Snapshot · Up First from NPR
Jay Clayton, Trump's new pick for Director of National Intelligence, served as a US attorney for the Southern District of New York but has limited intelligence background.
Where this was said
At 3:33 · chapter starts 1:55
NPR senior contributor Ron Elving joins to dissect what has become Washington's defining will-they-won't-they story. The week saw a US Apache helicopter go down in the Gulf of Oman, blamed on Iran, triggering US strikes and Iranian retaliation against Gulf neighbors — before Trump abruptly canceled a planned retaliatory strike and declared peace imminent. Elving's reading is clear: both the US and Iran have domestic incentives to claim a deal exists, but whether they've actually agreed on the same thing is another matter. A durable agreement, he notes, would reenergize oil markets and lower prices for gas, fertilizer, and food globally — and would give Trump a victory lap on his 80th birthday. [1] — Ron Elving "A peace deal with Iran has become Washington's defining will-they-won't-they saga. Ron Elving explains that both sides want an agreement — …" 01:55 The real test, as Elving warns, comes only once both sides have to deliver on whatever they signed.
A peace deal with Iran has become Washington's defining will-they-won't-they saga. Ron Elving explains that both sides want an agreement — just not necessarily the same one — and the real test comes only after signatures are on the page.
Iran's foreign minister said on June 12, 2026, that a peace deal with the US is in the final stages and Iran's leadership has approved it.
A peace deal would help President Trump celebrate his 80th birthday by claiming victory and ending a politically expensive conflict.
Bill Pulte had zero intelligence experience — so little that bipartisan senators refused to let him serve even temporarily. Jay Clayton's thin-but-real credentials as a federal prosecutor may be just enough to get him confirmed.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
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