NPR News: 07-16-2026 6AM EDT

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of confirmation testimony, and the session included a revealing slip of the tongue. Under questioning from Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, Blanche said, “President Trump for him. I'm his lawyer. Was his lawyer, and now I'm the deputy attorney general.” He quickly corrected himself, adding that he is not a yes man and that his time defending Trump should not define his long career. The exchange came as senators from both parties pressed Blanche on his independence from the president he once represented.

Iran has released Dana Carrari, a 53-year-old American woman who had been blocked from leaving the country for the past year and a half. Carrari runs a nonprofit that helps poor children in Iran. When she traveled there to see family in December 2024, she was subjected to roughly two dozen interrogations, accused of collaboration with a hostile state and espionage, but never formally charged. Her lawyer, Jared Genser, says a court-ordered exit ban expired in April, but she remained unable to leave until the Trump administration pushed for her release. Genser credited President Trump directly for making it happen.