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NPR News: 03-06-2026 4PM EST

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EN

"Lie from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

On the seventh day of war, Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel

and Gulf countries and Israel unleashed air strikes on Tehran and Beirut Lebanon."

He associated press recording and explosion hours ago as large plumes of smoke were seen rising in Beirut's southern suburbs. Thousands of thousands of people have fled as Israeli forces issued sweeping evacuation warnings and targeted Iran backed his bullets strongholds. Aries of the Kurdistan region of Iraq are also under attack tonight, a major hotel in

Erbil was hit shortly after the U.S. State Department warned foreign nationals hotels were a target. Iran backed malicious any rock or claiming responsibility. President Trump has projected the U.S. Israel war with Iran last four to five weeks perhaps longer, amid concerns about weapon stocks, Trump's meeting today with some of

the biggest U.S. defense contractors, here's NPR's Frank Ordonias. White House officials are expected to press contractors to accelerate weapons production. Press Secretary Caroline Levitts had the president would be joined by defense secretary Pete Haigsef.

The purpose of it is to talk about the president's aggressive and fierce support for rapidly

increasing the ability of U.S. manufacturers to produce American-made weapons. U.S. officials who were not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that they're concerned about a lack of missile interceptors and may have to draw from other stockpiles. Levitt and other officials have pushed back on those concerns saying the U.S. has more than enough weapons.

Franco, Ordonias, and Pianos, the White House. Customs officials say they're working on a streamlined system to deliver tariff refunds. NPR Scott Horsley reports a hope to have the system up and running within 45 days. Since the Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump's tariffs two weeks ago, the companies that paid those import taxes have been wondering when and how they'll get their

money back.

Customs estimates have collected some $166 billion from the now outlawed tariffs, refunding

that money to more than 300,000 businesses will be cumbersome.

The government says it's working on a streamlined process that won't require every

import to file individual lawsuits. The government says it'll take about a month and a half to set up the program, which will use the same electronic filing system importers already rely on. The proposal came after a judge at the Court of International Trade said this week, the Supreme Court left the administration with no choice, but to refund the money it wrongly

collected. Scott Horsley, and Pianos, Washington. The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs last month, instead of gaining tens of thousands, the Labor Department says a jobless rate ticked up to 4.4%. U.S. stocks, and of the day lower, the Dow closed down 453 points, or nearly 1%.

This is NPR news. The Department of Justice has published additional Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor. That's after an NPR investigation found dozens of pages were withheld. Here's NPR, Stephen Fowler.

Joe J. uploaded more than 1,000 new pages of Epstein files Thursday evening. They include 18 pages related to claims of sexual abuse by President Trump four decades ago that were previously withheld. After NPR reported on those missing files, the Justice Department said it was looking to see if that was a mistake.

There are still 37 pages of records relating to the allegation missing, also missing. Any sort of context is to how credible investigators found the claims, or why it was included in a Justice Department's slideshow last fall. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. Cuba is slowly recovering from a near-total power blackout, and Piers Aida Perralta has

an update. The island was plunged into darkness after a boiler broke at one of the country's largest thermo-electric plants. Cuba's aging electrical system has been fragile for years, but the U.S. has now enacted a fuel blockade that's thrown it close to collapse.

These are cooking on the streets with firewood public services are limited. The government has announced reforms to its economic system, analysts say that was intended to encourage the U.S. to ease its pressure on the government. But President Trump showed no signs he was retreating. He said he wanted to finish up with Iran before moving on to Cuba.

But he said it's a question of time before Cuba's government falls. Aida Perralta and Piers News.

The Nasdaq end of the day down one and a half percent the SMP was down 1.3 percent.

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