NPR News: 03-05-2026 5PM EST

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump has fired Homeland Security Secretary Christine Noem in the first major cabinet shakeup of his second term. Trump says he's planning to replace her with Senator Mark Wayne Mullins. The Oklahoma Republican spoke to reporters outside of the Capitol shortly after the announcement was made today. I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at a not a complete surprised, but it came in a little bit of surprise for us. And so the president and I, as you guys know, we're great friends and we get along great. I look forward to working with him and his cabinet. Of course, we still got to go through this little thing called confirmation. Noam has faced growing criticism after contentious congressional hearings over immigration enforcement and department leadership. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffrey says removing Noam is a step toward fixing what he calls a broken department. They had a corrupt political hack who was running DHS. Shame on every Republican senator who put her in that position when they knew she was unqualified. Senator Mullen will take over as Homeland Security Secretary on March 31st He need Senate confirmation to serve in the role permanently Noam is expected to move into a newly created administration role focused on a security initiative called Shield of the Americas. President Trump says he wants to play a direct role in choosing the next leader of Iran, similar to the approach he took with Venezuela. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports. One potential successor to the former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is his son, Mostaba Khamenei. But Trump firmly opposes that choice, telling Axios, quote, they are wasting their time. Khamenei's son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela. Delcy is Delcy Rodriguez, who served as Venezuela's vice president before the U.S. deposed President Nicolás Maduro. Rodriguez is now Venezuela's acting president. Earlier this week, Trump told reporters most of the candidates he and his team wanted to succeed Iran's supreme leader had already been killed in the conflict. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News, the White House. The U.S. war with Iran continues to rattle global energy markets NPR Scott Horsley reports that leading to higher prices at the gas pump Gasoline prices jumped by another nickel a gallon overnight pushing the national average to a gallon AAA says gas prices have jumped by about 25 cents over the last three days and are now about 15 cents higher than this time last year. Crude oil prices are also climbing as the U.S. war with Iran disrupts tanker traffic in the Middle East. A specialized trade court has ordered the Trump administration to refund tens of billions of dollars worth of tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled were collected illegally. The process for repaying that money still has to be worked out, but so far courts have slapped down the administration's effort to slow walk the process. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The Department of Health and Human Services says 53 medical schools across the country have agreed to require students to complete 40 hours of nutrition education. The initiative is aimed at fighting chronic disease, which affects roughly 60 percent of people in the United States. Currently, the National Academy of Sciences recommends medical schools provide at least 25 hours of nutrition training A new study suggests that certain drugs for diabetes and weight loss can lower the risk of addiction NPR John Hamilton has more on research in the medical journal The BMJ The study looked at data on more than 600,000 people with type 2 diabetes. All were in the VA health system. Dr. Zia Dalali of Washington University in St. Louis says those treated with GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic were less likely to be diagnosed with substance use disorder. They had less risk across several addictive substances, including opioids, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, and other substances. For most of these substances, the risk was about 15 to 20 percent lower. The study also found that people with a history of addiction were less likely to overdose or require emergency treatment. Alali says the results are promising but need to be confirmed in controlled trials. John Hamilton, NPR News. Stocks on Wall Street closed sharply lower today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 784 points at 47,954. The Nasdaq down 58 points. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.