The News Roundup For July 31, 2026

26:26This conflict raged on this week. New attacks from Iran against Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait. American retaliatory strikes hitting dozens of targets in Iran. And there are some new numbers as well about how Americans are feeling about this war. A new poll from AP Newark shows that two-thirds of Americans think the war has not been worth fighting at all. And support among Republicans over Trump's handling of the war has dropped from 71 % to 61 % just since last month. An astonishing drop in support, Megan Scully. So as we approach the midterms, what are the political implications of a war that the data show has become increasingly and deeply unpopular on both sides and in the middle?

27:10Well, this is particularly bad for Republicans, of course. They want to be focused in this final stretch before the midterms. I think we're at around 97 days or so, which is a big reason why the Senate is so eager to get home. They want to be focused on affordability, on, you know, taking a victory lap on Trump's tax bill, on passing a housing bill, on doing this, that or the other thing and talking about what's ahead, what they would do for the next two years, making their closing arguments. The Iran war makes that all but impossible for them when people drive by their local gas station and gas hovers, you know, well over a dollar a gallon more than it was before the war.

27:50And the cost of other food and other products that have been, you know, so difficult for people these last several years continues to go up. So it's bad for Republicans. It's bad for everyone, but them in particular. The direct cost of the war,$37 billion, according to the Defense Secretary, Pete Hexeth. Most experts agree that that is definitely a low figure, not an accurate figure,$37 billion for the war so far. And depleted military stocks. Shrey, you've been covering the midterms in places like Maine. We're going to talk about that after a break. But the Iran war and the general electorate now, higher prices, gas, as Megan Scully is mentioning.

28:29How do you think voters are thinking that through and confronting the reality of this war now? I think Megan's point about the duration of the war and how long this extends is really the problem here. Because, you know, some of the Republican voters that I've spoken to, they agree with the president's motivations for going into Iran. They understand in their eyes, like the need to do this. But they're really concerned about how this is going to wrap up. And I think the longer this goes on, and as you mentioned, the cost of food, of gas continues, used, that is the hard thing to reconcile here, particularly for voters in places which are really, really vulnerable, not just the senators who are trying to gain re-election, but actually for those House members.

29:07I'm thinking particularly in areas like central Pennsylvania, where we've got a number of House seats here that have got moderate Republicans who swung these districts back red in 2024 and are up for re-election, and they have moderate Democrats kind of inching or preaching on them. It's interesting. That's my part of the world, central Pennsylvania, That's where I'm from. And you say that. And it has always made me think how well Iran seems to understand that. It makes me think they've like visited where I'm from and they understand the people there. And it adds to their strategy of prolonging this conflict in an asymmetric asymmetric way, no matter what.

29:39Because of the political anchor it puts on Trump and Republicans. Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's basically around central Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, particularly those districts, Scott Perry's district. Those places are up for grabs, and I think this war complicates that. Now you're in my neighborhood. A lot more to come. A little bit more on the war in Iran. Visits from world leaders like Zelensky, like Netanyahu. What do they mean for domestic consumption in the coming midterms? A whole lot, it turns out. Stick with us.

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30:35The midterms are coming. And if you think the news cycle feels intense now, just wait until the fall. That's why summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated. I mean, Martinez, on Up First, we unpack the three biggest stories every morning so you can stay informed and get on with your day in fewer than 15 minutes. Follow or subscribe to Up First today wherever you get podcasts. From the light bulb to the Internet, human history has been driven by innovation. And Shortwave is exploring how the technology of tomorrow will transform our future. Would you ride in a flying taxi?

31:11Will AI models fight wars? Hear about the technological frontier every Monday on Tech Camp, the new series from Shortwave. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Zendaya and Tom Holland are back in Spider-Man Brand New Day, and the movie has a more grounded tone than we've seen from the franchise. But does it strike the right balance of fun and darkness? We'll talk about it on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Listen via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. It's the Friday News Roundup. Before a break, we were talking about the war in Iran, terrible poll numbers for the president and his performance of this war and how it's affecting Americans' view of the elections.

31:54Benjamin Netanyahu was also here this week, a visit to Washington and a visit to the White House. It really pointed up what's become a major issue for voters in this country, Shrey, which is the relationship between Israel and the United States. It's different classes of voters feel differently about this, but the relationship and the perception of it is surely changing. What do you think this visit shows? There's plenty on war strategy, but Benjamin Netanyahu came here and was not very brash and relatively quiet. There were no cameras in that meeting. Donald Trump loves cameras, and he loves to have cameras when he's sitting with foreign leaders.

32:31Not this time. No cameras. And it's interesting as well, because this is Netanyahu's first visit back since February, right, when the beginning of this war kicked off. And so I think it's just interesting that you can sort of see that picture now where there are no cameras, there's no pomp and circumstance. And I think it kind of colors a lot about how Americans really feel about this war. And it's not necessarily something the president needs to broadcast in that way. But I think you're so right. And I think those two ends of the spectrum as well about the way voters see Israel right now and this engagement with Israel is really interesting.

33:00You've got one hand, the left wing progressive flank of the party, Democrats, who are really fed up of Israel's involvement and AIPAC funding in races and just the way that this war is happening and want clearer boundaries set on that. And then you have sort of the right wing of the party, America First, you know, the Tucker Carlson's of the world who have really kind of grown extremely wary of America's deference to Israel and particularly Netanyahu. Here's the president talking about his relationship with Netanyahu and the reported desire by this right-wing conservative Israeli government to keep the war up on Iran, especially on reports that Iran might still be preserving nuclear capability in places like Pickaxe Mountain.

33:41I don't need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi's telling me that because he wants me to stay involved. We know exactly what's going on. But now I heard Bibi announce that. I said, why don't you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world? I know exactly what's going on at pickaxe. It's not a big problem. Shrey lays out the skepticism is not even the right word on the progressive left for Israel and its policies and pro-Israel Americans, which is AIPAC and their involvement in races. But the right also, Steve Clemens, the American first wing of the GOP was not thrilled with this Netanyahu visit.

34:16They thought that it's going to be a way that drags Trump back into the war. That's what he was speaking to right there. That's what Steve Bannon's at. You know, you've got these guys coming out saying, hey, Netanyahu's now been in this White House more than Winston Churchill visited FDR during World War II. You know, the flames there. But it's not just progressive Democrats. Rahm Emanuel, who was the Israel manager handler for Bill Clinton, has presidential aspirations, went to Tel Aviv University and said this relationship is no longer unconditional. If there's one thing I never thought I would hear is Rahm Emanuel, you know, making that comment.

