NPR News: 03-17-2026 8PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Iranian state TV confirms that Israel killed two of its top officials overnight. Ali Larajani was the head of the country's Supreme National Security Council and acted as the country's de facto leader. It was also a close confidant of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Kamehni. And Pierre Zemeli-Fang has more on what his death means for the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. There appears that, in his absence, his replacement might be even more hardline than Larajani. Larajani was seen as very, very pragmatic, someone who could work with outside powers while still being very, very loyal to the Supreme Leader to the office of the Ayatollah. And Pierre Zemeli-Fang, Israel also killed Brigadier General Salmene, the head of the powerful militia that's aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. President Trump is pushing back against claims by Director of National Counterterrorism Joe Kant about his motivation to attack Iran.

1:03Kant quit today, saying he can't in good conscience back a war that he believes is Israel's doing. Trump says Iran is a tremendous threat. As head of the center, Kant, a former Green Veray and political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats. It was a Trump supporter because Trump said he opposed wars in the Middle East. To keep foreign bad actors like terrorists and drug traffickers out of the country, the federal government often imposes financial sanctions. Anyone on the sanctions list is barred from doing business here. But as M. Pierre's Robert Benakassah reports, the Treasury Department's sanctioned programs have taken a new direction under President Trump. The Treasury Department under Trump has sanctioned people after they've criticized the President or his political allies. For example, shortly after Trump took office, he sanctioned judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court after the court issued a rest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister

2:04Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes allegations. Secretary of State Mark Arubio has called the International Court's actions politicized. But critics of the administration's use of sanctions make the same claim. David Pressman, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, says sanctions should reinforce the country's strategic interests and not, quote, advanced personal vendettas. Robert Benakassah, NPR News, Washington. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, is asking Florida officials to explain how they root out health care fraud, saying the state's long been a hotspot for that kind of fraud. This a day after President Trump signed an executive order creating an anti-fraud task force for federal benefit programs. The Court is at least the fifth state Oz has targeted, but is the first Republican-led one to get questions from Oz. U.S. futures contracts are trading lower at this hour. You're listening to NPR News. The Vatican Appeals Court declared a mistrial today in the conviction of a cardinal and

3:06several other people for financial crimes. The Appeals Court ruled the late Pope Francis and prosecutors made procedural errors nullifying the original indictment. The Court said a new trial date in June. The case is about the Vatican's $413 million investment in London property. Prosecutors alleged brokers and mon seniors fleeced the Holy See of millions of dollars in fees and commissions to acquire that property and then extorted the church to relinquish control of it. A new study of diet and disease finds the more ultra-processed food a person eats, the higher the risk of developing heart disease. Appears Alice and Aubrey has more. The study included more than 6,000 adults aged 45 to mid-80s and found that with every additional serving of ultra-processed foods, people reported as part of their typical diet, the higher the odds of a heart attack or stroke, Dr. Amir Hyder of UT Southwestern authored the study. If you're in the top 20% of those who consume the most ultra-processed foods, which was

4:09about nine servings per day, you had a 67% higher risk. The study looked at several ethnic groups, including Asian, Black, and Hispanic participants. Hyder says prior research shows junk foods have been more heavily marketed toward minority populations, which is one factor that may help explain the more pronounced relationship with Black Americans. Alice and Aubrey, NPR News. And I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a Prime Membership, or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.