NPR News: 03-31-2026 3PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. An American journalist has been kidnapped in Baghdad. The Al Monitor News Organization identified the reporter as contributor, Shelley Kiddelsen. The U.S. Embassy had advised Americans to leave Iraq due to threats posed by militias backed by Iran, which is locked in conflicts with Israel, the U.S. and the U.S. as partners in the Middle East since last month. Iraqi security forces say they have arrested one of Kiddelsen's kidnappers. The United Nations says it was a roadside bomb that killed two peacekeepers in Lebanon on Monday. Israel, which has been expanding its control over southern Lebanon, blames Iran, backed his bullet for the deaths. Here's NPR's Michelle Kellerman. A head of the UN Security Council meeting, Israel's ambassador, Danny Denon, expressed condolences to the UN peacekeepers from Indonesia, who he says were killed by Hezbollah, explosive devices. The head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre LaQua, did not pin the blame on Hezbollah in

1:02his comments, saying only that initial findings suggest they were killed in a roadside explosion. A day earlier, another peacekeeper from Indonesia was killed when he says a projectile hit a UN base. U.S. Ambassador Mike Walts paid tribute to the Indonesian peacekeepers and urged security council members not to jump to conclusions but to allow the UN to investigate. Michelle Kellerman and PR News, the State Department. The war in Iran is causing more upheaval for American farmers who are already dealing with high fertilizer and fuel prices before the Strait of Hormuz was cut off. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports on new government data out today showing how farmers are trying to adapt. Spring planting season is always a gamble for farmers, but in the last year it's been even higher stakes with continued high fuel and equipment prices and Trump's tariffs. U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual spring planting report based on surveys with farmers reveals what many had expected. More farmers are switching to soybeans over corn and wheat, which require more fertilizer.

2:07These are still estimates, but the USDA predicts this could be the smallest American spring wheat crop since 1919. The soybean crop is up by 4% over last year, but that comes with its own risk. China did resume buying soybeans from the Midwest late last year, but an amount much smaller than before Trump's latest trade war. Kirk Sigler in PR News, Boise. A Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of oil docked today at the Cuban Port of Matanzas. It's a first such tanker to reach the island in three months since shipments from its main supplier Venezuela were halted. Despite a U.S. fuel blockade, the Trump administration says it did not object to the Russian shipments citing need in Cuba. U.S. stocks sharply higher this hour. The Dow is now up more than 1,000 points or 2.3 percent at 46,261. This is NPR News. The countdowns underway at NASA. The space agency is getting ready to send up four astronauts on a historic trip around

3:07the moon and back. Jeff Spalding is a senior NASA test director at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. He says even though the launch may not happen until tomorrow evening, it will be an early start to the day for the crew of Artemis II. During the propellant loading, the flight crew will wake up at about 9.45 tomorrow morning. They'll have breakfast and start working towards their preparations for launch day, getting their suits on and doing all the other work that they have to get ready to head out to the pad. NASA's last crewed lunar mission was 54 years ago with Apollo 17. The K-pop group BTS has returned to the top of this week's Billboard albums chart after a long time away than Pierce Even Thompson has more. BTS recently returned after a hiatus of nearly four years. In that time, the boy band's members released solo projects and completed mandatory military service in South Korea. Four years is a long break for any K-pop group, but BTS picks up where it left off on this week's Billboard charts.

4:08The group's new album Ari-Rong debuts at number one, thanks in part to sales of more than 500,000 copies. Ari-Rong's first single, Swim, also debuts atop the Billboard Hot 100, its BTS' first number one single since 2021. Stephen Thompson and PR News. 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.