NPR News: 03-11-2026 12PM EDT

0:00Lie from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Members of the International Energy Agency are unanimously allowing 400 million barrels of oil reserves to be released in light of the acute disruption the U.S. Israel war against Iran and Iran's retaliatory strikes have caused to oil trade. The IEA's member nations have allowed such a release only five other times in the organization's history. In Lebanon, about 700,000 people have been displaced, and more than 500 people killed as Israel intensifies its airstrikes there, Iranian backed his bullet militants spark the new fighting when they shot missiles into Israel. The constant barrage of cross-border rocket fire has residents of northern Israel on edge and refusing to leave NPR's carry-con reports. In the city of Kiryat Shmona, the sound of Israeli military fire into Lebanon is constant.

1:00As are the multiple air raid sirens warning of incoming Hezbollah rockets, two Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the fighting, 71-year-old Ahuva Lipman says she evacuated along with the entire city during the Gaza war. This time she's not leaving. Residents want tax breaks to get people to stay and government incentives to get others to relocate to Israel's north. Kiryat Shmona, NPRPBS Newsmeyer's poll finds President Trump is suffering politically this midterm election year because of the U.S. involvement in the war. NPR's Dominican Montenar offers a closer look at how people feel about the military action. 56% say that they are against the military action, just 36% approve of Trump's handling of the Iran war, and 55% say that they see Iran as only a minor threat or no threat at all. And that mirrors Trump's low approval ratings that we found on other issues.

2:04NPR's Dominican Montenar reporting a new U.S. Congressional report finds that overpayments in private Medicare plans have raised the cost for all seniors in the system by billions of dollars. Here's NPR Selina Simmons-Duffin. The Joint Economic Committee in Congress estimates that overpayments to insurance companies that run Medicare Advantage has cost American seniors billions. Specifically, in 2025, seniors paid $13.4 billion in higher premiums for doctor's office visits and outpatient services. More than half of those enrolled in Medicare are in one of these private plans. Republicans in Congress were long champions of the model, but bipartisan criticism has been growing because Medicare Advantage actually costs the government about 20% more per person than traditional Medicare. Selina Simmons-Duffin and P.R. News, Washington. It's NPR. The new President takes over in Chile today, Jose Antonio Castles' election, marks the

3:07country's most notable shift to the right since dictatorship ended in 1990. The ultra-conservative leader won in a landslide after campaigning on the promise of tough action against crime and illegal immigration. He has signaled a closer alignment with President Trump while maintaining close ties with other countries, he says. China, a U.S. rival in Latin America, is Chile's top trading partner. On any given evening, Amtrak and Long Island Railroad passengers are greeted by dancers, practicing on a passageway above the tracks of Penn Station, Jeff London gives us an inside look at this ad hoc dance studio. The West End concourse is wide, well lit and free, so teams of enthusiastic amateurs meet there to practice K-pop covers, salsa, and hip-hop dances, which they then post to video, like Dream Griffin, who works for New York City.

4:13One frequent Amtrak passenger, Olivia Francis, was filming the activity recently and has a name for the passageway. Tiktok Hall is completely unofficial, but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the passageway as happy to host the dancers as long as they don't get in the way of commuters. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. It's NPR News.