NPR News: 04-30-2026 8AM EDT
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What are the latest updates on the U.S. military budget for the war in Iran?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee today after speaking to a House panel yesterday. House lawmakers were told the U.S. has spent $25 billion on the war in Iran so far. Maine Independent Senator Angus King will question Hegseth today about that initial price tag.
There are things in this budget that are very, I think, significant. The first is, what is the cost? They gave a number yesterday. I want to dig into that. I think that's a lowball estimate.
How is President Trump's naval blockade affecting oil prices?
And of course, it doesn't count the $650 million a day it's costing us all at the pump. that's a cost as well that's being imposed on the American people.
He spoke to NPR's Morning Edition. Oil spiked to around $120 a barrel in trading today before settling back to around $113. The spike came after President Trump told Axios News website he intends to keep the U.S. naval blockade on Iran until it agrees to a nuclear deal. NPR's Aya Batraoui reports.
President Trump has rejected an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iranian vessels. Under Iran's proposal, nuclear talks would be delayed to a later stage. Trump told Axios he sees the U.S. blockade as, quote, "...somewhat more effective than the bombing," and that he does not want to lift the blockade on Iranian ships because he does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes. Trump told Axios it was time for Iran to, quote, cry uncle and say we give up. Iran's lead negotiator, Mohammad Ghalibaf, wrote on X that oil prices would soon hit $140 on the back of the, quote, junk advice Trump's getting from people like Treasury Secretary Scott Besant about the naval blockade.
Iran's supreme leader has issued a public statement. Ayatollah Mujtaba Khamenei claims that the reason the Persian Gulf is unstable is due to the U.S. military. He says Iran will safeguard its nuclear assets. More testimony is expected today in California, where billionaire Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. From member station KQED, Rachel Miro reports.
Elon Musk still has more cross-examination to get through, first from OpenAI, then Microsoft, before his own lawyer gets a final word trying to re-narrate what's happened before. OpenAI's lead lawyer has already spent hours using Musk's own emails and texts to argue he pushed for majority control of OpenAI. poached top employees for Tesla and pulled his funding when he didn't get his way. Musk countered he never sought absolute control and waited to sue because it took years for him to conclude OpenAI had truly walked away from its non-profit roots. OpenAI's co-founder Greg Brockman is expected to take the stand for the first time today. For NPR News, I'm Rachel Miro in Oakland.
This is NPR. The House of Representatives has narrowly passed a blueprint to pave the way for funding federal immigration enforcement programs. These are part of the Department of Homeland Security. But DHS has been partly shut down since mid-February. Democrats want changes in federal immigration operations after agents killed two American protesters in Minneapolis. The House has also voted to temporarily extend a government spying power. It's part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The matter is going to the Senate, but there's little time. The key part of the law expires tonight. The FISA power lets the government collect information about people overseas. If agents pick up certain information about Americans in that process, they're allowed to keep it.
The first international conference to transition away from fossil fuels has closed in Santa Marta, Colombia. And Piers Julia Simon reports more than 50 countries attended, as did large fossil fuel producers.
While United Nations climate conferences have been criticized for not addressing oil, gas and coal, the main driver of climate change, in this two-day conference meant to complement the UN process, conversations were all about finding concrete ways to leave fossil fuels behind.
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