34:48So you have to understand there's a rainbow effect right now in which across a lot of both parties, there is an ambivalence and a reticence about Israel, which we haven't seen for decades in this country. And so it's not just the Democratic Socialists. Rahm Emanuel is on that list, too. But the MAGA right, Steve Bannon, are out there basically questioning the solvency right now of everything we're doing with Israel and feeling like we've been seduced. And it's setting up Donald Trump for something interesting, which is to point blame at why this happened. He's never himself, but that Netanyahu, who entered the back door at the White House, no cameras, almost shamefully.

35:28But to Netanyahu's point, Netanyahu is saying, I'm still in the room. I'm still whispering in the ear of the president. Netanyahu is not the only foreign leader in Washington this week because of the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham. A lot of foreign leaders came into town, including Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. Zelensky claimed after a meeting with Trump that Trump agreed to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles domestically. That's a promise that Trump made at the NATO summit in Turkey last month. After his visit to the White House, Zelensky visited the Capitol where the Senate came one step closer to passing sweeping sanctions on Russia in honor of Lindsey Graham.

36:08Megan Scully, how much support now does Ukraine still have among Republicans and in Congress? Now that their major liaison, sort of the nexus between Ukraine, Trump, MAGA, and Congress, which was Lindsey Graham, is no longer with us. So I think if we look at the vote, basically to move along with this Russia sanctions bill, which, of course, benefits Ukraine above all else, and there is Iran sanctions in there as well. Um, that was overwhelming. I think it was something in the order of 83 to 14 or something along those lines. So well above a super majority. So I would say that support still is quite high for Ukraine.

36:51Of course, frustrations with the, you know, with ongoing operations, you know, frustrations with Russia, all of that. But, you know, the meeting on the Hill from the sense that we got from everyone, you know, Steve mentioned the Netanyahu meeting, him going in through the back door of the White House almost shamefully. That was not the case on the Hill when Zelensky went to the Hill. You know, they met right outside of the Senate floor. Zelensky watched the vote, came out and spoke to reporters with senators from both parties on either side of him, some even wearing their Ukraine pins at the time.

37:27So it was very much a show of support. And there are several senators, including Senator Shaheen, although she is retiring at the end of this term, Senator Wicker and others who have been strong advocates for Ukraine. All right. We're about to talk a little bit about the coming midterms. There are primaries on Tuesday. Race is shaping up in Michigan, later in Maine and places like that. Before we do, one data point that I just want to get a quick comment on because I think it's important to the midterm question. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at 3.5 to 3.75 percent this week despite high inflation and rising prices on Americans.

38:05Shrey, what about that number, what it did to the stock market and how it helps politicians think through prices and pressure on mortgages and people's bills? Oh, a great question. I think in some ways, you know, it insulates this administration to a certain degree as well. But I think and some politicians, but I also think that it's going to be another problem as well as we kind of go into these midterms. It's another example of just the Trump administration not being able to get what they want, even when they've got someone installed who was brought in to do that. And I think that's interesting.

38:47Steve Clemens rightly points out that Donald Trump might like someone to blame if he loses the election. Maybe that's Benjamin Netanyahu and what he represents, or perhaps it's the chairman of the Fed for not lowering interest rates. Not lowering interest rates, but you got to look at this because there were three dissenters that wanted to raise rates. One of them was Neil Kashkari. Neil is the head of the Federal Reserve in Minneapolis, and he is like, no, he's not a flamboyant guy. And just when you begin to see the structured, you know, hardcore inflation hawks come in and begin pointing this head up, it's a big deal.

39:22And Kevin Warsh, I think, is, you know, balancing this between. So it's going to be hard to blame them when, in fact, the president's actions have driven oil and gas. And that is now ricocheting through consumer prices, which kitchen households are feeling. All right, let's check in on specific races, one or two, maybe just one, in these coming midterms. Graham Plattner in Maine is in the rear view. Democrats there have a new pick. Troy Jackson, the progressive, became the official Democratic nominee a week or so ago. Now, Shrey, you're just back from a reporting trip in Maine. What are voters there saying about all the things we're talking about in this conversation?

39:59I think affordability is certainly top of mind for Maine voters. And these are people that are super impacted by the war in Iran, specifically fuel costs in an area which relies a lot on diesel, particularly. And those skyrocketing prices have just affected huge parts of the state, particularly in sort of Trump country in the states, sort of in the northern parts where Troy Jackson is actually from and where Susan Collins is from, the incumbent. I think that is a huge part of affordability, but also certain things like the impact of the one big, beautiful bill, particularly on rural hospitals, Medicaid in the state.

40:30Those are big parts of it. And then also the ICE crackdown in the state. We saw one young man killed by ICE, another instance of an ICE agent fatally shooting someone. And in a small state like Maine, that ricochets. That is a huge problem in terms of that oversight in a state like Maine. Polling, if we can talk about it, between Troy Jackson's a new entity for most people. Susan Collins is not. No. It's too early to predict that race. We won't try. What does it look like, though? I have to say, I think it is always important to underscore how difficult Susan Collins is to be. She's a five-time Republican incumbent, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

41:11She steers a lot of money back to Maine. And in a state like Maine, that matters. Her ads are not sexy. Her ads, her campaign ads, are really about the things that she's done for the state. I've rebuilt a pier. I have done X, Y, Z. I've got you that local fire truck. That matters in sort of rural counties where there are only 1 ,500 people, particularly the counties where she's from. When you're chair of the Appropriations Committee, they call you a cardinal. And they don't call you that because you don't have power. Oh, no, no, no. They give you that name for a reason, and it helps you at election time.

41:41Well, Shrey mentioned the ICE crackdown in Maine and its role in the coming midterms. The immigration crackdown nationwide, both legal and illegal, continues. The Department of Homeland Security said this week that it has officially terminated TPS, temporary protected status, for Haitians and Syrians. This follows a Supreme Court ruling that gave the president unchecked power to end TPS. At the start of the Trump administration, roughly 1.3 million people had TPS protections. In 2025 alone, more than 700 ,000 people lost it. That's according to the American Immigration Council. And that's before the Supreme Court's recent decision that I just mentioned.

