NPR News: 03-02-2026 9PM EST

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Kivone, as blasts in and around Iran, continuing to a third-day President Trump is saying combat operations targeting Iran could go on for four or five weeks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told reporters on Capitol Hill that 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, 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 in a military operation meant to obliterate Iran's complete ballistic missile capabilities, their attract drones, and their navy.

1:00The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh has been attacked by two Iranian drones resulting in a fire and minor damage to the building. That's according to the Saudi Ministry of Defense, the U.S. Embassy has issued a shelter and place alert for U.S. personnel in Saudi Arabia. U.S. Central Command has confirmed there have been six U.S. casualties in combat with Iran. PPR's Quill Lawrence reports hundreds of Iranians are believed to have been killed. Sent composted on social media that additional U.S. service members have been killed in action, and that the remains of two previously unaccounted four American troops were recovered from a facility hit during the first hours of the war. Earlier, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had confirmed that one of those wounded in an attack on a fortified operation center on a U.S. base in Kuwait had later died from those injuries. The Pentagon does not release the names of troops killed in action until 24 hours after next of kin are notified. Both Hegseth and President Trump have said they expect more U.S. casualties before the operation stops.

2:01Trump has been speaking to several media outlets, but given various answers about how long combat might continue. Quill Lawrence and PPR News. Law enforcement in Austin, Texas say they still have an identified motive for the shooting that left two dead, and more than a dozen injured at a popular bar on Sunday morning. Andrew Weber from Member Station KUT reports. Police fatally shot in Diaga Diagné after he allegedly fired indiscriminately into an Austin bar. Police said Diagné did have a shirt featuring pro-Iranian messaging, but FBI special agent and charge Alex Durand said investigators are still sifting through evidence. We want to make sure that we have our facts 100% correct, because that's what we owed to the victims, right? That's what you guys want answers for, but more importantly, we owe that to the victims in their families. Fourteen people were injured in the shooting. Two college students died. For MPR News, I'm Andrew Weber in Austin. This is MPR News in Washington. Montana Republican and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says he will retire and not seek

3:07re-election. MPR's Kirk Sigler reports Democrats had seen his seat as vulnerable going into this year's midterm elections. In a letter, Republican Zinke revealed he's undergone multiple surgeries since returning to Congress in 2023 and faces several more out to what Zinke said were long-term injuries from his career in the military. One scene is a moderate Montana state legislator, turned congressman Zinke later became a fierce loyalist to President Trump. He was Secretary of the Interior in the first Trump administration before resigning in 2018 amid ethics investigations. In Congress, Zinke was still known for crossing party lines. He was a vocal critic of Republican proposals to sell off federal public lands. This leaves Republicans scrambling to field a candidate in a race being targeted by Democrats who were trying to capitalize on voter anxieties about the economy and housing in an expensive state. Kirk Sigler in PPR News, Boise. Energy markets were royal today after Iran media reported the commander of Iran's revolutionary guards declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, and that any ship trying to pass should

4:10be set on fire. Oil prices are up more than 6 percent, and European natural gas futures are spiking more than 40 percent in the wake of the shutdown of a major supplier of ship-borne gas due to the fighting. Twenty percent of global oil supplies flow through the Strait of Hormuz, and the move threatens to significantly raise crude prices. That's part of Iran's retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader. I'm Louise Kivoni, Limpiore News. I'm Louise Kivoni, Limpiore News. All right, we're going to hear from you today. I'm Louise Kivoni and PPR News. Okay? I'm Louise Kivoni, Limpiore News. All right? That's part of Iran's retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader.