Transcript
A (0:00)
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. The United States and Iran are directly engaged in peace talks in Islamabad, the White House confirmed Saturday. As Betsy Joels reports, this comes as both sides met separately with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif.
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It was unclear for most of Saturday whether these face to face talks would happen and the details of the talks in general before they started were kept under close range apps. Iranian state media has reported that two rounds of discussions have taken place so far and those talks have been going on for hours. Vice President J.D. vance has been leading the delegation from the US side in talks that could decide whether a two week ceasefire will be prolonged or if issues like Israeli attacks in Lebanon will foil the peace process. For NPR News, I'm Betsy Joel.
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And Islamabad, Two US Navy warships began removing Iranian mines from the Iranian block Strait of Hormuz, according to the U.S. central Command. NPR's Franco Ordonez reports.
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Two U.S. navy guided missile destroyers pass through the Strait of Hormuz today. Now this would mark the first transit of American warships since the start of the war, you know, which began six weeks ago. The US Says this is the start of a process of reopening the strait to commercial shipping. And again it comes as American and Iranian teams are meeting in Pakistan for peace talks.
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Additionally, the US Plans to deploy underwater drones to assist in the clearance effort in the coming days. Negotiations are expected next Tuesday on another phase of the war, Israel's military action against its neighbor Lebanon. Ambassadors are planning to meet in Washington, D.C. david Miliband is the former British national foreign secretary. He now heads the International Rescue Committee. He says the situation situation in Lebanon is desperate.
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The situation in Lebanon is a new scale of catastrophe. One in five people forced from their homes, only 150,000 of the million plus people displaced in government shelters. So people sleeping on the floors of relatives, the floors of friends, a few thousand also in tents in Beirut. It's an extraordinary city. You can drive past the Beirut Yacht Club and outside the Beirut Yacht Club there are people in tents who've been forced from their homes.
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At least three people died in the latest attacks by Israel on suspected Hezbollah sites in Lebanon. Several prominent Democratic Party officials in California, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are calling for Congressman Eric Salwell to drop out of the race for governor. This after numerous women are alleging sexual misconduct, including one woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the congressman when she was working for him. NPR has not independently verified the allegation. First published in San Francisco Chronicle and on cnn, you're listening to npr. Worldwide, roughly a quarter of all mammals are hunted, trapped or bought and sold as part of wildlife trade. As NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports, this trade is a major route for animal diseases.