NPR News: 03-27-2026 7AM EDT

0:00Lime from NPR News in Washington, Ankara Vakulman, the Senate has voted to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, after a lapse of 42 days, the deal does not include any money for ICE. But it also does not include any reform to immigration enforcement tactics that Democrats had demanded. NPR Sam Greenglass reports. The DHS funding lapse has forced tens of thousands of employees to work without pay or quit and resulted in long waits at some airports amid peak spring break travel. With the house signs off on the deal today, money will flow again to FEMA, TSA, the Coast Garden, cybersecurity. The deal came after a week of erratic negotiations and President Trump moving to unilaterally pay TSA agents be an executive order. Democrats say they stood firm on no new funding for ICE and border patrol and will keep pressing for reforms like requiring judicial warrants for immigration officers to enter homes. But Republicans are now signaling the time to negotiate has passed. NPR News Washington.

1:00President Trump says he is again extending a deadline for Iran to open the state of Hormuz for shipping. This deadline is moved to Monday, April 6th. Both the Trump administration and Iranian officials have issued competing demands to end the conflict. Trump says talks are going well. Iran says there aren't any talks. And Piers A. Batroui says both sides are exchanging messages. We did get confirmation now that Egypt and Pakistan have both said they're involved in passing messages now. And that's because the traditional mediators, which have been all men in Qatar in the past, they came under attack after this war began. Some retaliation attacks from Iran. And so they're not involved in the talks at the moment. Although all men says they are playing a role at this moment, but the talks seem to be or not talks. Let's say the back channel efforts to get talks going are being conducted by Egypt and Pakistan. And Piers A. Batroui reporting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to France today. He'll meet with other foreign ministers from G7 countries over the weekend. They'll talk about the war in Iran and Rubio is expected to seek European support.

2:04But this week, President Trump slammed NATO for not helping the U.S. in the war effort. Mortgage rates have risen sharply since the war began. And Piers Steven Bissaha reports that is leading to fewer people in the U.S. buying and selling homes. This days before the war began, mortgage rates fell below 6% for the first time in two and a half years. But the war is disrupted the bond market, which raises the cost of borrowing. So do investor concerns about fuel prices and inflation. Mike Fred and Tony is the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist. He says this rise in mortgage rates comes just as the busy spring home buying season begins. This is a tough time to see a jump in rates like this because it likely is going to cause a number of people to at least take a step back and say, okay, is this the time to move forward or should I wait until things settle down? Mortgage rates now at their highest level in six months. Steven Bissaha reporting. This is NPR. Thousands of rallies are planned across the country tomorrow to protest President Trump

3:05and his administration. The no Kings rallies are set for small towns and big cities. Rockstar Bruce Springsteen will perform his new protest song in Minnesota's state capital, St. Paul. Online streamer Netflix is going to raise prices. All of Netflix's plans will see increases. The lowest tier with ads will go up a dollar from $7.99 a month to $8.99. The premium Netflix plan will go up $2 a month to $26.99. There have been verdicts this week in two landmark trials against social media companies. The jury verdicts have determined that the design of social media platforms is harmful to children's mental health. NPR's redo-chattergy reports on recent studies of social media use among kids and teens. Scientists studying the impacts of digital media use and adolescent brain development have been asking kids about symptoms of addiction to screens and social media. Peter Trishan Dr. Jason Nagata is at the University of California San Francisco and one of

4:08the researchers looking into this. We found that like 16 percent of 11 to 12-year-olds said that they tried to use their social media apps less but couldn't 18 percent said that they use social media apps to forget about their problems. Nagata and others have also found that such compulsive use of screens and social media are linked to mental health symptoms like depression and even suicidality, redo-chattergy and PR news. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are lower. This is NPR. 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.