42:22After the Supreme Court weighed in in June, we spoke with Gurleen Joseph, co-founder and executive director at the Haitian Bridge Alliance, for her reaction. The community is traumatized, and we literally are living in the space of terror, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. The government is pushing for a speedy start of revocation of work permit. they're not even willing to allow people to go through due process. So to see the cruelty, the inhumanity, the lack of compassion, and the deep, deep, deeply rooted anti-Black racism towards Black immigrants, especially Haitians, it is just mind-boggling.

43:08You can listen to that full coverage on our website at the1a.org. Well, DHS told NPR, and this is a quote,

43:19But significant portions of Haiti, Megan Scully, are still controlled by criminal gangs. And the State Department urges Americans not to visit Haiti under any circumstances, citing rampant violence. Can ICE effectively carry out deportations to Haiti with all of this instability? It sounds like they want to do it anyway. They certainly do. And if, you know, we've seen ICE, of course, be very aggressive throughout this Trump term. But the conditions on the ground will make it very hard to reintegrate, you know, these 300 ,000 plus Haitians who may be affected by this order. Also complicating this, of course, is getting these people to Haiti.

44:03I saw one estimate this week that there would be weekly deportation flights or a weekly deportation flight of just 250 people. So it's something that certainly would take a lot of time. But this community, many of these many of these Haitians, you know, work in nursing homes, hospitals, and they're fearful. They're living in fear as they're as they're seeing these deportations start to carry out. And even some Republicans are fighting against this. There's 10 Republicans in the Senate who disagree with expediting these. Steve Clemens, we have to go. But a final thought on this. The promise of a crackdown against illegal immigrants, undocumented people was a major feature of Donald Trump's campaign.

44:46It bears repeating. TPS, we are talking about people here legally. They are documented and they're here under the rules. And we're looking at deportations by the hundreds of thousands. People here legally. It sends an incredible signal to the world that we're no longer a home for those that are harassed, detained, killed, extrajudicially. And yeah, it's something that is dividing America, divides both parties. But it very much was part of what Donald Trump ran on. And I think that right now we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and saying, is that the picture that we want to send to the rest of the world?

45:24So, yeah, it's a terrible thing. And, you know, to Megan's point, the governor, the Republican governor of Ohio, in which many, much of this population lives, is completely, Mike DeWine, is completely opposed to these policies. So it's going to be very divisive, again, not between Democrats and Republicans, but within our societies, within both parties. That's what's going on. I want to thank all of you for being around the table today. We always appreciate having you in studio and helping us digest what I promised was a chaotic week in the news. Megan Scully is Congress editor for Bloomberg News.

45:56Steve Clemens with the national interest. And Trey Popit, politics reporter at The Guardian. We're just getting started with this week's headlines. When we come back after a break, we'll have a new panel and all the news from around the globe. Stay with us.

46:14These days, it feels like the news changes every hour. Well, NPR has a podcast that does that, too. NPR News Now brings you a fresh five-minute episode every hour of the day with the latest, most important headlines in episodes that are clear, fact-based, and easy to digest. Listen to NPR News Now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. It's the international half of our weekly news roundup. This week, the United States-led war in Iran enters its sixth month. And the theme this week is escalation and expansion. We're going to get to all of it with Vera Bergen-Gruen.

46:55She's national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Vera, great to see you. Thank you. On the line from London, David Rennie, geopolitics editor at The Economist, where he writes the Telegram column. David, as always, great to see you. Hello. And Nick Schifrin is here, foreign affairs and defense correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. He's also host of the international affairs program Compass Points. Nick, it's always great to see you. Thanks for having me. All right, panel, you'll remember since February 28th, we've heard a series of evolving messages from the White House on the objective, the success, and the state of negotiations over this war.

47:33But let's go back to day one. This is what we heard from the president. We're going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world. The United States and Iran, though, each fired barrages of missiles this week on Thursday into Friday morning with what CENTCOM called a heavy wave of attacks. Following a few days of respite, fears of a wider war have now grown. Jordan and Kuwait were hit by Iranian drone strikes.

48:14Iranian drones caused fires on ships at a port in Egypt. And Saudi Arabia said it had come under fire from Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Vera, Nick, David, you've each been with us so many times over the last five months. Vera, you go first. What do you make of what we heard there from the president and where we are today? What's stuck with you through these months? I think one of the biggest things that has stuck with me really is that, you know, destruction just isn't victory. And in the words of, you know, the late Lindsey Graham, I mean, Trump likes to blow things up. And at the beginning, we saw a heavy emphasis on that, you know, these big videos.

48:54And they were meant to project that the U.S. was really like throwing everything at this and it was going to be over very quickly. And as we all remember, they declared victory quite quickly, a military victory. But, you know, these goals just keep kind of expanding. Now they're in charge of, you know, reassuring allies. They're in charge of protecting shipping, of protecting U.S. bases. And, you know, just continuing to destroy things is just not going to bring this to an end any sooner. And we haven't really seen a huge change in rhetoric from the president, but we have kind of seen it from a lot of the people around him, I think, as they realize this.

49:26Nick Schifrin, your read. Five months into war, not where the president thought he would be when he made that statement we just played. We're learning once again that tactical successes does not necessarily mean strategic progress or strategic victory. In fact, all signs point to strategic weakening of the United States in the Gulf. I mean, I've talked to innumerable Gulf allies who have made a real decision. And that decision is Iran is here to stay. Iran survived. They are a wounded regime. And they will be more aggressive in the future. And so whether you're Saudi or Jordanian or Kuwaiti, you didn't want this at this point.

50:09You didn't want an Iran that felt empowered and an Iran that has learned that its real nuclear weapon is the control of the Strait of Hormuz. But you're having to deal with that. So you're seeing kind of fundamental hedging away from the assumptions of the past and toward dealing with Iran. And again, whether you're Saudi, Kuwaiti, Jordanian or Emirati. And that does not mean that the U.S. has progressed in the region. If anything, it's lost weight, it's lost ability to persuade its historic allies. Now, that doesn't mean a break from the past. That doesn't mean these Gulf Arab allies are going to go somewhere else.

50:50They have no other choice, but a fundamental shift is something that they're thinking of, even though the military tactical successes have been real, really degrading Iranians' ability, but clearly not to the point where the U.S. or Israel can prevent Iran from striking individual ships or striking U.S. bases across the region. David Rennie. Yeah, look, you played the clip of his checklist. He has not hit, you know, he has not obliterated all the missiles. In fact, he's now in a very Trumpian way. He said, well, maybe they have the right to have some missiles, you know, depending on the day of the week.

