"Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor-Johnston.
President Trump says U.S. forces have destroyed Iranian military targets on Harg Island,
“a small landmass in the Persian Gulf that serves as Iran's primary oil export terminal.”
Nicolas Motor is an assistant professor of modern European history at Cornell University. He says it's unclear how targeting that island might affect the current conflict. Harg Island has not been intact so far because it's fairly certain that if that were to happen, Iran would retaliate as it already has been doing against neighboring Gulf countries' oil infrastructure, on top of that even if there were to be a landing and the
exports through Harg Island were to be stopped, then there would still be the question of whether that actually helps the current energy crisis. And if anything, it would take even more barrels of oil off the market." President Trump warns Iran that its oil infrastructure on the island could be targeted next if Tehran continues interfering with ships passing through the straight of Hormuz.
The Iranian ambassador to India says Tehran is now allowing some Indian vessels to pass through the shipping channel. A federal judge has put the brakes on a criminal investigation of federal reserve
“and PR Scott Horsley reports the judge blocked the Justice Department's subpoenas of the”
central bank calling it an improper campaign of harassment. The Justice Department subpoenaed the Federal Reserve back in January, not ostensibly to learn more about cost overruns on the central bank's headquarters renovation. But Federal Judge James Boesberg says that's a mere pretext, and a newly unsealed opinion, Boesberg says the Justice Department offered no evidence that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell had
committed a crime other than displeasing the president by not moving more aggressively to lower interest rates. At the same time, the judge says there's abundant evidence that the purpose of the criminal probe was to harass and pressure the Fed Chairman. The cases become a test of the Fed's ability to set interest rates without political interference
from the White House. Republican Senator Tom Tillis, who's defended the Fed, says the ruling confirms how weak and frivolous the government's investigation was. Scott Horsley, in PR News, Washington.
“A man is facing federal charges after investigators say he sold the gun used in the old”
Dominion University shooting, and PR's Jackal India's reports one person was killed, and two others were injured in the shooting at the Norfolk of Virginia School. Kenya Mitchell Chapman is charged with three counts of making false statements while buying a firearm and dealing a gun without a license. Investigators say Chapman sold the gun to the old Dominion University shooter Muhammad
Baylor Jallow for $100. Jallow was convicted for being an ISIS supporter back in 2016, so he could not buy his own firearm. Chapman was known to investigators because he was under investigation before for straw purchasing guns, which means buying a gun for another person. The three times before.
Chapman will remain in custody until his next hearing are March 17, Jacqueline Diaz and PR News. This is NPR. Cuba says that held at recent talks with the United States, speaking Friday President
Miguel Diaz can now confirm for the first time there's been active communication with
the Trump administration, which has taken a hard line toward Cuba's communist government. He says the discussions focused on trying to address differences between the two countries. Cuba officials have also complained about the U.S. oil embargo on the island, which they blame for worsening the country's severe energy shortages. North Korea launched about 10 ballistic missiles in its third such test this year.
NPR's Anthony Cune reports the launch comes as the U.S. and South Korea are conducting annual military drills. North Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from near the Capitol Pyongyang and flew eastward into the sea. Japan also detected the test and filed a protest pointing out that the launch violates
UN Security Council resolutions. This week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Jong-un Jong-un, Kim Jong-un, condemned the U.S. South Korean joint drills and warned of unspecified consequences. The launch comes amid concern in South Korea that the U.S. will divert or has already diverted missile defense batteries from South Korea to the Middle East.
South Korea says as well equipped to defend itself, and it has opposed the diversion of U.S. missile defenses, but there's not much they can do about it. Anthony Cune and PR News sold.
An emergency declaration has been issued for the entire state of Hawaii as of powerful
storms weeps across the island chain, official say tens of thousands of people remain without power, this is NPR News. I was in this literal middle of nowhere, it's such a fertile breeding ground for anything that's coming next. Listen in the NPR Music feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
