NPR News: 04-02-2026 6AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korvakulman. President Trump says the U.S. will finish its military mission in Iran in a few weeks. And PR's Quill Lawrence reports on Trump's first formal address to the nation since starting the war. President Trump didn't say much that it was new, repeating that Iran's military has been destroyed and promising more bombing to come. The President said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was not America's problem, but should be dealt with by other countries that rely on it more heavily. They are decimated both militarily and economically and every other way, and the countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage. Iran's closure of the Strait has driven up the price of oil worldwide, and it's not clear any other country besides the U.S. could open it by force. Trump did not suggest a major ground operation is imminent, despite thousands of additional troops in or en route to the region. Quill Lawrence and PR News. When his address Trump did not repeat a threat to pull the U.S. out of NATO, but he did

1:00tell allies if they want Persian Gulf oil they should go take the Strait of Hormuz away from Iran. But European allies, including Britain's Prime Minister of Plainley, said this is not their war. They've also complained the U.S. did not consult them. Oil markets are not reassured by Trump's words, and benchmark oil prices have climbed nearly 7 percent overnight. The Iran War is forcing business economists to downgrade their forecasts for the coming year. And PR Scott Horsley reports on the new survey by the National Association for Business Economics. The name conducted its usual quarterly survey of economists at the beginning of March, then went back at the end of the month and asked forecasters how their views might have changed. Not surprisingly, four weeks of war and a resulting spike in energy prices left economists with a considerably gloomier outlook. On average, forecasters are now projecting higher inflation and slower economic growth. And they were in the early days of the war, they also expect weaker hiring.

2:00More than three-quarters of the economists surveyed, now say geopolitical conflicts pose a downside risk for the economy that's up from four months ago when fewer than half the forecasters surveyed felt that way. Scott Horsley in Pair News, Washington. NASA has successfully launched its Artemis II lunar mission from Florida. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman celebrated the lift off. After a brief 54-year intermission, NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon. NASA's last lunar mission, the Apollo 17, flew in December 1972. The Artemis team is spending a day in Earth orbit, they'll test their equipment, one problem already surfaced, the toilet. The astronauts used an alternate method until engineers were able to fix it. If mission managers approve, the Artemis crew will then point their capsule toward the moon, they'll fly around it, then return to Earth after about ten days in space. You're listening to NPR.

3:00Members of a federal planning agency will meet today to hold a final vote on President Trump's planned White House ballroom. The vote is going ahead, even though a federal judge ordered a temporary stop to construction this week. The judge says Congress has to authorize this. The planning agency can still vote on the ballroom, but cannot override the judge's order. Trump officials have filed an appeal. A federal appeals court has blocked the Trump administration from overhauling federal spending on homelessness projects. NPR's Jennifer Leiden reports the administration has been trying to set new conditions on that aid. Last fall, the federal housing agency issued a plan to slash money for permanent housing and shift it to programs that require those seeking assistance to first work and stay sober. Housing Secretary Scott Turner said that would nudge people toward self-sufficiency. The change would have upended two decades of bipartisan federal policy, and local laygroups warned it could push 170,000 people back into homelessness.

4:01In its latest ruling, the appeals court side's evidence that the long-time focus on permanent housing has proven effective, and it noted that Congress recently approved a budget to fund that approach. In a statement, the housing agency HUD says the current approach is misguided, and it remains committed to reforming it. Jennifer Leiden and Pair News, Washington. The US Geological Survey says there was an earthquake overnight south of San Francisco. Its magnitude was 4.9. The shallow quake was fell to cross the Bay Area, but there aren't any initial reports of damage or injuries. I'm Corva Coleman and Pair News in Washington.