51:23That's his argument. He has not eliminated the proxies. They've been badly damaged. But the other thing that was missing from the clip that you just played was for so many years, the number one ambition was to tackle Iran's nuclear program. And remember, again and again, towards the beginning of this war, Donald Trump told the American people and the world that he could not let Iran get a nuclear bomb on his watch. And that was the driving mission of all of this. Right now, if you look at the language of the kind of the fragile memorandum of understanding that is not currently bringing peace to this conflict, it basically punts the whole question of negotiating their nuclear program for another day.

51:59And so the most important reason of all, not just in reality for most allies, but also the thing that Donald Trump used to say was the most important reason of all, is just not being addressed. And so, as Nick and Vera say, the current situation is bad, but the one thing we were told could not be left kind of hanging has been left hanging. Well, let's talk a little bit more about the escalations and the news from this week. As we mentioned, American retaliation for surprise attacks on American military forces in Jordan would appear to have been Iranian strikes in Egypt, including one that set on fire an American tanker there.

52:37On Wednesday, Iran launched a barrage of missiles at American forces across the Middle East. And as we mentioned, the United States partnered with Saudi Arabia for the first time. Airstrikes in Iraq targeted at Tehran-backed militias there. At least 20 Iraqi fighters and six Iranian advisors were killed there. Nick Schifrin, I'm describing points of escalation or at least expansion throughout this war. Why now? What happened? Yeah, I would use the word expansion rather than escalation. I actually think, interestingly, the Saudi bombings in both Yemen and Iraq, the United States bombings in Iran right now, even some of the Iranian attacks are actually indicating that no one wants this to expand to a full scale war.

53:25You know, Brad Cooper, the central command commander, definitely was offering the president last week a real full expansion of the war. And a lot of the U.S.'s allies in the region were warning against that for fear that Tehran would escalate and that would actually really, really expand the war. Sorry, escalate the war. But we are seeing this expansion, and that's really worrying because the U.S. and its allies have less ability to control where this goes. If Iran is truly able to destabilize the Baba Mandeb, the gateway to the Red Sea via the Houthis, we know the chokehold on the strait exists.

54:04And if this explosion in Egypt really was some kind of Iranian-backed attack, a kind of warning signal on the Suez Canal, I mean, that is the entire Middle East energy output stock. That's 20 % of the world's oil and natural gas output stock, can't get to Europe or Asia. And so that's the message that Iran is sending. whether itself or through the proxies, that, hey, we have unbelievable economic leverage right now. And between that, the domestic pressures on President Trump, and like I said, the allied worries about an Iranian escalation, that is restraining the U.S. to a certain extent. And then we've got this tit-for-tat going, which I think U.S.

54:47commanders, the Israelis don't think is really sustainable because of what we've seen so much in the media, this ultimate shortage of interceptors, really because this tit-for-tat is leaving the U.S. exposed, and there's only so many patriots out there in order to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles. So, Vera, in that context, how do you interpret the apparent Iranian attack all the way in Egypt, on a port city, on the Mediterranean? What message is Iran sending there? I think it just, again, I think it's trying to send a message that you may be trying to find other ways around what's happening, but we can find you, right?

55:26And this route had become an alternative. And it's trying to, I think, again, just show that there's, you know, it doesn't really, there's not going to be a way to circumvent this conflict. And Egypt had largely remained outside of the direct fighting. And again, I think what we're seeing and everything that Nick was just saying is the sense of insulation that was there before February 28th. It's just not going to be able to be back. I think what they were trying to do was what Trump really wanted was a weakened Iran and then saying we can go back to the way things were. But there are fewer and fewer neutral countries.

56:01And this sense of kind of not invincibility, but the sense of insulation that a lot of these countries had is gone. The sense of safety is gone and the whole regional security calculus has changed. And so I think the more we see these countries being drawn in, you know, whether it's in self-defense, whether it's, you know, these things, as we said, are an escalate, you know, sorry, an expansion, not an escalation. But this expansion, I think, is there to stay. And it just ends up raising this question of are these limited, you know, small, limited actions or is this just drawing these countries in permanently into this conflict?

56:34David Rennie, we have to go to a quick break. We only have a few seconds, but it's worth an update. What's the state of the Strait of Hormuz right now? Only eight commodity ships passed through on Tuesday. Look, it's pretty close. I mean, you've got these two rival routes. You can sail really close to Iran with Iran's permission, or you can go the American route near the coast of Amman on the other side of the strait. But if you're a ship owner, you know, that is a very dangerous thing to do. And we're seeing attacks on ships all the time. So at the moment, the level of shipping is really, really low.

57:04This week, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, he said that he would share evidence with the United States showing that Russia is assisting Iran in targeting U.S. bases in the Middle East. We're going to have more on Zelensky's visit to Washington later in the hour, but suspicions that China could also be assisting Iran with targeting. They've gotten into reports as well over the course of this war. The issue came up in Defense Secretary Pete Hex's testimony on Capitol Hill last week, and the president has mostly brushed off the issue. Here he is aboard Air Force One on Monday. President Zelensky says that Russia is giving Iran satellite imagery of U.S.

57:45bases in the Gulf to help them target. What can you do about that? Well, we'll find out of this. I'll ask Putin about it. We'll find out. Hasn't had much impact because we've knocked the hell out of it, would you think? If that's the case, look, you know, they gave Venezuela a lot of equipment. Venezuela had all Russian equipment. How did that work out? Not too good. So they may be giving, but if they are, it hasn't worked out because they have no army, they have no air force. They have no Navy, they have no nothing. So it hasn't worked out. Well, I don't think they've been doing it, certainly not at a high level.

58:23I'll ask Putin about it, the president says, Nick Schifrin. What is Zelensky up to here, do you think? What difference could it make as he tries to garner U.S. support? We're going to talk more about Russia and Ukraine, of course, but there's a growing nexus between these two conflicts. I think that the two different questions that you asked have two different answers. So we know what Zelensky is up to, right? Zelensky is trying to make sure that President Trump cares about Ukraine, that President Trump feels invested in helping Zelensky on a personal level and helping Ukraine on a strategic level.

