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Episode Date: June 16, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingley. The U.S. and Iran are preparing for Friday's formal signing ceremony in Geneva ending the war. NPR's Greg Mirey reports on what's expected to happen in the coming days. The U.S. and Iran will end the sporadic attacks taking place despite a ceasefire. Iran and the U.S. will lift their dueling blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, reopening it to oil tankers, and Israel and Hezbollah fighting. and Lebanon should stop. So these are all significant developments, but these conditions existed before the war began. So it's really just a return to the status quo. The hard stuff has been put off for negotiations over the next 60 days. That's NPR's Greg Myrie. The major focus over that time will be negotiations involving Iran's nuclear program. Iran and New Zealand played to a two-two tie

yesterday in their first group stage match at the men's World Cup soccer tournament. Outside Los Angeles Stadium, there were protests, as Steve Futterman reports. This was a match full of emotions and sometimes very conflicted emotions. Before the match, several hundred people gathered outside the stadium here opposing and protesting the current Islamic Iranian government. They were urging people not to go inside. Inside the stadium, the vast majority of fans were people of Iranian descent. But Even there, the conflicted emotions continued. When the national team of Iran came onto the field, there were loud cheers. But when the Iranian national anthem was played, there were lots of booze and jeers, along with some cheers.

And during the match itself, the conflicts continued. Some people of Iranian descent were for Iran. Others who say the national team as a puppet of the government were for New Zealand. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman at the World Cup in Los Angeles. Executives with the tech firm Anthropic met with officials from the Commerce Department yesterday after the Trump administration ordered the company to suspend its latest AI models. The government is concerned the models could be deployed by military intelligence of U.S. adversaries, including China and Russia. NPR's Deepa Shivaram has more. The Trump administration citing national security reasons said Anthropic had to shut down its new models to anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen.

That includes foreign nationals residing in the U.S. and even Anthropic employees who aren't citizens. On Friday evening, Anthropic announced that in order to comply, it had to shut down its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for everyone. In a statement, Anthropic attributes the order to, quote, a misunderstanding. The Trump administration has clashed with Anthropic before. The AI company sued the Defense Department earlier this year after fallout from the Pentagon, wanting Anthropic to loosen its safety standards. Deepa Chivaram, NPR News. This is NPR News from Washington. Wall Street is coming off another record day.

The Dow closed at an all-time high yesterday, fueled by investor optimism that the war between the U.S. and Iran will soon end. An agreement is to be signed at the end of the week in Switzerland. The Dow added 468 points to close at 51,671. Shares of SpaceX were up sharply yesterday following the company's, record-setting initial public offering of stock on Friday. NPR's John Rewitch reports. Shares in SpaceX started the day strong and kept heading skyward as the trading day progressed, closing up nearly 20 percent. That comes on top of gains of about 19 percent on Friday when they debuted on the NASDAQ. The company is not yet profitable, and analysts say many of its plans

hinge on successfully developing and deploying a big reusable rocket called Starship, but it floated a relatively small number of shares to the public, raising a record amount of money, and demand for the shares continues to be strong. SpaceX is one of three blockbuster IPOs expected this year. The artificial intelligence giants, OpenAI, and Anthropic have both filed paperwork with the government to signal their intent. John Rewich, NPR News. Gasoline prices in the U.S. continued dropping. AAA says regular now averages $4.4 a gallon. The price has fallen about 12 cents over the last week and $40. 7 cents a gallon in the last month. Diesel prices are also continuing their steady decline. Diesel is averaging close to $5.19 a gallon. The prices drop by roughly the same amount as regular. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News, in Washington.