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By
Brittney Melton
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Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to meet today in Washington. Iran has insisted that it will not sign a deal with the U.S. unless there is an end to the war in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the militant group Hezbollah. Vice President Vance said last night that there wasn't yet a U.S.-Iran agreement, but that officials are very close. Over the past week, U.S. and Iranian officials have discussed potential agreements to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and postponing nuclear talks for later. A sticking point in these negotiations has included Iran's stockpiles of enriched uranium.
A fireball and smoke erupt from a building following an Israeli strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, on May 28, 2026. Kawant Haju/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The Justice Department has launched an investigation related to writer E. Jean Carroll, a perceived political adversary of President Trump. Carroll won two separate lawsuits against the president for sexual abuse and defamation. Investigators are looking into whether Carroll committed perjury during her deposition related to civil lawsuits she brought against him.
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is working to revamp the network's most prestigious program, 60 Minutes. Yesterday, she dismissed the executive producer who was a veteran of several decades, two correspondents and a pair of senior news leaders from the show. Weiss has appointed Nick Bilton, who hasn't done broadcast news work, as the new executive producer of the show. The new owners of CBS brought Weiss in last fall with the goal of shifting coverage away from what they believe to be a "woke" and anti-Trump tilt.
A federal judge has decided not to block Trump's executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump nominee based in Washington, D.C., issued the ruling yesterday, allowing the order to remain in effect for now. This executive order, released on March 31, directs the Department of Homeland Security to collaborate with the Social Security Administration to compile lists of adult U.S. citizens in each state and provide these lists to state election officials. It also calls for the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of eligible voters and only deliver mail-in ballots to those individuals. Judge Nichols found that it is too early for the court to issue an emergency ruling to halt key aspects of Trump's order, since those directives have not yet been implemented. His ruling comes as another federal judge prepares to issue a decision in a similar set of lawsuits based in Boston, expected as early as June.
Ohio State Rep. Gary Click, a Republican from the 88th District and a Baptist pastor, poses for a portrait in his office at the Riffe Tower in Columbus, Ohio on February, 24, 2026. Andrew Spear for NPR hide caption
This week at NPR, we're going to explore the increased intermixing of God and government in a new series we're calling Church and State. It's an idea that has been gaining momentum through the first and second Trump administrations, not only within U.S. politics but also throughout American culture, in songs and paintings, schoolbooks and worship events infused with faith and politics.
Ohio state Rep. Gary Click has been working to pass the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act since last year. The bill would permit the teaching of the positive impact of "Judeo-Christian" values in U.S. history. The state House has already passed the legislation, and it is now in the Senate. While a couple of other states have similar bills, none are named after Kirk, the conservative activist whose rhetoric has both offended and resonated with many. Click hopes his bill will serve as a model for other potential legislation. Opponents argue that the bill is unnecessary and could offer a skewed perspective of history. They express concerns about the potential blending of Christianity with lawmaking. Dive into both sides of the argument here.
by Here & Now's Chris Bentley and Peter O'Dowd
Sheep graze around solar panels in Dunlap, Ill. Chris Bentley/Here & Now hide caption
Not even the most remote corners of the country are beyond the all-consuming gaze of artificial intelligence. This month, we made a whistle-stop tour of three states in the West to find out how AI is helping fight wildfires, as part of Here & Now's environmental series Reverse Course. And we drove south from Chicago to Illinois farm country for a glimpse at how solar farms and agriculture are sharing the land.
Driving through Illinois, you see lots of corn and soybeans. It's also increasingly common to see solar panels lining fields where sheep feed on grass, unaware of the pocket-size power plants over their heads. While they often compete for the same land, renewable energy and agriculture can also work together in a system called agrivoltaics. In Illinois, state incentives for community solar are fueling a boom despite cuts at the federal level.
Local governments are also looking for new ways to fight wildfires as the U.S. Forest Service deals with job cuts and restructuring. Artificial intelligence is filling the gap. A growing network of cameras atop mountains and powerlines alerts fire managers of danger at the first sign of smoke.
Sometimes artificial intelligence gets confused. A cloud of dust looks a lot like a smoke plume, after all. But the industry is developing fast. We saw the technology at work in Arizona and Colorado. And after a visit to Alert California's headquarters in San Diego, the state fire agency told us its cameras caught 915 fires last year before any human called 911.
Both stories showed how economics and local policies are pushing new technology with implications for climate change, which fit nicely into the "local lessons" theme of this year's NPR Climate Solutions week.
Clockwise from top left: The Odyssey, Toy Story 5, Scary Movie and Disclosure Day Universal; Disney/Pixar; Paramount Pictures; Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures hide caption
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: There will be something for everyone at the movie theaters this summer, from sequels and reboots to romance and action-packed films. Here are 15 titles to look forward to.
📺 TV: In Netflix's new sci-fi monster mystery, The Boroughs, something strange is stirring at a retirement community in the desert and a septuagenarian Scooby Gang is investigating exactly what it could be.
📚 Books: The End of the Sahara by Saïd Khatibi focuses on the murder of a nightclub singer, while An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini follows a detective investigating the disappearance of three people. "These new books could hardly be less alike, except for one thing: Each is, in its unconventional way, quite brilliant," NPR's Fresh Air pop culture critic John Powers says.
🎵 Music: It's Drake Week on the Billboard charts, as the rapper breaks records for sheer quantity. His three new albums have debuted in the top three, with ICEMAN leading at No. 1.
🍗 Food: Get the grill ready because summer barbecue season is approaching. Looking for new recipes to try? WBUR has you covered with these options.
❓Quiz: I hope you've been paying attention to this week's newsletters, as they will have prepared you well for most of the questions. Test your memory skills here.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 Match Ball "Trionda" is shown at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City last October. Sarah Stier/Getty Images North America hide caption
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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