58:58And one of the ways that we've seen this is Zelensky raising, hey, maybe the war that you're fighting, I can help you with that. And we've seen in the Caspian Sea a Ukrainian strike on an Iranian ship. Now, it seems to have died down that crisis, but it could have been a crisis and it could have actually dragged Iran in to the Ukraine-Russia war beyond what, of course, Iran has been doing. Nick, let me interrupt you just to ask you this one because it goes to the heart of it. We just got this in from a listener. Roger says, please discuss how Iran is able to successfully target American assets in the region.

59:34Do they have their own satellites? Yes, they certainly do. And Iran has been using open source intelligence for a long time. I've talked to former intelligence officials and current ones who say a lot of what we've seen out of Iran in terms of the targeting of U.S. forces is not, it's not required to come from Russia. It's not required to come from China. And so, you know, Iran has capabilities here and has proven its ability to use them. Now, some of the intelligence that it's had in terms of exactly where to hit on bases or where to strike in terms of like hotels, for example, we've seen this, where U.S.

1:00:16forces were staying, that does seem to reveal accurate, actionable intelligence. Nobody's been able to say for certain that that has come from Russia or China, to me at least. The assumption has been that Iran has its own intelligence. But Zelensky trying to get the U.S. to stay interested in his war or in the Ukraine war by expanding it to Iran and what the U.S. is doing in Iran, as you heard from the president, what you just said, it hasn't really worked. The president largely doesn't think of any or doesn't accept any idea that Iran is doing well. And so any argument like, hey, Iran's doing well because of Russia, well, he doesn't want to hear that, it seems.

1:00:59And so Zelensky's argument doesn't seem to have taken too much track. So, Vera, what about incentives now? At some point, Iran and the United States will have to get back to the bargaining table. What do the incentives look like now for either side to either compromise or begin talks or try to get to a place where a new ceasefire is reached, one that lasts more than 32 days? Right. I think one of the interesting things has been that, you know, these these military, these attacks, these escalations ultimately aren't, you know, instead of diplomacy, they've become an integral part of this diplomacy.

1:01:35It's, you know, it's become a pressure mechanism. So these things are kind of happening in this, you know, really messy swirl. And ultimately, I mean, you know, again, the U.S. and Trump specifically wants a credibly weakened Iran. You know, he kind of wants to be able to say he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, even if it doesn't last, even if it's probably not true. Right. He just wants to get out fairly quickly and negotiate in some kind of exit. Right. But these goals, like both credibly weakening Iran in a way that sticks to the goals that we we played earlier at the beginning of the war and getting a way out.

1:02:10You know, those two things are really hard to reconcile. And meanwhile, Iran just really wants any settlement that recognizes, I think, a new post-war reality in which it has greater authority over Hormuz and in which it kind of maintains, you know, obviously it keeps its regime. But ultimately, you know, they want something different than what was there before February 28th, because they have, as Nick has described, really been able to expose these vulnerabilities. And that is not acceptable to the Trump administration. So, I mean, there's no great answer to your question. I think, you know, we just keep coming back to the fact that Iran knows it can't and does not need to defeat the U.S.

1:02:51militarily. It can just kind of keep this leverage forever. ever. As of now, you know, it's fundamentally changed how the entire region approaches it. So I think we're going to keep trying to, I think what they ultimately want is to find some kind of negotiation which allows both sides to save face, both sides to be able to declare some kind of victory. But as of now, these things are just kind of directly opposed. Well, Vera, let me stick with you just briefly. Another front in this war is Lebanon, southern Lebanon, Israel's occupation there, their desire to create a buffer zone. Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week, met with Donald Trump, largely off camera, which is unusual for both of them, more of a low-key visit than most people are used to.

1:03:35Lebanon has been an irritant in their relationship. What do we know about what the two of them talked about? So I'm told that, you know, they came in, you know, ready to discuss a much broader set of things, but obviously about 90 percent was spent just on Iran. It was very interesting that it was off camera. I think it's been Trump has only opted for this usually with countries that he has a really, really bad relationship with, where they really don't want to have a blow up in front of the cameras. We've seen it with the Colombian president, with Brazil's president. In this case, it's a very close ally.

1:04:09And I think it was for the same reason. They, you know, Trump can't resist answering questions in front of the cameras. They didn't want to be caught in a position where they were going to be exposing these differences in a pretty sensitive time. So from what we know, from what I'm told is, again, they mainly discussed these three main strategies, you know, economic pressure, some kind of diplomatic negotiation and military action. But the main takeaway I had from speaking to U.S. and Israeli officials was that, you know, Netanyahu came in really wanting to make clear that he's not pushing for anything.

1:04:43He knows how sensitive this is for Trump. He knows this could get in the way of his own goals if Israel is seen as, you know, again, pushing the U.S. into a particular option or into an endless war. And, you know, we've seen these these allegations from as high up as Vice President J.D. Vance. So, you know, an Israeli official described this as Netanyahu making clear he's the junior partner. Trump is the senior partner. We're not pushing you towards any kind of option. You are the ultimate decision maker. And that is something that I think we haven't seen as clearly in the past. And it was very clear that this was important for them to signal.

1:05:17Another important part of this puzzle, as it is every week, Israel and Gaza, the West Bank, of course, but Israel and its adversaries and its neighbors. Maybe some progress reported late this week, late Thursday night, East Coast time, reports that Hamas had agreed to disarm under the conditions of the Gaza Board of Peace Plan, getting into bridges to phase two now, David Rennie. What do we know about Hamas's agreement? There's a lot of skepticism about whether it will stick. Put it in context for us. So we have the one thing that's solid and is unexpected is Donald Trump essentially trying to kind of force the pace of this by saying it's been a tremendous, a momentous step and amazing progress towards getting to the, fulfilling the 20 steps of the 20-point plan for peace in Gaza.

1:06:10There's a lot of ambiguity around the messaging that we've seen. Hamas officials have been speaking to various news organizations, in some cases saying, you know, yes, we accept it, but of course, there's a kind of who moves first problem, a sequencing problem, as diplomats say. You know, some of the Hamas officials talking to media saying, until Israel withdraws, there's no question of us handing over our weapons. Or, of course, we're not going to hand our weapons over to the Israelis. They can be looked after in Gaza by a technocratic Palestinian authority that's part of the 20-point plan coming in.

1:06:41And I think there is a real concern that, you know, there's claims being made that this is a done deal, and actually there aren't. And then that's the kind of ambiguity out of Hamas. And now we see the ambiguity coming out of the Israeli government and hardline members of Bibi Netanyahu's own cabinet coming out and saying things on X, coming out and saying things about, you know, we don't accept this deal in its current form. And so a real sense that Trump is keen to sort of declare progress, but actually the who moves first problem that the Israelis don't trust Hamas, Hamas doesn't trust the Israelis, that doesn't seem to be substantively resolved.

