NPR News: 03-05-2026 5PM EST

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump has fired Homeland Security Secretary Christine Nome in the first major cabinet shake-up of his second term. Trump says he's planning to replace her with Senator Mark Wayne Mullins. The Oklahoma Republicans spoke to reporters outside of the Capitol shortly after the announcement was made today. I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at a, not a complete surprise, but it came at a little bit of surprise force. And so, the president, as you guys know, we're great friends and we get along great. I look forward to working with him in his cabinet. Of course, we still got to do this little thing called confirmation. Nome is face-growing criticism after contentious congressional hearings over immigration enforcement and department leadership. House Democratic leader Hakim Jeffrey says removing Nome is a step toward fixing what he calls a broken department. They had a corrupt political hack who was running DHS, shame on every Republican senator

1:00who put her in that position when they knew she was unqualified. Senator Mullins will take over as Homeland Security Secretary on March 31st. He'll need Senate confirmation to serve in the role permanently. Nome is expected to move into a newly created administration role focused on a security initiative called Shield of the Americas. And then Trump says he wants to play a direct role in choosing the next leader of Iran. Similar to the approach he took with Venezuela, NPR's Danielle Curd-Sleibin reports. One potential successor to the former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hamanei is his son, Mostabah Hamanei. But Trump firmly opposes that choice, telling Axios, quote, they are wasting their time. Hamanei's son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment like with Delcy in Venezuela. Delcy Rodriguez, who served as Venezuela's vice president before the U.S. deposed president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez is now Venezuela's acting president. Earlier this week, Trump told reporters most of the candidates he and his team wanted

2:03to succeed Iran's Supreme Leader had already been killed in the conflict. Danielle Curd-Sleibin NPR news, the White House, the U.S. war with Iran continues to rattle global energy markets. NPR's Godworsley reports that's leading to higher prices at the gas pump. Kathleen Price has jumped by another Nicola Gallon overnight, pushing the national average to $3.25 a gallon. Triple A says gas prices have jumped by about $0.25 over the last three days, and are now about $0.15 higher than this time last year. Crude oil prices are also climbing, as the U.S. war with Iran disrupts tanker traffic in the Middle East. A specialized trade court has ordered the Trump administration to refund tens of billions of dollars worth of tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled were collected illegally. The process for repaying that money still has to be worked out. But so far courts have slapped down the administration's effort to slow-walk the process. It's Godworsley and Pairnews, Washington. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The Department of Health and Human Services says 53 medical schools across the country

3:05have agreed to require students to complete 40 hours of nutrition education. The initiative is aimed at fighting chronic disease, which affects roughly 60 percent of people in the United States. Currently, the National Academy of Sciences recommends medical schools provide at least 25 hours of nutrition training. A new study suggests that certain drugs for diabetes and weight loss can lower the risk of addiction. NPR's John Hamilton has more on research in the medical journal, the BMJ. The study looked at data on more than 600,000 people with type 2 diabetes, all were in the VA health system. Dr. Ziad Ali of Washington University in St. Louis says those treated with GLP1 drugs like ozampic were less likely to be diagnosed with substance use disorder. They had less risk across several addictive substances, including opioids, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, and other substances.

4:06For most of these substances, the risk was about 15 to 20 percent lower. The study also found that people with a history of addiction were less likely to overdose or require emergency treatment. Ali says the results are promising, but need to be confirmed in controlled trials. John Hamilton and NPR News Stocks on Wall Street closed sharply lower today. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 784 points at 47954, the Nasdaq down 58 points. Simon Wieser-Johnston NPR News in Washington