NPR News: 03-12-2026 12AM EDT

0:00Who should win the Oscar for the best original song this year? On the latest all songs considered from NPR music, we rank the nominees. I think Diane Warren should have won two Academy Awards. The problem is very often the lyrics are not much more insightful than you would find on the nearest throw pillow. Here's the NPR music podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder, an investigation by the U.S. military. Now suggests a deadly bombing last week of an Iranian girl school was caused by an American Tomahawk missile about 175 students and staff were killed in the strike. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports. A U.S. government official not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to NPR that the Pentagon's investigation into the missile strike is looking at how this targeting error occurred, not whether the U.S. was responsible. President Trump suggested this week that Iran fired the missile, but the U.S. is the only country in the conflict that has Tomahawks.

1:00NPR previously reported that the girl's school may have been shown on outdated U.S. intelligence maps as a military building. If confirmed, it would rank among the worst incidents of U.S. inflicted civilian casualties in decades. A special Pentagon office to prevent accidental targeting of civilians created by Congress was scaled back to a skeleton crew by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth soon after he took office last year. Quill Lawrence and P.R. News. The Trump administration is planning to release 172 million barrels of oil, format strategic petroleum reserve, part of a wider release of a record 400 million barrels quoted by the Paris International Interest-Paris-based International Energy Agency because of the Iran War, and P.R. Zellender-Piratsley reports. IEA General Director Fatibir Roles said the current conflict is having significant impact on global oil and gas markets, and the global economy bureau said that global energy supplies

2:02have decreased by 20% forcing the IEA to act. To launch the largest ever release of emergency oil stocks in our agency's history. Emergency stocks have only been released five times before, during the First Gulf War, Hurricane Katrina, the Libyan Civil War, and twice since Russia invaded Ukraine. B. Roles said a return to stability would only come with the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, Eleanor Beardsley and P.R. News. Paris. The Homeland Security Department says it's restarting the Global Entry Program. Imperial Stroll Rose reports the program had been suspended during the ongoing partial government shutdown. Global Entry allows pre-approved low-risk travelers to get expedited processing when they enter the U.S. Travelers have to pay a fee and undergo special bedding to qualify. The Department of Homeland Security suspended the program more than two weeks ago, but it is now backtracking amid criticism from the aviation and travel industries. In a statement, DHS says it's restoring the Global Entry option while evaluating the impact

3:04of the ongoing partial shutdown, which it blames on Democrats. Funding for DHS lapsed more than three weeks ago, Democrats have refused to approve the Department's budget, unless Republicans and the White House agree on changes to how immigration officers operate. DHS says this is NPR. China has set to pass a new ethnic unity law next week. The law would make any action undermining ethnic unity in China open to prosecution. An NPR similarly fang reports it's part of a decade-long effort to strengthen the ruling Communist Party's grip on Chinese identity. Officially, China has 55 ethnic minorities, some tens of millions of people large, though in recent years the teaching of languages like Tibetan, Mongolian, and Uyghur have been severely diminished in public schools, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities in Muslims and Western China have been detained since 2017 in a push that China describes as reducing ethnic tension. This proposed ethnic unity law requires the promotion of the culture of China's ethnic majority, the Han,

4:09which Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called the, quote, backbone of the country. And it calls on public institutions ranging from schools to the military to create what the law calls a, quote, shared spiritual home in a sense of community for the Chinese nation. Emily Fang and Pierre News. Trump administration is moving to try to replace a tariff struck down by the Supreme Court. The administration is kicking off a new process, starting unfair trade practice investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to try to charge new import taxes. U.S. Trade Representative James and Greer told reporters Wednesday the process could lead to new tariffs imposed by the summer. Oil prices rising again, jumping above $100 a barrel before falling back a bit as stock markets in Asia slide in Thursday trading. I'm Giles Snyder, MPR News.