ships from entering or leaving. Vice President Vance was, of course, scheduled to travel to Pakistan yesterday for peace talks. Those are off now because the Iranians refused to meet, calling that U.S. blockade an act of war.
So Iran's nuclear capabilities, they're clearly an issue. But before the war, there was free passage through the Strait, and that's no longer the case, and it's really, really a big concern around the world.
President Trump has said the U.S. naval blockade will continue and that the U.S. military will stay in the region. Lufthansa says it's cutting 20,000 short-haul flights this summer in response to the sharp rise in jet fuel prices driven by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. As Esme Nicholson reports, the German airline is not alone in raising prices and canceling flights.
Lufthansa says its decision to reduce its summer flight timetable should save more than 40,000 metric tons of kerosene which has more than doubled in price since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran. Dutch carrier KLM, Air France and Delta have also temporarily cut some flights, while other airlines have raised ticket prices and baggage fees.
The Gulf provides about half of Europe's jet fuel, most of it via the Strait of Hormuz, which remains effectively closed. The EU is warning of a very serious aviation crisis as the International Energy Agency warns that Europe could run out of jet fuel within weeks. For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Berlin.
A federal appeals court has upheld a Texas law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. From Houston Public Media, Andrew Schneider reports the ruling has significant implications for long-established ideas of the separation of church and state.
The Fifth Circuit judges ruled 9 to 8 that the Texas law does not violate the First Amendment to the Constitution, either in its prohibition of government-established religion or its protection for the free exercise or non-exercise of religion. Charles Rocky Rhodes teaches constitutional law at the University of Missouri.
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