NPR News: 03-02-2026 5PM EST

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skivone. The U.S. military death toll from the fighting in Iran now stands at six, and the Iranian Red Crescent reports more than 500 people have died in the region, as blasts in the surrounding area continue into a third day. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told reporters on Capitol Hill the military engagement initiated Saturday by the U.S. and Israel over Iran is far from over. I'm not going to give away the details of our tactical efforts, but the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military. The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now. Someone will scream me, how long will it take? I don't know how long it will take. We have objectives. We will do this as long as it takes to achieve those objectives, and we will achieve those objectives. The world will be a safer place when we're done with this operation. Will the operation include ground forces? Rubio says President Trump has ruled nothing out, and a military operation meant to obliterate Iran's complete ballistic missile capabilities, their attack drones, and their navy.

1:03President Trump has forecast the fighting will last four to five weeks. His latest remarks coming during a medal of honor ceremony at the White House. NPR's Deepa Shiveram tells us the President wants Americans to know why the assault was launched. Trump says there were, quote, grave threats posed to America in the Iranian regime. He says the U.S. warned Iran not to rebuild their nuclear capabilities and that Iran didn't listen to those warnings. Trump also says that Iran would have soon had missiles that were capable of hitting the U.S. An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people, our country itself. Trump claims the strike on Iran was the administration's, quote, last best chance at keeping Iran's nuclear capabilities in check and preventing Iran from investing in terror groups. Deepa Shiveram and PR News. More than half a billion dollars in bets were placed on the site Polymarket tied to the

2:05U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, and some are drawing scrutiny for potential insider trading, and PR's Bobby Allen reports. One account under the name MAGA MY MAN made more than $500,000 in profits by placing bets on the prediction market site Polymarket that Iran's supreme leader would be toppled this weekend. Polymarket bets are made anonymously with cryptocurrency, so the identity and location of the trades can be hard to track down. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote on X, quote, it's insane this is legal, promising to introduce legislation to outlaw such betting. It's the latest instance of a trader seemingly with access to military secrets, making money off confidential information. Under federal law, prediction markets on war and assassinations are illegal, but Polymarket operates an overseas platform outside the reach of regulators in Washington, Bobby Allen and PR News. After some spikes on Wall Street markets closed the day relatively unchanged, this is NPR. Several international airlines are resuming a small number of domestic flights from the

3:06United Arab Emirates to get tens of thousands of travelers on their way home. Dubai officials are telling passengers to go to the airport only if contacted for flights. Foreign governments are urging citizens to shelter in place as evacuation plans are sorted. Drumbeats and chats rang out in Houston this weekend as hundreds of demonstrators celebrated the death of Iran's supreme leader, but as Houston public media's Kyle McClennigan tells us reactions are mixed. Along both sides of a busy street in uptown Houston, participants waved Iranian lion and sun flags alongside American and Israeli flags. Rosha Keani said she had fled Iran with her family as a child following the revolution. I've never been able to go there and see where my parents were born, where I was born, where my grandparents were because of the Islamic regime. And I'm hoping one day I will be able to go back to free Iran. While many of the demonstrators supported military intervention in Iran, local news outlets reported that other Iranian Americans held anti-war demonstrations along the same Houston

4:09road the day before. For NPR News, I'm Kyle McClennigan in Houston. He marched for civil rights alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. ran for president and continued on as leader of his self-styled rainbow coalition. Now the Reverend Jesse Jackson returns to his once-segregated home state of South Carolina for a final public farewell, he'll lie in state today at the Capitol in Columbia. Jackson died last month in Chicago at 84. I'm Louise Kivoni and PR News. Listen to this podcast sponsor free on Amazon Music with a Prime Membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.