NPR News: 07-15-2026 1PM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.
What were senators asking Todd Blanch about his ties to President Trump?
Senators are grilling Attorney General nominee Todd Blanch about his close ties to the president. NPR's Kerry Johnson reports Blanch once helped defend President Trump in several high-profile criminal cases.
Few senators questioned Todd Blanch's qualifications to lead the Justice Department. He served as a prosecutor in New York for years. But it's his work as a personal defense lawyer for President Trump that worries Democrats. They say Blanche lacks independence and is carrying out vendettas against the president's foes. Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, asked Blanche whether he was Trump's friend. The nominee replied, I'm his lawyer, before quickly adding, I was his lawyer. Blanche famously said in April that he loves the president and working for him was, quote, the honor of a lifetime. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
Other Senate confirmation hearings were being held today for President Trump's nominees. Trump selected Jay Clayton to head the nation's intelligence agencies, and Dr. Erica Schwartz, a retired rear admiral, was nominated to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A fifth day of retaliatory strikes between the United States and Iran continue to dim prospects for a peace deal. U.S. Central Command says on social media it launched a new wave of strikes on Iranian military targets. And after the U.S. announced the reinstatement of a blockade on Iranian ports, the Islamic Republic targeted American installations in the Middle East. NPR's Tom Bowman reports on conflict in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a global oil shipping waterway.
Why do Democrats worry Blanch might lack independence as Attorney General?
Iran has said... At least seven commercial ships in the past week, damaging some. And the U.S. says nearly a dozen crew members are killed, wounded or missing. That has predictably led to ship transits slowing to around a dozen each day, down from 30 or 40 a day several weeks ago and well below the 130 before the war started.
NPR's Tom Bowman. People in the small city of Biddeford, Maine, are still grappling with a fatal ICE shooting this week in their community. Maine Public's Ari Snyder spoke with one woman who knew the victim.
Isabel Paredes says she got to know Deron Guerrero through mutual friends and that he left a consistent impression. Pretty much anyone who has had an interaction with him can all basically say the same thing, that he was just a very respectful, dedicated, hardworking family man. Paredes says Duran Guerrero worked primarily as a delivery driver through apps like Uber Eats, often bringing his three-year-old daughter along with him. She says his death has caused so much anxiety in the city's Latin American immigrant communities that some are considering moving elsewhere. For NPR News, I'm Ari Snyder.
From Washington, this is NPR News. adding to deadly immigration enforcement encounters in Maine and days earlier in Texas. Yesterday morning in Florida, four occupants of a vehicle had a confrontation with federal immigration officers in the St. Augustine area. Officials say the four fled on foot. One person ran into the path of a semi and was killed. Emergency personnel have been searching for three missing people after a boat involved in a memorial service sank in rough waters in the San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz Island yesterday. Local investigators say that at least one person was killed. Sixteen individuals were rescued. Fans in Argentina are counting down to kick off this afternoon as security is tightened in Atlanta for a match with England that carries decades of history.
Natalie Alcoba has more from Buenos Aires. The rivalry is defined by the 1986 quarterfinal when Argentina's Diego Maradona's infamous hand of God goal helped eliminate England. For many Argentines, the victory meant far more than football. It came just four years after the Falklands War, known here as the Malvinas War, over the South Atlantic Islands Britain administers but Argentina still claims. Political scientist Florencia Wolf says it's impossible to completely separate the history from today's match.
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