1:07:18And in the meantime, it's hot, it's summer, There are 2 million Palestinians crammed into now probably 35 % of the old Gaza, while 65 % heading towards 70 % by some accounts is under Israeli control and is basically rubble. And so this is a pretty miserable time for the Palestinian people in that territory. Small steps, distrust, and who moves first, David Rennie, and other small signs that are at least intended to be interpreted as progress. David Rennie, Israel's security cabinet approved the entry of a future international stabilization force for Gaza, 200-person force. How significant, how real in the context of all of this is that announcement?

1:08:04Look, I mean, as you say, the initial wave would be 200 people. They are the ones who would be supposedly part of an international force that would work in those parts of Gaza that are not under direct Israeli military control. So Gaza is now divided by this thing, the yellow line. And there's been a lot of good reporting that that yellow line, which is literally in some cases yellow painted blocks of concrete, keeps moving. The Israelis are expanding continuously their control of Gaza. The 35 percent that is not under direct Israeli military control, these people would go in. But it's a bit like this.

1:08:35You know, you look at all the different elements of this 20-point plan. There's the Palestinian technocratic authority that is meant to come in and ultimately take over control. They're basically still sitting in Cairo. They haven't set foot in Gaza. And so there's a real sense that this is going to take a lot longer than anyone, you know, than the claims coming out of President Trump and the White House. Robert writes in with this view, there will never be peace in the Middle East as long as we continue to allow Israel to ignore international law in Gaza. Robert, thank you for that view. Vera Bergen-Groon is with us, national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal.

1:09:10David Rennie is here with The Economist and Nick Schifrin from PBS NewsHour. I'm Todd Zwillick. You're listening to 1A. Well, Nick Schifrin, meanwhile, Israeli settlers, we're going to the West Bank now, continuing violent attacks in that region just east of Jerusalem, this time in the town of Tel. What's the latest? What's happening in Tel in the West Bank? So over the weekend and from Friday into the weekend, we had this very severe incident where Israelis say a Palestinian grabbed the gun of a security guard, who's a former soldier but still a security guard today, and then killed him and a soldier.

1:09:57This is on Friday, I think, into Saturday. And then the Palestinians say that the Israeli soldiers who came to that incident killed four people. look this is another example of obviously tensions running very high in the occupied west bank and what precipitated this incident and what precipitated so many of these incidents is settlers many of them armed many of them wearing army uniforms and armed with army weapons but nonetheless settlers are encroaching onto palestinian villages historic palestinian villages And of course, this is land that the Palestinians want for a future state, turning what was supposed to be kind of blocks of cheddar cheese and the Oslo agreements into totally Swiss cheese.

1:10:45And so Palestinians have no contiguous land. And that's part of the strategy of this. We saw the violence spike over the weekend where settlers went into two other villages and burned down mosques. And so again, if you talk to the UN, you talk to European officials, this is a historic level of settler violence against Palestinians. We've seen more than 500 attacks this year into the thousands, if you count kind of the last year and a half. And what Palestinians say is that it was October the 7th, the Hamas terrorist attack into Israel. while that was happening, while Israel was waging war in Iran, in Lebanon, while a lot was going on in Syria as well, that is when a lot of these settlers took cues from the right-wing members of the Israeli government and expanded their footprint, expanded their aggressiveness in the West Bank.

1:11:39And we've seen countless examples that the UN has cited of settlers working with soldiers, it almost being very difficult to tell. I mean, we did a piece last night, and it's hard to tell who's wearing which uniform and which is a settler and which is a soldier. And that is the UN reports say has been deliberate. And so that's the context for what we've seen, this explosion of violence over the weekend, just one example of this trend that we've seen in the occupied West Bank. I want to take a few moments to remember Irish singer-songwriter Glenn Hansard, who co-starred in the 2007 indie film Once.

1:12:21He and then partner Marquetta Iglova won an Academy Award for that film's original song. It was called Falling Slowly. Glenn Hansard died in a motorcycle crash on the outskirts of Dublin early on Wednesday. Glenn was in Studio 1A in April with me, and he and I chatted about his two-part live album called Don't Settle, Transmissions East and West, and how you can support your favorite artist today. It's a tough climate to try and make a living. But, you know, thank God for people. And, you know, there's an Irish term, metal, which is basically just people gathering. So people are coming out to see shows because they understand.

1:13:00They understand the power of their dollar. They're coming out to see shows because they know that that's where the artist makes their money. They're not making it on record sales, and they're not really making it on merch or anything like that. Or, you know, go see a band, buy their t-shirt, pay in. That's the thing I do. If I love a band, like I just saw Dirty Three, one of my favorite groups, and I know Warren, and Warren put me on the guest list, and I just said, no, I'm paying. If you like the artist, if you like the kid on the street with the guitar case open, you put a dollar in the case.

1:13:28You don't just walk by, right? Exactly. That kid was you, and look at you now. We're going to miss Glenn Hansard. He started his career busking on the streets of his native Dublin at age 13 after his headmaster encouraged him to pursue music and even to drop out of school. He formed his band, The Frames, back in 1990. And Glenn told us he later flew that headmaster to New York to watch him perform at Carnegie Hall. Glenn got famous for leading a Christmas Eve busk in downtown Dublin, where members of the public gathered to see famous Irish musicians perform to raise money fighting homelessness.

1:14:03We are going to miss him. Glenn Hansard was 56. So shifting gears back to the White House. Now, as we mentioned, Netanyahu was in Washington this week, but he wasn't the only dignitary to visit the White House because of the funeral of late Senator Lindsey Graham, who was big on foreign policy and drew them in from all over the globe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also met with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday. Now, Lindsey Graham was a major supporter of Ukraine. He returned from Kiev just a day before he died. But Zelensky's mission in D.C. this time? A license to produce Patriot interceptor missiles inside Ukraine after that possibility was floated at the NATO summit earlier this month.

1:14:49Vera, did Zelensky get what he came for? What was the read out of that, again, closed-door meeting? No, by all accounts, it was a good meeting. I think the Ukrainians kind of see it as a partial win. You know, they didn't get what you just mentioned, you know, no major breakthrough or announcement when it comes to these military deliverables, which they really desperately need. But it did highlight, I think, the great lengths that Zelensky has gone through to repair the relationship, to have a better rapport with Trump after the big blowup we saw last year in February in the Oval Office. And he's become much better at speaking Trump's language when it comes to this.

