NPR News: 04-03-2026 6AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kurova Kulman, the U.S. and Israel continue to strike Iran while Iran is firing back at neighboring nations. Iran has also choked off most traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. There is a report today from Maritime Tracker at Lloyd's List that a French-owned container ship is now transiting the Strait. Its passage comes as Iran says it will start charging ships that sail through. An Iranian lawmaker says the fee for a ship to pass through the Strait of Hormuz could cost up to $2 million. It will involve government to government negotiations, getting permits, and transiting through Iranian territorial water. The toll system is still being formalized and currently appears ad hoc. Analysts say some ships, including those from India, Pakistan and China, have worked out deals diplomatically. Indian owned and flagged vessels won't be charged, and any ship with links to the U.S. or Israel will not be allowed to pass full stop. Analysts say it's unlikely a toll system similar to the Suez Canal would get regional

1:03buy-in, and that opening the Strait through diplomacy is still the best answer. Jackie Northam in NPR News. President Trump says U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is out. There's been criticism directed at Bondi during her 14-month tenure, especially over the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files. But President Trump also instructed Bondi to legally pursue many of his political enemies. NPR's Ryan Lucas says that included New York Attorney General Latisha James and former FBI director James Comey. The Justice Department has struggled to find success in these efforts. At this point, Comey and James are the only two to be indicted, and a court later tossed both of those cases because it found the prosecutor who had secured them was unlawfully appointed. The president campaigned on getting revenge on his political foes, and the department's failures on that front under Bondi seemed to be a source of frustration for him. NPR's Ryan Lucas reporting, NASA's Artemis II mission is now on a path to the moon. The crew fired a thruster that sent their spacecraft on the trajectory that will take

2:08the astronauts around the moon and back. Central Florida Public Media's Brendan Byrne has more. His spacecraft named Integrity fired its engine for five minutes and fifty seconds, conducting a maneuver called a Transluner Injection. The engine burn now puts the spacecraft and its crew of four on a free return trajectory where it will fly around the moon and then come back home at the end of its roughly 10-day mission. With this trajectory, it's expected that the Artemis II mission will surpass the record for the farthest distance a human has traveled from Earth at over 248,000 miles set by Apollo 13. Artemis II is a key test flight in NASA's lunar ambitions, aiming to land astronauts on the moon by 2028. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A federal panel has approved President Trump's design for a new White House ballroom. The massive complex is very controversial.

3:08The panel got more than 30,000 written comments on the plan and almost all of them oppose the project. Earlier this week, a federal judge temporarily halted ballroom construction. He ruled that Congress needs to approve changes to the historically U.S.-owned property. The Trump administration says it will appeal the judge's decision. The Trump administration is designating microplastics and pharmaceuticals as contaminants in the nation's drinking water, and PR's will stone has more. The Environmental Protection Agency is placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on what's known as the contaminant candidate list alongside other chemicals like PFAS. The list gets updated every five years. The action doesn't require the agency to move forward with regulations, though it could set the stage. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said it was a landmark step, but some environmental groups pushed back, saying the administration is doing this even as it works to unravel regulations on chemicals in the environment. The administration also said it would be investing more than $140 million in a research effort

4:12to study microplastics in the human body. Will Stone and PR News. The Labor Department releases its latest reports on monthly employment this morning. The unemployment rate for March is expected to hold steady at 4.4%. Economists are forecasting that employers created about 60,000 new jobs last month. On Wall Street and pre-market trading, Dow Futures are lower. This is NPR.