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Episode Date: August 18, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. The 60-day deadline for the U.S. and Iran to start peace talks has now passed. The months-long conflict has sent gas prices soaring in the U.S. and now military resources like warships and interceptor missiles are running short. And now is one of the few times that there will be no U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific region. And peers Emily Fang has more. The U.S. is Washington. A warship was in the Pacific, but has now been sent to release. leave the USS Lincoln, also in the Middle East, which has already had its deployment extended that's

made the news because sailors aboard have been living under very, very tough conditions. Like the Washington, it was also in the Pacific when it was diverted. I've been speaking to naval experts about this, and they say it could be weeks, if not months, until a replacement carrier formation is ready and arrives in the Pacific to replace the Washington. And here's Emily Fang reporting. Voters in three states head to the polls today for primary elections. As Alaska public media's Eric Stone reports, voters on the Last Frontier are narrowing the field of races for governor and Congress. Alaska's Senate race has been the subject of millions in campaign spending and could decide control of the chamber. Two-term Republican Senator Dan Sullivan

is facing off against Democrat Mary Peltola. They are all but guaranteed to take the top two spots in Alaska's nonpartisan top four primary ahead of the ranked choice general election in November. But the race for the third and fourth spots is murkier. Ahead of the primary super PACs on both sides have spent millions to elevate marginal candidates. The race also features a teacher who shares the incumbent Sullivan's first and last name. A move some Republicans, including President Trump, say was meant to confuse voters. Voters will also narrow a 17 candidate field in the race to be Alaska's next governor. For NPR News, I'm Eric Stone in Juneau.

A Russian court has sentenced a liberal politician to just over 11 years in prison for his peaceful opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine. As NPR's Charles Mains reports from Moscow, the verdict comes amid a wider clampdown on anti-war views in Russia. Lev Schlossberg has long been a leading voice with the Liberal Yoblika Party. A local deputy in his hometown of Skolf in Western Russia often at odds with the Kremlin. Yet it's his opposition to the war in Ukraine that now leads to a jail cell. A court convicted Schlossberg of violating wartime censorship laws, the result of two online posts in which he condemned Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

Schlossberg called the charges against him on. constitutional and continued to cast the war as a disaster from the courtroom. His trial unfolded as a separate legal case against Yalbuka ultimately saw his party ban from upcoming parliamentary elections, and the supporters cast as a sign of the Kremlin's fear of the public's growing opposition to the war. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow. U.S. futures contracts are trading mixed this morning. Dow futures are up about five points. Nasdaq futures are down 349 points. That's down 1.1%. You're listening to NPR News. Amazon has changed its terms of service to give it more protection against class action lawsuits.

The company brought back an arbitration agreement that will generally require shoppers to resolve any disputes outside the court system. And here's Alina Seljuk has more. Amazon says anyone who uses its service is now automatically bound by its new legal clauses. They're aimed at preventing customers from filing class action lawsuits. They also require any grievances against the company be resolved privately through arbitration rather than in front of a judge or a jury. People can still file in small claims court. A note that Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters. Amazon previously removed this kind of arbitration clause about five years ago after facing tens of thousands of claims over allegations the company's smart speaker recorded without permission. Amazon's new terms have a way to handle a potential repeat by settling any waves of

similar claims in batches. Alina Selyu, NPR News. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that exemptions from routine vaccines among kindergartners has increased to 4.2% during the last school year. That's a record. That's up 3.6% from the 2024 to 2025 school year. The CDC says the majority of those exemptions were for non-medical reasons, including personal or religious. During a record-breaking year of measles cases, the percentage of kindergartners who received the measles mumps rebella vaccine inched down to 92.4 percent, and that's below the 95 percent rate.

The threshold, Dr. Say, is needed to maintain immunity. This is NPR.