NPR News: 04-03-2026 8PM EDT

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. The U.S. and Israeli war with Iran continues to escalate. Two U.S. combat planes were shot down today. Two crew members have been rescued. The search continues for a third. President Trump delivered a primetime speech on Wednesday, saying the Iran war would be over in two to three weeks. But as NPR's Greg Myrie points out, he hasn't said how he plans to do that. The U.S. and Iran have been having some diplomatic contacts. Pakistan has tried to play the broker here, but there's really no sign of a breakthrough right now. And given the short timeline that Trump is talking about, a U.S. ground operation now seems quite unlikely, though more troops are still moving into the region. But by far the biggest problem is this ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It will be very difficult for Trump to just walk away from the war if this hasn't been resolved. NPR's Greg Myrie reporting. South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace says ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi must still testify before the House Oversight Committee later this month on her handling of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. I'm not going to have my arm twisted on this. She was subpoenaed. She is required by law to show up to the Oversight Committee. And I will do everything that I can to work behind the scenes to ensure that that happens. Just because she's fired doesn't mean this goes away. Mace also expressed concern about comments made by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche told Fox News yesterday that the Epstein files should not be part of anything going forward. Mace said, quote, it sounds like Todd Blanche needs to be replaced. A shift seems to be underway in how the federal government does immigration enforcement, as NPR's Meg Anderson reports. Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen said at his confirmation hearing that he wants ICE to work more closely with local police. Mullen's comments point to a federal program that deputizes local police to act as ICE officers. It has exploded in growth during President Trump's second term. In Florida and Texas in particular, more than 40 million people live in places where local police have signed on. Immigrant rights groups say the program creates situations where minor traffic stops quickly turn into immigration arrests. And when local police do the work, they say it makes immigration enforcement more hidden. Kristen Etter is with the Texas Immigration Law Council. Detention, mass deportation, but do it in a way so that the public doesn't think it's happening anymore. In a statement to NPR, a DHS spokesperson says the department has, quote, supercharged its efforts to work with local police. Meg Anderson, NPR News. The average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. is $4.09, up more than a dollar than it was a month ago. In California, it's $5.90. The U.S. stock market was closed today for Good Friday. This is NPR News from Washington. A California raw milk and cheese producer is recalling some of its products under pressure from federal officials. The FDA is conducting an inspection of the company's facilities after identifying multiple cases of E. coli food poisoning tied to the firm's products. Raw Farm says it is voluntarily recalling more than a half dozen varieties of its cheddar cheese made from raw milk. The company had refused repeated requests from the FDA to issue a recall. The Artemis II astronauts are now more than 100,000 miles away, headed towards the moon for the first lunar flyby in over five decades. NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boise reports. With the Orion spacecraft now on the trajectory that will take it around the moon and back, the crew has more time to rest. The four astronauts finally got to talk to their families back on the ground and they've been taking pictures. Howard Hughes is the Orion program manager at NASA. He says his favorite photo so far shows the inside of the spacecraft and one of its windows. The astronauts have plenty of cameras on board, so there's more pictures to come, especially during their closest approach to the moon on Monday. Nell Greenfield-Boise, NPR News. WKRP is coming to Cincinnati for real this time, according to the current owner of that call sign. It was made famous by the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati that ran from 1978 to 1982. A North Carolina-based nonprofit acquired the call sign from the FCC more than a decade ago. For more information on 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.