NPR News: 03-30-2026 12PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The government is expected to start paying TSA workers today, but the White House borders are. Tom Homan suggests immigration enforcement agents recently deployed to airports in response to staffing shortages are not going anywhere just yet. NPR is Jeff Brady with new details. President Trump directed the Transportation Security Administration to pay workers from existing funds. The government and customs enforcement officers have been helping the TSA with checking identification and other tasks. On CNN's state of the Union, Tom Homan said ICE officers might remain at airports. Depends on how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plan coming back to work. The TSA says hundreds of workers quit after going weeks without pay, that's increased security weight times by hours at airports around the country. NPR's Jeff Brady reporting, President Trump's threatening to destroy Iran's energy resources, its desalination plants and other vital infrastructure.

1:01If the Islamic Republic does not agree to a ceasefire plan, quote, shortly, in a social media post and remarks during a Financial Times interview, Trump suggested US troops could seize Iran's hog island, oil export hub. Iran has resisted direct negotiations, meanwhile the country struck a key water and electrical plant in Kuwait. It also targeted an oil refinery in Israel. The US war with Iran continues to rattle global energy markets. NPR Scott Horosley reports crude oil prices have resumed their upward climb. Crude oil prices in the US jump back above $100 a barrel, retail gasoline prices are hovering just below $4 a gallon. Traders are trying to sort through mixed signals about the US and Israel's war with Iran. That country has retaliated with attacks on energy infrastructure in both Israel and Kuwait. Yemen's Houthi rebels also fired missiles at Israel, raising concern on the Iranian back group, might resume its attacks on commercial shipping traffic and the Red Sea. That would add another complication for global commerce, already squeezed by Iran's chokehold on the strait of Hormuz.

2:02Scott Horosley in Pair News, Washington. Israel says it's widening its invasion of southern Lebanon and also striking his Bullah infrastructure in Beirut and P.R.'s law and fair has laid us. Video posted to social media shows a UN helicopter landing in southern Lebanon to evacuate the wounded from a peacekeeping base there. Indonesia says the peacekeeper killed was one of its citizens and that three others were wounded by indirect artillery fire. The UN says it doesn't know the origin of that fire, Israel or his Bullah and is investigating. UN troops have been stationed in southern Lebanon for decades to monitor cross-border conflict. This month, Israel invaded again, killing more than 1,200 people and displacing more than a million, according to Lebanon's government. The World Health Organization says a paramedic was also among those killed Sunday in a strike on an ambulance and that a medical warehouse was also destroyed. Lauren Friar and P.R. News, Beirut. This is NPR News. North China is running direct flights from Beijing to the North Korean capital, Pyeongyang,

3:06for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. This comes just weeks after China resume passenger train services between the capables. In the wake of the outbreak, North Korea banned all foreign tourism, but it has begun relaxing its rules for travel. As more coffee and food chains provide protein in their offerings in the U.S., there are conflicting interpretations of just how much protein the body needs. NPR Zalsanov reports on the science-backed strategies to cut through the politics and marketing hype. Health Secretary Kennedy touts steak over cake and the new dietary guidelines recommend a higher level of protein intake, but protein needs vary from person to person. Since the human body is continuously breaking down old proteins and making new ones, it relies on the amino acids from the food we eat, and the amount we need depends on body weight age, since protein needs increase with age, and activity level. Exercise creates a stress on the body, explained Stewart Phillips, a researcher at McMaster University.

4:07When you eat more protein, you can take more up, you make more new muscle proteins. That's why if you exercise regularly, you may need to eat more protein. Allison Aubrey, NPR News. NASA's making final preparations has sent four astronauts on a historic lunar mission as early as this week. The Artemis II crew will be the first to orbit the Moon since Apollo 17 and 1972. Lift off a schedule this Wednesday night for about a 10-day trip around the Moon. The Dow is up 310 points. It's NPR News.