NPR News: 03-17-2026 3PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, Amlaakshmi, saying, Iran has yet to formally respond to the assassinations of two of its highest-level officials since Ayatollah Al-Khamenei was killed at the start of the war. Earlier, Israel said it launched targeted strikes, overnight and killed Iran's security, and paramilitary chiefs. And PR's Kerry Khan has more. Israel's Defense Minister made the announcement saying both men were killed overnight, and Israelis instructed the military to continue, quote, hunting the leadership. Israel's military confirmed it had killed Golamresa Soleimani, the leader of the besiege, paramilitary forces, responsible for violently suppressing street protests against the Iranian government earlier this year. And that an Israeli air strike killed Ali Lavranjani, who it says had been in charge of directing Iran's military effort since Israel killed the supreme leader in the beginning of the war. The UAE Defense Ministry says it has, quote, engaged 10 ballistic missiles and 45 drones

1:03just in the early Tuesday hours. Kerry Khan and PR News tell Aviv. Files released earlier this year's show that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein often used offers of funding and philanthropy to draw people into his orbit. He was especially interested in funding science. Your sin PR's Katie Rittle. Epstein donated millions over a period of years to universities and researchers. While some institutions have updated their policies since then, there's no universal system of regulation for this kind of philanthropy. Rob Reesh, a professor at Stanford University, studies the impact of philanthropy. There should be public transparency about the person or the foundation, the amount, and what the donor restrictions or intent were. So that conflicts of interest can be assessed by the relevant public audiences. He suggests philanthropy funds at least 10 to 20 percent of science research at U.S. universities. Katie Rittle and PR News. Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondy's being subpoenaed by House Oversight Panel about

2:06the DOJ's investigations into Epstein and associates. Senate Majority Leader John Thun says White House is willing to make major concessions to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. He says they include hiking funding for a body camera as immigration agents wear from 20 million or 100 million as well as audits for non-compliance. Congressional Democrats have been pushing for sweeping immigration changes. The impasse over DHS funding continues to affect security screening and wait times at airports, airline executives including Delta's Ed Bastion, Employer Congress to end the partial shutdown and get TSA agents paid again. It's inexcusable that our security agents are frontline agents that are central to what we do are not being paid. And it's ridiculous to see them being used as political shifts. So we're our age. Bastion speaking on CNBC, you're listening to NPR News. A heat wave will continue to intensify and expand across the West and Southwest as the

3:08week progresses. The National Weather Service projecting new record high temperatures daily and possibly monthly. Forecasters are also warning of elevated to critical fire weather conditions today across the high plains and southern plains. A new poll by the National Alliance for Mental Illness or Nomi finds that one in four employees has considered quitting their job due to mental health impacts of work. NPR's retouchattergy has details. Three out of four respondents think mental health is an appropriate topic for the workplace and yet nearly half are worried about being judged for sharing their mental health problems. Meg Delp is Director of Workplace Mental Health at Nomi. Most people in our study this year so that they are more comfortable talking about their ethnicity, their gender identity, sexual orientation, physical health, religion, spirituality than talking about their mental health.

4:09Please think managers play a key role, but Delp says less than 30% of managers have been trained to support mental health conversations. We know that workplaces can be a really vital place to impact mental health in a way that supports individuals, families, the organization itself, but that ripples out to communities. Retouchattergy and PR News. US stocks are trading higher this hour. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 91 points. You're listening to NPR News.