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Episode Date: May 4, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump says the U.S. will guide stranded ships through the strait of her moves, starting on Monday on XENCOM, says the military will support the effort using troops, guided missile destroyers, and land-in-sea-based aircraft. This is the war with Iran is at a stalemate. NPR's Tamara Keith reports. Global oil prices are up. The price of regular gasoline in the U.S. is averaging well over $4 a gallon, and the critical strait of Hormuz has been functionally closed for weeks. Now President Trump says that for humanitarian reasons, to get ships and crews safely out of the area, the U.S. will guide them through the strait. He's calling it Project Freedom. Quote, if in any way this humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will unfortunately have to be dealt with forcefully.

Iran hasn't agreed to reopen the strait. It is one of many matters on the table as the U.S. and Iran trade and reject proposals to end the war. Tamara Keith, NPR News. The federal prosecutor overseeing the case against the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner says Buckshot that struck a secret service agent came from the suspect's weapon. On CNN's state of the union, Jeanine Piro, the U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney for the Buckshot that struck, Washington, D.C., says the shot from Cole Thomas Allen's weapon hit the agent's bullet-resistant vest. Well, we have been able to determine which gun it was. First of all, there's video of

the defendant shooting at the Secret Service agent. There is also the agent who will tell you himself that he was shot at, and then he returned the fire. The officer was briefly treated and survived the attack. Piro last week said there's no evidence the agent was hit by so-called friendly fire. The governor of Alabama is calling for a special legislative session beginning Monday after the Supreme Court ruling last week that weakened the Voting Rights Act. Andrew Gelderman from Member Station WBHM reports. A federal court ruling in 2023 created a near-majority Black District in Alabama, which elected Alabama's second Democratic representative a year later. The state is under a court order to use that congressional map until 2030, but an appeal pending before the

Supreme Court argues the map is an illegal racial gerrymander, a claim similar to the one in the case decided by the Supreme Court this week. If the High Court rules the current map is illegal, Alabama would go back to the previous congressional map. Alabama's Republican Governor K. Ivey called a special legislative session to start Monday in preparation for a possible ruling. She wants lawmakers to plan for special primary elections if the court allows the state to use the old map. For NPR News, I'm Andrew Gelderman in Birmingham, Alabama. And from Washington, this is NPR News. California police can now ticket self-driving cars for track of traffic violations.

The state's DMV has approved what it calls the most comprehensive regulations on autonomous vehicles in the nation. Aditi Boulan-Mudi reports from San Francisco and station KQED. California's new rules also allow autonomous vehicle makers to deploy heavy-duty self-driving cars and trucks onto streets across the state. effectively opening the market for freight operations. Matt Broad, a legislative advocate for Teamsters, California, says there are instances across the country where self-driving cars have driven through crime scenes, obstructed traffic, and shut down during inclement weather. The response from regulators has been sort of full steam ahead and not, hey, maybe we ought to really think about how this is working, one, in deployment, and also the sort of larger socioeconomic concerns. In July, new rules will go into effect requiring those cars to move out of the way and work with first responders during emergencies.

For NPR news, I'm Aditi Bandlimudi in San Francisco. The price of a gallon of gasoline has risen more than 30 cents in just the last week. And AAA says the national average is now 444 a gallon. A week ago, it was just below 410 a gallon on February 26, two days before the U.S. and Israel began military action, unleaded regular was below $3 a gallon. Gasoline prices are the highest they've been in almost four years, and an energy analyst tells NPR prices could even go even higher. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.