NPR News: 05-12-2026 2PM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump is about to head to China for a state visit. He's currently taking reporters' questions before he leaves. He and his hosts will likely talk about getting Iran to agree to U.S. terms for ending their war. Iran is a close ally of China. NPR's Tamara Keefe says trade between the U.S. and China, the world's two biggest economies, is also 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.
The Justice Department says the mayor of Arcadia, an affluent suburb in California's Los Angeles County, has agreed to plead guilty in the coming weeks to committing a felony. Yesterday, Aileen Wong was charged in federal court with acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. A right-leaning legal group has filed the first lawsuit to challenge a state-level Voting Rights Act after a recent Supreme Court ruling that further weakened the Federal Voting Rights Act. NPR's Hunzi Lowong reports the group is suing over Illinois state-level protections against racial discrimination in redistricting.
Fewer than a dozen states have passed state voting rights acts. Advocates of these laws have seen them as a bulwark against efforts that chip away at the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. But last month, the Supreme Court limited federal protections against racial discrimination in redistricting. and that has opened the door for the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation to sue over the Illinois Voting Rights Act. In places where racial minority voters and majority voters tend to prefer different candidates, Illinois' law requires state legislative districts to be drawn in a way that gives minority voters a chance to elect their preferred candidate. But the right-wing legal group cites the Supreme Court's latest ruling to argue that the Illinois Voting Rights Act requires an improper use of race in redistricting.
Anzila Wong, NPR News.
Well, voters are deciding more primary races today in West Virginia and Nebraska. The outcomes will determine midterm contests in November and help determine the balance of power in Congress. One of the key races is for the 2nd Congressional District in Nebraska, where Democrats are vying to fill a seat that will be left vacant by a retiring Republican incumbent. This is NPR News. Some pancreatic cancer patients are expressing hope following successful clinical trials of new treatments. NPR's Yuki Noguchi with details.
Vicki Stinson has defied odds typical for pancreatic cancer patients. The Arizona native was diagnosed at a late stage. a doctor gave Stinson months, not years, to live. Two years on, Stinson is alive and has felt well, thanks to a drug in a clinical trial, Deraxan RACIP, that is so promising, the Food and Drug Administration expanded access for patients prior to its approval. Stinson notes there are other promising treatments as well. It feels like it's so close, and I kind of feel like a ripe tomato on a vine. It's like if I can just keep holding on for a little bit longer, this just might work for me. Yukina Gucci, NPR News.
AAA says regular gasoline in the U.S. is now averaging $4.50 a gallon. Here's NPR's Camilla Dominovsky.
The app GasBuddy shows drops in states like Michigan and Ohio helped bring the national average down slightly. Diesel prices, meanwhile, are at $5.64, up from yesterday thanks in part to ongoing refinery issues.
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