NPR News: 03-20-2026 6PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. Three weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, more American Marines are on their way to the Middle East, and PR's quill Lawrence reports more than 2,000 Marines are being deployed. The USS Boxer Group of three ships carrying thousands of Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit has left California and will take about three weeks to reach the Gulf, according to two U.S. officials who are not authorized to speak publicly. In addition to the USS Tripoli Group, with more than 2,000 Marines, expected to arrive soon from Japan. Sent comm would not comment on the deployment or its mission, but Marines are traditionally ground troops. Quill Lawrence and PR News. Stock markets dropped again amid fears that the war in Iran is escalating. The Dow tumbled another 443 points or 1 percent, as NPR's Raphael Nam reports investors are bracing for a longer conflict than they had anticipated. In the U.S. and Israel started attacking Iran at the end of last month, investors crossed their fingers and hoped the war would end quickly.

1:03But three weeks later, investors are starting to get deeply concerned, as the war rages on. The straight of her moves remains virtually shut, which means that critical supplies of energy and other vital shipments like fertilizer are not getting through. That's raising big concerns about inflation, and that the global economy is going to be hit by an energy crisis. All three major indexes dropped, and have now fallen for four consecutive weeks. Raphael Nam and PR News. The Justice Department is filing a new lawsuit against Harvard University, saying its leadership failed to address anti-Semitism on campus, creating grounds for the government, to freeze existing grants and seek repayment for grants already paid. At a federal judge in Oregon ruled against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday, in the case about gender-affirming care for youth, as NPR Selina Simmons-Duffin reports, at issue is a declaration Kennedy signed in December. The declaration stated that treatments for transgender youth, like hormones, puberty

2:03blockers, and rarely surgery, are unsafe and ineffective and fail to meet, quote, standards of health care. That contradicts the position of major medical groups. A group of Democratic state attorneys general sued, arguing that Kennedy can't unilaterally change medical standards. On Thursday, a federal judge in Oregon ruled against Kennedy. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to NPR's query. Kennedy also proposed that all Medicare and Medicaid funding could be withheld from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to youth. Many hospitals have already shuttered their programs. Selina Simmons-Duffin and P.R. News. Long wait times continue at some airports as the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security continues to affect TSA agents who are required to work without pay. Officers are taking time off, and officials say hundreds more have quit their jobs altogether. You are listening to NPR News from Washington. The White House wants Congress to preempt state laws governing AI that it sees as too

3:06burdensome. It comes as state governments have forged ahead on their own regulations. Several civil liberties and consumer rights groups have lobbied for more regulations on AI, but the industry and the Trump administration says the patchwork of rules hurts growth. A commission stacked with Trump allies has approved the design of a gold coin featuring President Trump as NPR's Tamara Keith reports, living presidents aren't supposed to appear on coins, a principal dating back to the nation's founding, which threw off vestiges of monarchy. On the front of the coin, Trump stands with his fists on a desk and a serious look on his face. Members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved it, urging the gold coin be made as large as possible. Donald Scarenci is a member of a separate federal panel which is supposed to review coins, but is being bypassed. This is more than a coin. This is a message to the world and a message to America that Donald Trump is a king or dictator.

4:07The U.S. treasurer said that for America's 250th birthday, there is no profile more emblematic to feature on coins than the current president, Tamara Keith and PR News. A real, live, fluffy possum was found among stuffed animals in an Australian airport gift shop, a browsing passenger first spotted the marsupial peering out from among the kangaroos on the display shelf. The airport says it's still a mystery how the possum got into the store and how long it's spent in there. You're listening to NPR News.