NPR News: 03-07-2026 3AM EST

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. The State Department says it's been in touch with more than 13,000 Americans in the Middle East to provide help or advice on getting home. U.S. funded evacuation flights have begun, but most Americans are leaving on commercial flights, as NPR's Michelle Kellerman tells us. The Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, Dylan Johnson, says several flights have safely returned hundreds of Americans to the United States. He says there will be additional flights in the coming days as security conditions allow. Johnson posted one picture on social media of Americans boarding a Patriots plane, but a State Department official noted that the U.S. government, not the football team, covered the cost of that flight. Another official says that about 30 to 40 percent of the Americans who are offered seats on chartered flights have declined, taking their own commercial options or changing their plans. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. Fighting continues in Iran, where the U.S. says the most intense bombing of the week-long

1:01campaign is about to start. The Israeli military announced new strikes on Tehran early Saturday local time. Now a new NPR-PBS News Marist poll is shutting some light on what Americans think about the war, and in particular, President Trump's approval rating, as NPR's Domenico Montanero tells us. It's 36 percent approval rating when it comes to this war. That mirrors Trump's overall approval rating on foreign policy from our last poll last month. It's also worse than when we asked about his handling of Iran after the killing of the KIDS force leader, Kassam Soleimani, back in January 2020, then about 42 percent approved, not great, but still higher. We also see, again, some of the same divides, Democrats and Independents heavily disapproving, well, eight and ten Republicans in Trump's corner. NPR's Domenico Montanero with that report. A large storm system expected to stretch through the weekend, produced tornadoes across the Central U.S. Friday and reached his far northest Michigan. As Anna Spital of Member Station WMUK reports, the storms caused severe damage throughout

2:05Southern Michigan, killing at least four people and injuring twelve others, after suspected tornadoes touched down. On Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued severe storm and tornado warnings throughout Southern Michigan. The storms continued to move east later in the afternoon, with local government officials reporting severe damage to structures and trees. Later in the evening and into the night, the NWS continued to issue severe storm and tornado warnings in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. It's part of a storm system across the Central U.S. that's expected to produce severe weather and possible tornadoes throughout the weekend. For NPR News, I'm Anna Spital in Kalamazoo. Stocks finished down once again on Friday, the NASDAQ closed down by more than one and a half percent. The Dow was down by almost one percent and the S&P 500 down 1.33 percent. You're listening to NPR News. U.S. employers unexpectedly cut 92,000 jobs last month.

3:06That's according to figures from the Labor Department. Economists had been expecting a 60,000 increase. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4%. The surprisingly weak unemployment number is adds to the economic uncertainty over the war with Iran, which has caused oil prices to surge. Netflix says it's acquired Ben Affleck's AI-powered filmmaking tool company. As NPR's Chloe Veltman reports, this comes just over a week since the streamer pulled out of its deal to acquire Warner Brothers. In a video accompanying, Netflix's announcement, Ben Affleck says his company, Interpositive's technology, does not enable filmmakers to build scenes from scratch using prompts. It allows them to build their own AI models based on the scenes they've already shot. You can use your own model to remove the wires and stunts, reframe a shot, get a shot you missed, sheep the lading and hands the backgrounds. In an email to NPR, IATC, the main union supporting Hollywood's technical workers, said it does not comment on mergers and acquisitions.

4:07This is just the latest agreement the Oscar-winning filmmaker has struck with Netflix. Earlier this week, Affleck and Matt Damon's production company, Artists Equity, signed a major partnership with the streamer, Chloe Veltman, MP on News. Dr. Vinay Prasad is leaving the Food and Drug Administration. Prasad was the agency's top vaccine regulator. His tenure was criticized for his approach to vaccines, as well as his rejection of treatments for rare disorders, the FDA says he'll be leaving by the end of April. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.