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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. The Justice Department says it will abide by a federal court order that temporarily pauses the Trump administration's nearly $1.8 billion fund for people who claim they were targets of politicized prosecutions. The fund has come under sharp criticism from Democrats as well as many Republicans. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports.
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The so called anti weaponization fund has been on hold since a federal judge temporarily blocked it last week in response to a lawsuit challenging the fund's creation. The order barred the Justice Department from taking any action to create the fund, transfer money into it, consider claims or make payments out of it. The pause is necessary to give the court time to hear from both sides on the legal arguments. Now, the Justice Department says in a statement that it strongly disagrees with the court order, but it says it will abide by it. The Trump administration continues to face intense and even bipartisan blowback from lawmakers over the fund, including over the possibility that Capitol rioters who attacked police could receive payments from it. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
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Former Colorado elections clerk and conspiracy theorist Tina Peters has been released from prison. She served less than a quarter of her nine year sentence for her role in a scheme to copy her county's election system. Democratic Governor Jared Polis commuted her sentence, saying she had to express regret about her actions. Today she appeared on right wing podcaster Steve Bannon's program repeating debunked conspiracy theories that voting machines cheated Trump out of re election in 2020. Iran says it is suspending talks with the US over Israeli military operations in Lebanon and Gaza. Israel has continued to bomb south Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, considered Hezbollah strongholds, even though a ceasefire was reached in April. NPR's Hadil Al Shalchi reports.
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The semi official Iranian news agency Tasnim, which is associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that Tehran was demanding the end of what it called the aggressive and brutal ISRA army operations in Gaza and Lebanon. It also called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Lebanon. Iran said that unless those conditions were fulfilled, talks with the US to end the war would halt. There was no immediate confirmation from senior Iranian officials that messages mostly relayed via Pakistan, between the warring parties, were being suspended. The US And Iran said last week they were close to a tentative 60 day ceasefire extension and framework to start talks to end the war. But the agreement is waiting on President Trump's approval approval Hadil Al Shalchi, NPR
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News, AI company Anthropic is moving toward going public on Wall Street. The maker of Chatbot Claude says it has submitted a confidential filing with the securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering. Anthropic has risen from a little known research laboratory to one of the leading AI companies valued at $965 billion. This is NPR News. Governments are pressing to find fertilizer alternatives like dung and compost to reduce dependency on chemical fertilizers as the Iran war drives up prices. The Gulf region produces 30% of globally traded chemical fertilizer. Experts say the shift away from chemical fertilizer could benefit the environment. The Trump administration is working to stop federal investment in behavioral sciences like sociology and psychology. NPR's Katie Arriddle reports.
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The funding that the administration is targeting comes through the National Science Foundation. Though the money for this kind of research still exists, only a handful of awards have been made in 2026. Scientists say the impacts of withholding this money are far reaching into fields like artificial intelligence. Tom Griffiths studies cognition and computer science at Princeton.
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There are fundamental questions that we want to answer about how human minds work, and the answers to those questions are important not just for understanding humans, but also for building intelligent machines.
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The Trump administration defends these cuts, arguing that this kind of science is ideologically driven. Katie Arriddle, NPR News.
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New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani signed an executive order today allowing kids of all ages to stay up to watch the Knicks take on the San Antonio spurs in the NBA Finals.
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Here is our mayor's order repealing kids bedtimes for the Knie Spinals run.
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Are we ready?
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Who here was alive in 1999?
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That was the last time the Knicks made the finals with a roster featuring Patrick Ewing and Nick Brunson, father of current Knicks star Jalen Brunson. I'm Ryland Barton, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.
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