1:15:25You know, he talks about co-production, about purchasing from American companies, about how supporting Ukraine militarily is really good for the U.S. economy. Obviously, all of this is music to Trump's ears. So, you know, it's just really improved, I think, the dynamic. And, you know, we've seen that the photos are so different, right? They're smiling. We're seeing, you know, a lot more engagement between the Ukrainians and Trump's inner circle. So all of that is positive. But again, you know, when it comes to what they really desperately need, this license and new packages of Patriot interceptors, obviously it's going to take a really long time for Ukraine to produce them themselves.

1:16:03So, you know, I think that was something that they maybe hoped to see a bit more of. But, you know, by all accounts, it does seem that it was quite a positive meeting. Well, we started the hour talking about the expansion of the war in Iran, and Nick mentioned something that Michael wrote in to ask about. Talk about more expansion when it comes to Ukraine. Nick mentioned it a few moments ago. Michael asks this. I've seen reports of Ukraine attacking an Iranian shadow fleet on its way to Russia. David Rennie, what about that attack? What about the theme of expansion that we've been talking about this hour?

1:16:41And why would Ukraine go after an Iranian ship now? So that Iranian ship, the idea is that it was shipping military equipment to Russia. And so it was a legitimate target, Ukraine said. I think there is a suspicion that Ukraine is trying to join the two wars together. that because if you think of the map of Iran, you know, it has a coastline on the Strait of Hormuz that we've spent so long talking about. But at the north of Iran, it also has a northern coastline, the landlocked inland sea of the Caspian Sea, Russia on the other side of the Caspian Sea, and a Ukrainian drone comes in and attacks a Russian ship.

1:17:14I should just say to the very important question about whether Trump is serious about giving them the permission to make their own patriots, I hate to praise a competitor, but the FT has a scoop today that they spoke to Donald Trump. One of these kind of call him on his cell phone. He answers numbers and he says he's not sure that he's going to give them patriots, that these are extraordinary weapons. And maybe it's a big, dangerous thing to give them the patriots. And we don't really like to license weapons that powerful. So I think as ever, you know, it depends on the day of the week, the level of optimism about Donald Trump's support for Ukraine.

1:17:44Well, let's move on to the latest from Europe, major news out of Europe, at least in Western Europe, not necessarily war and peace, but but burning nonetheless. Around 300 ,000 people had been forced to evacuate homes and vacation sites. We're talking France and Spain now. On Wednesday, Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said fires around Madrid were being contained, but two people were arrested over suspicions of arson in Bordeaux, that's in France, where crews were working to contain a fire there. But most of Europe is under another major heat wave now, and experts are warning the prolonged extreme heat is bound to make fires worse and ignite new ones as the atmosphere heats up fires burn earlier and hotter and longer.

1:18:30Nick Schifrin, give us a sense of just how severe these fires are. Well, these are the most severe, at least by recorded measure, the most severe fires in French and Spanish history. And not only have we seen them in France and Spain, We've seen them spread all the way down to Crete in Greece and all the way up to the United Kingdom. You've got fires in Scotland and southern and eastern England and a declaration of drought in England. And so, you know, France, we're talking about more than 400 square miles. A lot of the media reporting is focused on Bordeaux, of course, something, a place that many Americans know.

1:19:10Spain, as you cited, Todd, upwards of 100 ,000 evacuated, warnings by the prime minister. You've got multiple people killed in the Crete firefighter, in the Crete fire, and then you've got this British fire as well. And so you've got a combination of arson, as you cited, but extreme heat, dry brush, and of course, climate change fuels these extreme temperatures and makes these wildfires more widespread. And the concern is that the European Forest Fire Information System, that's an EU-wide body, has warned of very extreme conditions all the way through the end of next week. And so you have lots of different localized fires to a certain extent for different reasons.

1:20:02There's some examples reporting out of Bordeaux, for example, of residents not taking the steps that they needed to in order to prevent further fires. But overall, we're seeing Europe facing heat waves this summer, not being ready for it in terms of so many people dying in France last month and clearly not being ready for the fires that come with it and expanding from the UK all the way down to Greece. And Vera, Nick is pointing to something important. The European Union's climate watchdog says the continent is warming faster than any other continent on Earth, and that's leading people to conclude the logical corollary of what Nick is saying.

1:20:41Is this a new normal for Europe? I mean, I think it's pretty clear that it likely will be. and Europe, I mean, it's prepared better than before. They've been quite proactive about looking forward and trying to, as Nick pointed out, have these cross-border systems. But the thing is, it just can't keep pace with the scale of the threat. And I think one of the things that we saw, they work in these three, four-year plans, they implement them, but the way that they usually work is having these cross-border systems, shared aircraft, firefighters, crews, that are supposed to be allocated to each country as their biggest fire season starts and ends.

1:21:23And now, as we've discussed, you know, just these are getting much longer. These are getting, you know, it's getting drier and they're overlapping to an extent where they can't, you know, the way that they designed these plans likely won't be the best way to implement them in the coming years. You know, so like as we're seeing these fire seasons overlap, they can't really, they're just not keeping pace with the scale of the threat. So I think it is unfortunately a new normal. And these plans that they've put in place, by the time they kind of materialize, likely just won't be the right capabilities to combat this.

1:21:56And another heat dome headed for Western Europe, according to forecasts. If we go up to the UK, though, it's back to politics. Northern England. David, we're in Manchester. That's the home of Andy Burnham. He's now the prime minister because he took over the Labour Party when Keir Starmer stepped down. But that means that the mayor's office in Manchester is now empty. There's an election going on there. It's a good time to check in on Andy Burnham. How's he doing in the UK after just two weeks on this job? Is he still in the honeymoon? So he is still in the honeymoon. There's a lot of, you know, people seem to be happier to have him there than his predecessor.

1:22:37I'm sure listeners know this, but the parliamentary system we have here, he became prime minister basically because the previous leader of the Labour Party stood down, Sir Keir Starmer, and Andy Burnham became leader of the Labour Party. And because Labour has control of parliament, that means that he becomes prime minister without actually a big general election. But the job that he just left, as you're right, he was mayor of Manchester. That's now got a special election. In fact, there's first round voting about to be announced. It's a real test of whether the burn and bounce is going to deliver a victory to Labour, particularly in the British context right now.

