NPR News: 03-16-2026 5PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. President Trump continues to press allies to join U.S. efforts to secure the state of Hormuz. That's the passage off the coast of Iran that helps transport oil throughout the world. But as NPR's Deep Ashiviram reports, so far, no other countries have publicly committed to helping. Trump says, quote, numerous countries have told him they're on the way to help the U.S. the state of Hormuz, but he didn't specify which countries, despite the president insisting that U.S. attacks on Iran have been successful so far, the street still poses a concern. Literally, a single terrorist can put something in the water or shoot something or shoot a missile, a small missile, and it's fairly close range because it is a tight area, which is one of the reasons they've always used that as a weapon. Iran's ability to threaten slow-moving oil tankers in the street has become a headache for the Trump administration. Twenty percent of the world's oil supply relies on the passage and prices have increased

1:05since the war began. Deep Ashiviram and NPR News, the White House. A line of powerful storms is moving across the eastern half of the U.S., potentially spawning tornadoes, and a major snow storm hit the upper Midwest over the weekend. NPR's Rebecca Hirscher 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 and 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 Hirscher and NPR News. An Afghan man who served alongside U.S. forces has died in ICE custody.

2:09Imperial School Lawrence reports he was in the U.S. legally with a pending asylum claim. Muhammad Nazir Paktiwal served alongside American Special Forces in Afghanistan, according to documents seen by NPR. He helped U.S. troops for over a decade. In 2021, Paktiwal fled Afghanistan with his family because the Taliban were threatened to kill Afghans who had collaborated with the U.S. Since then, Paktiwal had been living in Texas with his wife and six children. A family statement says last Friday, he was taking his kids to school when federal agents in unmarked cars surrounded Paktiwal and drove him away. He complained of breathing problems and was given medical attention according to a statement from ICE, but the next morning he was pronounced dead in a Dallas hospital. ICE says the cause of death is under investigation. Quill Lawrence and P.R. News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Today marks 100 years since the launch of the world's first modern rocket from a snowy field in Massachusetts. As Sam Turkin of Member Station G.B.H. reports, the launch set the stage for space exploration

3:14as we know it. Massachusetts scientists Robert Goddard figured out that in order to reach space, a rocket would need liquid fuel, like gasoline mixed with oxygen. Even though it was first liquid fueled rocket a century ago, only was a couple dozen feet, liquid fuel would go on to become the main propellant for rocket ships. Every lesson is a space scientist who formerly led NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The space they started a century ago with Robert Goddard, who would have even imagined we launched a rocket every 28 hours last year, we the world, and that's because of Robert Goddard. The rocket scientists work was so meaningful that when Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in his pocket was Goddard's autobiography. For NPR News, I'm Sam Turkin in Auburn, Massachusetts. Encyclopedia Britannica and its Merriam Webster subsidiary are suing open AI for allegedly misusing their reference materials to train its AI models. Britannica says open AI copied nearly 100,000 of its articles to train GPT-large language

4:18models and that chat GPT produces near verbatim copies of Britannica's encyclopedia entries dictionary definitions and other content. Britannica filed a similar lawsuit against AI startup perplexity AI that is still going on. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News in Washington. At this year's Oscars, one battle after another took home the award for best picture, Michael B. Jordan won for lead actor, and the telecast had plenty of jokes at Timothy Shalamet's expense. Listen to a recap on pop culture happy hour via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.