NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-20-2026 5PM EDT

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

NPR News: 06-20-2026 5PM EDTSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Just now, Vice President Vance said he's traveling to Switzerland today for negotiations with Iran. This is Tehran says it closed the Strait of Horm moves because of Israel's continuing deadly attacks on Lebanon. And here's Franco, Ordonez has more. Vice President Vance said U.S. envoys Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner are already on the ground in Switzerland, dealing with some of the technical elements of the negotiations. Vance claimed the ceasefire was going well and that the Strait of Hormuz was now opened. In an interview with Fox News, he dismissed reports that the Iranians had closed the strait

in response to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, but he said there are still some challenges and dangers that needed to be addressed. No, we're not seeing any evidence that the Iranians are still closing down the Strait of Hormuz. It is going to take some time to clear those minds, though.

Bantz said millions of barrels of oil had recently passed through the strait in the last couple of days. Franco, Ordonias, NPR News. European Union leaders are split over a top block official opening a diplomatic channel to Moscow without consulting them. Terry Schultz has more. European Council President Antonio Costa defends his decision to direct his chief of staff to reach out to the Kremlin, despite not having the backing of the 27 EU governments he represents.

What I'm doing through my office is to establish a diplomatic channel, because we cannot depend only on others to interpret Russian messages, and we must be able to convey directly our own messages. Some countries, including Belgium and Spain, support the move, but French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were among those rejecting it, saying if and when Moscow gets serious about peace talks, it should be leaders of individual countries like themselves in the lead. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. Ebola cases continue to rise in eastern Congo with 900 confirmed infections, 234 deaths, as health workers struggle to trace contacts and isolate people.

Emmett Livingstone has more. Congo says health workers are tracing 72% of the contacts of Ebola patients. But aid workers disagreed. In a Turi province, the epicenter of the outbreak, many people are avoiding hospital and deaths are occurring in communities unrecorded. Some senior aid workers said that they're only managing to trace about. 40% of contacts. The Turi's health system has been devastated by decades of conflict and neglect. Combley's medical staff there say they're also struggling to isolate a suspected Ebola patients.

Until recently, patients regardless of ailment were sharing toilet space at a rural hospital. Fixing these problems involves the slow task of building new infrastructure as Ebola spreads fast. For NPR News, I'm Emmett Livingstone in Kinshasa. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The majority of Americans who need a kidney transplant never make it onto an organ waiting list. That's the conclusion of a new study of more than 720,000 patients referred for the procedure. NPR's Maria Godoy has more. Only 12% of people on dialysis are registered on the kidney transplant wait list.

Researchers at NYU Langone wanted to know what kept them from making it onto the list. They found that patients who were unmarried, lived in rural areas, or had severe obesity, were less likely to start or complete the needed evaluations. Older, poor, and Spanish-speaking patients were especially unlikely to move forward with the process. All told, fewer than one in five patients referred for a transplant made it onto the wait list. The researchers say the battery of tests and doctor visits required may be hard for patients to navigate if they're they lack social support. The findings appear in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Maria Godoy and PR News.

The National Weather Service says a widespread storm system will bring the chance of severe storms and flooding over much of the plains and Midwest. And in the southeast, hot temperatures and stifling humidity are forecast this weekend. Parts of several Western states are also under red flag warnings for extremely dry, windy conditions that could spark wildfires. Meanwhile, much of Europe is sweltering under heat wave, with temperatures climbing toward record levels. Germany issued nationwide heat alerts. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.