The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war.


The agreement extends the existing ceasefire, reopens the Strait of Hormuz, and opens negotiations for a final peace deal.

Host Mary Louise Kelly gathers three NPR correspondents who are covering the region – Greg Myre in Tel Aviv, Jane Arraf in Beirut and Aya Batrawy in Cairo – to understand what's next and who has emerged as the winners and losers. Also, where nearly four months of war have left the Middle East.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is blocking some

promotions at the Pentagon, and a “summer surge” of National Guard troops heads

to Washington.

Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR Pentagon

Correspondent Tom Bowman and NPR reporter Kat Lonsdorf about the purges at the

Pentagon, and why there are still National Guard troops deployed in some Democratic-run

cities. Plus, a drone rescue in the Middle East.

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President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started the war with Iran together, but they have different ideas for how to end it.

Host Scott Detrow steps in for Mary Louise Kelly again this week. He speaks with NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre and NPR White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez about the current friction between the two leaders, and where pain points have come up in the past. Also, where the elusive deal with Iran stands.

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There's a country that was once rooted in a movement around social justice and political freedom.
That country? It's Iran in 1979 during the revolution.


The path from 1979, with the toppling of a monarch, through the decades of oppression and economic turmoil that followed, to this current moment, is mapped out in the book: “Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran.”

Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with reporter and co-author Yeganeh Torbati about her new book, which follows six ordinary Iranians who -- through their lived experiences -- provide rare insight into the hopes and fears of people living from the revolution through decades of turmoil.


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Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor under President Biden, says it's hard to see what the United States gains in the war with Iran. 

He spoke with host Mary Louise Kelly before a live audience at the 2026 WBUR Festival last week for a wide-ranging conversation that included China, Ukraine, Greenland, Cuba, Afghanistan and of course, Iran.

"In the weeks leading up to the start of the bombing, they were putting proposals on the table that actually look more forward leaning than what we're seeing now in some ways. And the Strait of Hormuz was open," he said. "Now, today, the Strait of Hormuz is closed. The nuclear deal seems to be getting further away, not closer."


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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that there's been "some progress" in current negotiations with Iran. But both sides exchanged fire this week, so what gives?


Today, host Scott Detrow steps in for Mary Louise Kelly. He speaks

with NPR International Correspondent Aya Batrawy and NPR Pentagon Correspondent

Tom Bowman about whether these diplomatic efforts can finally break the impasse

between the two countries, and why a nuclear deal with Iran feels like déjà vu.

 
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The attack at a mosque in San Diego underscores larger problems: the rise of far right extremism and the rise of Islamophobia. But a new White House document on rising threats make no mention of right-wing extremist groups.


Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre and NPR Domestic Extremism Correspondent Odette Yousef about what radicalized the two teens involved in the San Diego attack. They also look into the latest version of the United States Counterterrorism Strategy, which does not list far-right extremism as a threat to Americans. Plus, an update on Iran and Cuba.


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President Trump visits Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time since 2017. What’s changed? And what does each man want from this meeting?


Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez and NPR China Correspondent Jennifer Pak about Trump's big summit with Chinese leaders in Beijing and how the U.S.-China relationship has evolved since their last meeting. 

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Laser weapons, advanced drone warfare, and nation states around the globe redefined by climate change: this is the world in 2084, envisioned by authors Jim Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman.

Both are veterans -- Ackerman, a former Marine, did five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan; Stavridis is a retired four-star admiral and a former supreme allied commander of NATO. Their novel 2084 is the third in a trilogy. They compare their work to cold war fiction like Dr. Strangelove -- stories that imagined disasters specifically so society would work to avoid them. In this episode, they unpack what dangers they see on the distant horizon. 

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We unpack a week of whiplash in the Iran war, with the President quickly calling off an effort to take control of the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress on talks. But a blockade remains. 

Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and Moscow correspondent Charles Maynes discuss the shifting messages and what's happening diplomatically behind the scenes. Plus -- why ceasefires between Moscow and Kiev fell apart, and how modern warfare and prior assumptions have made it possible for countries like Iran and Ukraine to take on larger, more powerful adversaries in the U.S. and Russia. 

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