NPR News: 03-10-2026 6PM EDT

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. The Pentagon has confirmed that 140 troops have sustained wounds during the war with Iran. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports the vast majority were minor injuries. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell released a statement that since the start of the bombardment by the U.S. and Israel on March 1st, Iranian missiles and drones, mostly aimed at U.S. bases in neighboring countries, have wounded approximately 140 U.S. troops. 108 of those cases were minor enough that service members have already been able to return to duty. Parnell said eight troops were severely injured and are receiving medical care. More than 1,200 Iranians have died in the war, according to Iranian health officials, and it's unclear how many of those were civilians. The Pentagon is investigating whether it was an American Tomahawk missile that killed about 175 people at an Iranian girls' school. Seven American troops have died so far from combat injuries. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. President Trump insists that Democrats can only win elections if they cheat, but even some Republicans largely disagree. NPR's Frank Lankvit reports. Patrick Basin is running for the York County Republican Committee He not particularly concerned about voter fraud in the midterms We don expect them to cheat Why not I think there been enough people that have seen what has happened over the last decade to make sure that it doesn't happen. Payson is referring to the president's false claim that Democratic voter fraud robbed him of the 2020 election. The president's claims of voter fraud may no longer have as much influence as in the past. A recent survey by the University of California at San Diego found that most Republicans relied on sources other than Trump to determine whether elections are clean. Frank Lankford, NPR News, Harrisburg. Department of Justice files show that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein forged close ties with prominent scientists and later used those connections to try to repair a public image tarnished by his conviction for sex crimes. NPR's Scott Newman reports. NPR spoke with three physicists who attended a 2006 Epstein-funded conference organized by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. The gathering in the U.S. Virgin Islands drew three Nobel Prize winners, as well as Stephen Hawking. The interviews and DOJ files NPR examined about the conference helped paint a picture of Epstein as someone who was genuinely interested in science but also in the reflected glow he enjoyed by rubbing shoulders with important scientists Years later Epstein would also use those connections to try to launder his public image, going so far as to list the 2006 conference as one of his top five accomplishments. Scott Newman, NPR News. Sales of previously occupied homes rose last month as home shoppers benefited from easing mortgage rates and a slight increase in properties on the market heading into the spring home buying season. The National Association of Realtors says existing home sales increased 1.7 percent from January to February. It's NPR. Russia and Ukraine are making competing claims about who's gaining ground as Russian strikes keep hitting Ukrainian cities and peace talks were postponed. A Ukrainian general says Kiev won back parts of a southeastern region. Russia's leader says his army expanded gains in the Donbass. There was no independent verification of either side's claims. A team from Johns Hopkins University shows the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, could help smokers quit. NPR's Will Stone has more. The study enrolled just over 80 current smokers who were randomly separated into two groups. One used a nicotine patch The other ingested a relatively high dose of pure psilocybin just one time At the six mark the psilocybin group had more than six times greater odds of being abstinent from cigarettes than their counterparts who had nicotine. Matthew Johnson at Johns Hopkins led the study. I was surprised by the sheer magnitude of the effect. Everyone in the trial also underwent 13 weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy. Recent interest in psychedelics has mostly focused on depression and other mental health conditions. Psilocybin could be considered for drug approval in the next few years. Will Stone, NPR News. A former deep sea treasure hunter who spent more than a decade in prison after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of missing gold coins is now free. Tommy Thompson made one of the great finds in American history in 1988 when he found what was known as the Ship of Gold off the coast of South Carolina. The wreckage sat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 years. A dispute over 500 missing cold coins from the ship landed Thompson in prison. This is NPR News from Washington. 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.