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Episode Date: June 12, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roran. President Trump says there will be no U.S. strikes on Iran tonight. On social media, he called off the operations. He also said, as he has before, a peace deal is imminent. NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben has more on this latest salvo in a series of whiplash proclamations from the president. Just hours ago, President Trump had said the U.S. would hit Iran, quote, very hard. But now in a post on social media, Trump says he's canceled. the strikes as a result of talks with Iran. He wrote, quote, discussions and final points have been in both concept and great detail approved by all parties involved. He added that the U.S.'s naval blockade of Iran will remain in effect until an agreement is signed. This week, the U.S. and Iran traded strikes after a U.S. helicopter was down to near the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has announced several times that a peace deal in the war was imminent, only for it not to materialize. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News, the White House. President Trump today

named Jay Clayton to serve as Director of National Intelligence. Last week, he named another man to serve as acting DNI. And the ensuing fallout led to the looming lapse of a key spy tool. NPR's Eric McDaniel reports. Jay Clayton is a lawyer and federal prosecutor. He also served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It's unclear at this point whether Bill Pulte, named by Trump, to serve as DNI in an acting capacity, will still do so. In fact, Democrats sank the renewal of spy legislation that,

allows the government to collect the communications of hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals located outside of the U.S. each year, in large part because they didn't trust Pulte to oversee the program as well as other aspects of more than a dozen intelligence agencies. The program is due to lapse tomorrow, but intelligence gathering under the tool will continue under the existing authorization, Eric McDaniel and PR News, Washington. High inflation is not stopping U.S. households from spending. The Bank of America Institute reported credit card and debit card spend. was up 5.1% in May from a year earlier. NPR's Stephen Bishaha has more. Even if you take gas out of the equation, spending was up 3.9%. Consumers also bought more tickets to fly, despite airfare being up 27% from last year. David Tinsley is senior economist at the Bank of America Institute, and he says the spending is continuing despite economic tailwinds from inflation. Almost to a surprising extent. Most consumers are weathering those.

But there are some tension points for lower and middle income households. Their spending growth is actually running still a little bit ahead of their wage growth. Meaning some consumers have to make that up in other ways, like cutting it to how much they're saving or what savings they have. Stephen Besaha and VR News. Severe weather Thursday evening swept through the Midwest. Tornadoes damaged buildings in the city of Streeter. That's about 80 miles southwest of Chicago. About 240,000 people are without power.

This is NPR. The U.S. Supreme Court tonight rejected a request from the state of Alabama to lift a stay of execution and execute death row inmate Jeffrey Lee. A lower court ruled earlier that Alabama's method of execution using nitrogen gas to kill a prisoner constituted cruel and unusual punishment and violated the Eighth Amendment. The state was seeking to get that lower court ruling vacated. Federal forecasters say the cynical weather pattern known as El Nino has officially begun, and as NPR's Nate Rot reports, it could be one of the strongest on record. El Nino is a periodic weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean that can cause major shifts in global weather patterns, bringing hotter temperatures and more extreme weather to many parts of the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there's a 63% chance it becomes a very strong event, what some scientists call a super El Nino over the coming months. Forecasters warn it's impossible to predict how the shifting weather will play out exactly, but previous research has shown that El Nino's can exacerbate drought in some areas while bringing torrential rains to others. Further complicating forecasts is global warming and how El Nino plays out on top of an already rapidly warming planet. Nate Rott, NPR News.

Professional golfer Phil Mickelson has had his membership at a San Diego area country club revoked. Amid allegations, he made unwanted physical contact with a female employee. Multiple sources told Golf Digest that Mickelson is no longer welcome at the club. He had been a member there for years. The woman reported the advances to management. This is NPR.