NPR News: 05-12-2026 11AM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The Labor Department has released April's report on consumer prices. The war with Iran has pushed inflation to its highest level in three years.
What recent economic reports are impacting consumer prices?
Last month, consumer prices were up 3.8 percent compared to what they were a year ago. Consumers paid more for energy because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The news about consumer prices comes as the Pentagon releases a new estimate for how much the war in Iran has cost so far. It's at least $29 billion.
How is the war in Iran influencing inflation rates?
That's up $4 billion from the last estimate two weeks ago. And as the war against Iran continues, President Trump will depart for China this afternoon on a state visit. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, trade is on the agenda.
The White House says President Trump intends to deliver more good deals on behalf of the country to rebalance trade with China. There is currently a trade truce between the U.S. and China after an all out trade war last year. Melanie Hart is the senior director of the Global China Hub at the Atlantic Council.
The U.S. wants big purchase announcements, more access to China's rare earths, progress on fentanyl, and made-for-TV diplomatic spectacle. China's going to deliver on the spectacle. China can do spectacle better than anybody. They will also deliver on the purchases.
There will be bilateral meetings, a welcome ceremony, and a banquet. Tamara Keith, NPR News.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is expected to collapse next week. One of his religious coalition partners is calling to dissolve the Israeli parliament. According to Israeli media reports, this came after Netanyahu would not advance legislation to exempt ultra-Orthodox Israelis from the military. Ukraine says Russia has resumed its attacks on Ukrainian cities after a tenuous three-day truce expired. One that President Trump said that he brokered. And Piers Joannikakis has more from Kyiv.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Andriy Sabiha, shared on social media that Kyiv had proposed extending the ceasefire. Instead, Sabiha wrote, Moscow chose to attack a kindergarten. and civilian infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelensky added that Ukrainian forces shot down hundreds of attack drones around the country and recorded more than 80 aerial bombs and airstrikes on the front line. He said Ukraine would respond to these attacks and urged allies to enforce sanctions against Russia. Each side was supposed to exchange 1,000 prisoners over the weekend, but negotiations continue. Zelensky says the U.S. remains engaged as a mediator in this prisoner swap.
What are the latest developments in U.S.-China trade relations?
Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, Kyiv.
You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The Justice Department is charging the operator of a cargo ship that crashed into a major Baltimore bridge two years ago. Federal prosecutors have charged the company's Synergy Marine Group and the ship's technical superintendent with the collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Six construction workers were killed. Several American cruise ship passengers and a British national who were potentially exposed to the rare hantavirus are now being monitored at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. That is the only federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S. One patient who tested positive. is being housed at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. The 4th National Baseball Poetry Festival took over a ballpark in Worcester, Massachusetts this past weekend.
From Member Station WBUR, Andrea Shea has the score.
Poets of all ages from across the country travel to Polar Park, Worcester's minor league stadium, to celebrate America's national pastime through verse. National Baseball Poetry Festival founder Steve Biondalillo acknowledges how niche the literary genre might seem to some.
It's a giant hidden tribe, right? There are poets everywhere, and then baseball just becomes a great subject matter.
One of the most famous baseball poems also has Worcester roots. Hometown poet Ernest Thayer wrote Casey at the Bat Thayer in 1888. For NPR News, I'm Andrea Shea.
And I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington.
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