NPR News: 06-20-2026 8AM EDT

Windsor Johnston· Host0:00

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump is praising what he calls early signs of success from a new tentative agreement with Iran. Speaking at Joint Base Andrews last night, Trump pointed to increased shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil trade.

Donald Trump· Soundbite0:20

Those ships are flowing out of the Hormuz Strait like nobody's ever seen before, actually. There were a lot of them, about seven hundred of them, and they're pouring out. The oil is all over the place.

Windsor Johnston· Host0:31

The agreement signed this week reopened the strait and gives Washington and Tehran a sixty-day window for further negotiations. But those talks are on hold as diplomats try to preserve a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The two sides agreed to a pause in heavy fighting in southern Lebanon, but there have been reports of continued violence overnight. NPR's Jackie Northam reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the two sides will meet for a fifth round of talks in Washington, D.C. next week.

Jackie Northam1:03

Secretary Rubio held a phone call with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, during which he reiterated the need to disarm the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah and reestablish control over all Lebanese territory. That's according to a State Department readout of the conversation. Hezbollah has in the past rejected any peace deal between Israel and the government of Lebanon. Rubio also stressed that bilateral negotiations between