NPR News: 03-20-2026 4AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Israel has launched a new wave of attacks on Iran. The Israeli military says the strikes have been named at targets in the Iranian capital. And they come a day after President Trump said he told Israel not to repeat strikes on a Iranian gas infrastructure. I did. I told him, don't do that. And he's won't do that. We didn't discuss. You know, we do. We're independent. We get along great. It's coordinated, but on occasion, he'll do something. And if I don't like it. And so we're not doing that anymore. Trump speaking at the White House, serves day alongside the visiting Japanese Prime Minister. On social media, Trump said he was not informed in advance of Israel's attack on Iran's south-parse gasfield. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel acted alone. It for tats, strikes on energy facilities have led to sharply escalating prices. And as the Iran War escalates, a Trump administration plans to release 150 million barrels of oil

1:02from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. From Houston Public Media, Natalie Weber reports at experts say the release will have little effect on the cost at the palm. The nation's oil reserve is stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas. Ramanon, Krishna Morty is a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Houston. He says the reserve locations are also near several refineries and in close proximity to Texas oil fields. However, he says the oil release is unlikely to have a long-term effect on energy prices. It's a great bandaid, but you know, you start to run out of bandages pretty quickly. The strategic petroleum reserve currently holds enough oil to sustain U.S. consumption for about 20 days. For NPR News, I'm Natalie Weber in Houston. California Governor Gavin Newsom is supporting a plan to rename the state holiday name for Cesar Chavez as farm workers day. The move comes after news, sexual misconduct allegations against

2:08the late labor leader. It's the surface earlier this week as Frieda Chavila Romero reports from Member Station KQED. Maria Garcia is a member of the United Farm Workers, which Chavez and Labor icon Dolores Huerta co-founded in the 1960s. Garcia, like many other California farm workers, is still struggling to believe that a man who fought hard for basic rights could sexually abuse Huerta and underage girls decades ago. It's too much, she says. If it's true, why wasn't this spoken about before? Why until now? In a statement, the UFW called the allegations profoundly shocking. Other farm workers say they want this moment of reckoning to help prevent similar crimes in the future. For NPR News, I'm Farida Javila Romero in Oakland, California. This is NPR, a senior vice president of super micro computer and two others affiliated with the company, have been charged with conspiring to smuggle at least two and a half billion dollars

3:11of computer servers with advanced and video chips to China. The indictment was unsealed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday. The U.S. has had export restrictions on China for advanced AI chips since 2022. The Justice Department says two of them and have been arrested a third remains a fugitive. A private investigator has been trying to convince the UK not to send him to the U.S. to face charges of orchestrating a hacking campaign against climate activists. NPR's Michael Copley reports a court in London has denied the appeal. The private investigator is an Israeli named Amit Forlet. He was arrested in London in 2024. Federal charges against Forlet include conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He's denied ever ordering or paying for hacking. A lawyer representing U.S. authorities in London confirmed Forlet's request to appeal extradition was denied. U.S. prosecutors alleged the hacking operation was commissioned by a former lobbyist for ExxonMobil, with the goal of discrediting climate activists and fighting lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry. ExxonMobil has said it's never been

4:15involved in or aware of any hacking activities. Michael Copley and NPR News. A federal panel made up of members appointed by President Trump has greenlit a commemorative coin featuring his image. The coin won an anonymous approval Thursday for the Commission of Fine Arts. It's a 24-air gold coin and is to be part of a series of coins the U.S. Mint is planning to produce to mark the 250th birthday. 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.