NPR News: 03-21-2026 6PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Iran State News Agency says Israel and the U.S. struck a uranium enrichment facility in Central Iran. Israel's military says it's not aware of any such strikes. Zimpyar's Emily Fang reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that Israeli strikes had insured Iran no longer has the ability to enrich uranium. On Friday, Netanyahu said this, Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles. Iran State News Agency said joint U.S. and Israeli strikes begin hitting the Netans uranium enrichment facility the next day early Saturday morning. Israel's military denied such strikes telling NPR an statement it was not aware of them. The Netans facility was already struck by Israel on March 2nd. The United Nations nuclear watchdog said it had detected no increase in off-site radiation levels today after Iran's report of a second strike. Emily Fang and Pyrrnews Van Turkey

1:02Former FBI director and special counsel in the Trump-Russia election interference probe Robert Mueller has died. He was 81 years old. His family says he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2021. Mueller led the FBI for 12 years starting right before the 9-11 attacks. His investigation into the relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia produced mixed results, uncovering secret high-level contacts between the campaign and the Kremlin, despite denials from both sides. But Mueller didn't establish the Trump campaign conspired with Russia and decided not to recommend charging Trump with obstruction. Here's Mueller in an AP archived tape from Capitol Hill testimony in 2019. Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. That was our decision, then, and remains our decision today. Trump posted on social media quote, good, I'm glad he's dead.

2:03Now he can no longer hurt innocent people. Partial government shutdown continues after five weeks, meaning longer lines at airports in Pyrrnews, Matt Blum has more. Major airports issued fresh warnings ahead of the weekend to expect more long lines. Atlanta's airport urged travelers to arrive at least three hours early. At Hollywood Burbank Airport, Emily Alexis brought canned goods to contribute to a food drive for TSA agents who've worked without pay for several weeks. I want to like to feel bad for them, but you know, they have families and everything and I just don't like what's going on. In New Orleans, mass agent callouts this month led to huge lines that stretched into the airport's parking garage. Officers on social media said that staffing remains a fluid situation and wait times may fluctuate from 15 minutes to up to two hours. Matt Blum and Pyrrnews. You're listening to NPR News. Asurian San Francisco found Elon Musk liable for defrauding investors by deliberately driving

3:08down Twitter's stock price in the tumultuous months leading up to his 2022 acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion, but it absolved him of some fraud allegations finding that Musk didn't scheme to mislead investors. The civil trial centered on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X. People who are a self-employed and make too much money for federal help with health insurance premiums are facing some tough choices. In Pyrrcellina Simmons-Duffin reports, premium costs for affordable care act plans have doubled this year. Ken Warner and Parvine Vora are in their mid-50s and live in Manchester, Connecticut. They're self-employed and use the ACA for health coverage. Last year, they had to drain one of their two small retirement accounts. The pay for the hip surgery and the eye surgery and the roof went... We needed a new roof and a new boiler at the same year as the surgery.

4:09Now they're wondering how they can pay for surgery on Vora's other eye and warners other hip and eyeing the retirement account that's left. And this is supposed to be meant for our 60s or 70s or 80s. They say they feel stuck in a broken system, with health care premiums and out-of-pocket costs only getting more expensive each year. Angelina Simmons-Duffin and Pyrr News.