1:23:11It's are the big mainstream parties, the Conservatives, the Labour Party. Are they able to hold off the populists? So you've got the far right populists at Reform Nigel Farage. You've got the far left populists at the Green Party. They had been doing really well in some local elections earlier this year. So it's going to be a big test, even though the job of mayor of Manchester isn't tremendously important, but it's a first test. We talk about the test and we talk about the fortunes of the anti-immigrant far-right populist Reform UK Party. Their leader is Nigel Farage. He's running for parliament as well in his seat of Clacton against someone we've talked about before on this show, Count Binface.

1:23:51I am participating in the wonder of democracy. It's pretty darn clear what the choice is, Nigel Farage or not Nigel Farage. Easy peasy. David Rennie, we've talked about Binface before, the sort of satirical candidate. He's out with a new manifesto. But it does raise the serious question. No other party is in this race. It basically comes down to a referendum on Farage, right? Binface versus Nigel Farage really means, does this constituency want to endorse the leadership and reform UK? What's happening in that race? So the short version is that Nigel Farage was suffering. He was being accused of kind of some sort of corruption-related scandals.

1:24:33And so he decides to do this kind of populist stunt. He says, you know, the mainstream media is after me. The establishment is after me. I'm going to put this to the will of the people. So he resigns his seat and then says he's going to ask his voters in his constituency to decide whether he's innocent or guilty. It's a very safe seat. People previously had given him a pretty thumping majority. But rather cleverly, the big parties, the Conservatives, Labour and others, said they weren't going to run against him, that this was a stunt that they were not going to dignify by pretending it was a real contest.

1:25:03And so that is why his most prominent opponent is this comedian who has this character, Count Binface, who wears a dustbin on his head. And his manifesto is full of things like, I think one of them is moving a badly placed hand dryer from the loos in one of his favorite restaurants in the constituency. So he's - And I've seen people, by the way, go to visit that very men's room in that very pub. And it's badly placed? It's badly placed? I mean, you know, he's, you know, he's public policy, but it's, you know, it's attempting to sort of appeal to the anti-politics mood that Nigel Farage has been using so effectively for his purposes and see if you can turn it against him.

1:25:40That's David Rennie of The Economist. Vera Bergen-Gruen is here from The Wall Street Journal and Nick Schifrin from PBS NewsHour, all helping us round up the news from around the world. I'm Todd Zwilich. You're listening to 1A. I want to take some of the time that we have to do a little bit of an expanded reporter's notebook today to sort of get inside a little bit what you all are working on and what you think the next story is going to be that's important for us to watch. Take just maybe a minute each as we get to the end of the show here and give us a sense of what you think the next story is that we need to know about.

1:26:17Nick, go ahead. Sadly, I think as we discussed at the top of this show, we are going to be faced with the expanding version of an Iran war for quite a while, whether that's expansion to the Mediterranean or expansion as Saudi Arabia tries to send some messages to the Houthis in Yemen who are trying to close the Bab al-Mandeb, the gateway to the Red Sea, and how the Houthis have been quite resilient when it comes to all of that. I will take 20 seconds and suggest that also we're working on a couple stories out of China, including Ezra Jin, who's a pastor with American children, who's been released.

1:27:00And he was released as part of a deal between the president and Xi Jinping. And so we'll be doing that story, a real emotional story there about reunification with his family as well. Nick, thank you. Vera? I think I'm going to be watching pretty closely next week. there's going to be the beginning of these Washington-backed transition talks in Venezuela. It really shows the pressure that I think is starting to be applied on the Trump administration to show that they do back some kind of democratic process, despite their cozy relationship and all these oil deals and everything else that Trump loves to talk about with the current government.

1:27:37But, you know, it's a process that cuts out the opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado. And I think many critics say that this is just going to buy time to kind of, you know, it's not really going to be a serious process. It's just supposed to, you know, buy them time and get some of the heat off them. So I think it's going to be pretty interesting to see whether Let me make sure I get to David Veer. I'm sorry to cut you off, but we do just have a minute before the end of the show. David, a quick thought. Yeah, I'm looking at the contest is underway for the next Secretary General of the UN. And rather than kind of doing a runners and riders, I'm trying to ask, why do we even want or need a Secretary General of the UN in this very brutal world that we live in?

1:28:14And does it matter that the big beasts like America and Russia and China get a veto? And then what does that mean about the future of the world order? And it's a pretty sobering conversation once you start talking to people. I want to thank David Rennie, Nick Schifrin, and Vera Bergen-Gruen for joining us for this hour. We're going to leave you now with a remembrance of Irish singer-songwriter Glenn Hansard, who we talked about a few moments ago, who passed away this week at 56. This is from 1A listener Barry Malone in Hansard's hometown of Dublin. Glenn was the first musician I ever saw live when I talked my way into a pub as a 16-year-old, which is something that I'm so grateful for now.

1:28:53In Ireland, we loved him. Obviously, his whole life changed when he won the Oscar, but something never changed. Glenn started out as a busker on the streets of Dublin, and I think he was a busker to the end. All he needed was the music. He was as happy playing to a few people on the street as he was playing in huge venues. Irish people have a great nose for a fake, and we have a great nose for a true artist. And that's really why we loved Glenn, because that's what Glenn was. A true artist, Glenn Hanser, joined us here in Studio 1A back in April to talk about his album, his impressions traveling around America in 2026, and most lucky for us to play a couple of songs live.

1:29:35A great rate has lifted. A great rate is gone. Great waves of wonder are coming on. The clouds are parted. The sky is clear. The sun is grinning. From ear to ear, no thunder rolling. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Mayor Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexander Bouttee is our senior supervising producer. Aileen Humphreys is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand. And Thomas Liu and Matthew Simonson produce our podcast. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington. It's distributed by NPR. I'm Todd Zwilich.

1:30:23This is 1A.

1:30:43Weyland, it seems like everything is being called a recession indicator these days. Yeah, like the box of Hamburger Helper in my pantry. Or the new Apple Neo book. Or the resurgence of press on nails or lipstick or no lipstick. I've lost track. There is only one way to know if these are actual economic warning signs, though. Listen to the indicator from Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. OK, so you're driving to work or you're on a walk or you're at the gym or whatever, and you just need to clear your head. That's the perfect time to hit the play button on NPR's All Songs Considered.

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