NPR News: 03-16-2026 2PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. More than two weeks into the U.S. Israel war against Iran, Iran reports at least 1,300 deaths, Lebanon where Iran, back to its benefiters, are engaged in conflict with Israel, says at least 880 people have been killed on its soil, Israel is reporting 12 deaths. And the United States says at least 13 American service members have been killed, including 6 and a plane crash in Iraq last week. President Trump is pressuring other nations to send warships to help keep open the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. The level of enthusiasm matters to me. We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers, great soldiers protecting them from harm's way. And we have done a great job. And when we want to know, do you have any minesweepers? Well, would rather not get involved through, I said for you mean, for 40 years we're protecting

1:05you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor. Trump declined to name the country skeptical of committing warships. The United Kingdom's Prime Minister rebuffed Trump's demands on sending warships. We have more than that from NPR's Lorne Freire. UK Prime Minister Kierstarmer says he's working with allies on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He told reporters it will not be a NATO mission and says the UK will not be drawn into the wider world. Starmer has given the US only limited access to British military bases for what he calls defensive operations only. Trump has reacted with personal insults against Starmer. But at every stage, I've stood by my principles. Britain's opposed the war and Starmer, a human rights lawyer by training, said his relations with Trump are still good. He told reporters the UK is evacuating Britain's from the Gulf, supporting them in Lebanon and introducing price caps for heating bills inside the UK. Lorne Freire and PR News London. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer

2:09according to an announcement from President Trump today. And PRC Peshawaram reports Trump's Wiles and Tensis stay on in her role while undergoing treatment. Trump posted the news on social media and called Wiles' prognosis excellent and said she'll be spending, quote, virtually full time at the White House during her treatment. At an event with the board of the Kennedy Center, Trump said Wiles already started her treatment and called her a fighter. She's going to take care of it immediately, as opposed to waiting. She said, let's do it now. I said, do it immediately, because that particular ailment, the faster the better. Wiles has been serving as Chief of Staff since the beginning of Trump's second term, and she's the first woman to hold the position. Peshawaram and PR News, the White House. The Dow is up 359 points. You're listening to NPR News. A line of powerful storms is moving across the eastern half of the US, a major snowstorm hit the Upper Midwest over the weekend, string of thunderstorms threatened a broad swath

3:12of the East Coast today, potentially spawning tornadoes, and PR's Rebecca Hirsch reports the severe weather is drawing attention to the federal government's hobbled emergency agency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is supposed to help respond to weather disasters, including assisting with search and rescue operations and debris removal. But the agency is struggling to get disaster assistance money out the door, with millions of dollars in promised disaster funding delayed. That includes large grants that local governments rely on to pay emergency officials and local first responders. And FEMA has lost thousands of workers since the Trump administration began, including nearly 500 in January alone. FEMA did not respond to questions about its readiness to respond to the latest storms. Rebecca Hirsch and PR News. Two members of the Iranian women's soccer team are staying behind in Australia where a top government official says they've been relocated to an undisclosed safe location. Five other players and a support staff member had dropped their bid for asylum.

4:15As of Monday night, we're flying to Oman and possibly back to Iran. Concerns have been raised about the women's safety back in Iran. US stocks are trading higher this hour with the Dow Jones industrial average up 353 points or roughly three quarters of a percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasak are both up more than one percent. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News. With March Madness getting underway, coaches are pushing their players to the limits. But an investigation finds that in some instances, tough coaching can go too far. She would call us idiots, stupid, worthless, low off the low. On the Sunday story, coaches accused of emotional abuse and the players who pushed back. The Sunday story from the first podcast listed now on the NPR app.