NPR News: 03-11-2026 1AM EDT

Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. President Trump appears to be backing off his political demands as he claims the end of war in Iran is near. And Piers Franco Ordonia's reports that the White House says Trump will determine whether Iran has unconditionally surrendered. The White House has been clear about its four military objectives, but it's been less clear about the political ones. Trump has said he would settle for nothing short of unconditional surrender and that the U. S. needed to be part of the selection of an acceptable leader. When President Trump says uh that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, he's not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves. She says he meant that when Iran no longer poses a credible threat to the US, that's when he would determine the end of U. S. operations. In the meantime, Iran's choice of a new supreme leader is the late Ayotolla's son, who Trump has called unacceptable. Franco Ordonnez, NPR News. China says it's evacuated thousands of its citizens from the Middle East and Iran as U. S. and Israeli strikes continue. That the scale of the evacuations underlines the closer ties China's been building with countries in the region. Over ten thousand Chinese citizens were brought out of Gulf countries like Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, according to a Chinese ministry spokesperson. And more than 3,0