NPR News Now
NPR News Now

NPR News: 03-26-2026 5AM EDT

2h ago4:40776 words
0:000:00

NPR News: 03-26-2026 5AM EDTTo manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage you...

Transcript

EN

"Live from NPR News in Washington.

now in its fourth week, but it's still not clear what's going on with negotiations

between the U.S. and Iran to end it. And here's Mar, Lyasin has more." White House

Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said talks continue and that they are "productive." But according to Iranian state media, Tehran has rejected a U.S. proposal, quoting a senior Iranian security official who says Iran will end the war when its conditions are met. Those conditions include the right of Iran to control the straight of our moves. Iran has refused President Trump's demands to reopen the straight to oil and gas shipments.

Trump has made a series of other demands. Sometimes contradictory, they include unconditional surrender, regime change, a hand-in-picking Iran's next leader, and an end to Iran's nuclear

weapons program. When asked about the possibility of more talks this weekend, Levitt said

nothing has been officially announced. Mar, Lyasin, NPR News, the White House. As the partial government shut down continues, Senate Democrats yesterday blocked a Republican

led effort to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, but not one main part

of immigration enforcement. Democrats want reforms to ice tactics before funding DHS. Senator Dick Durbin says he hopes they reach a deal to pay TSA workers before senators leave this week for recess. We have differences with opinion when it comes to ice and standards that they'll live by. But we ought to separate all the others and fully fund them. We've tried to do

that 10 times on the floor of Senate Republicans have resisted us. It's time to get it done. We shouldn't leave here on the thought of it. Republican Senator Kevin Kramer says there's frustration rather than the GOP over the Democrats response. Like you can't help somebody that doesn't want to be helped. You can't lead a Democrat

to this common sense if they're committed to crazy.

The Trump administration sent ice agents to some airports to help with long lines.

Today's the first of nine equal pay days throughout the year, marking how far into the new

year, women have to work in order to make what men earned the previous year impures Andrea shoe reports. For the second year in a row, women have lost ground. Women working full-time year round earned 81 cents for every dollar men earned. That's down three cents over the past couple years. Now the latest data compiled by the Census Bureau is actually from 2024.

So the widening of the gender wage gap can't be explained by anything that's happened since President Trump returned to office. And in fact, former President Biden was supportive of pay equity efforts. What the Census Bureau did find was that the median wage for men increased by just over three and a half percent, while women's wages remain stagnant. The gender pay gap is even wider for women of color. Black women's equal pay day will be marked in July,

Latina equal pay day in October. Andrea shoe and PR news. You're listening to NPR news from Washington. The US Southern Command says it carried out a strike yesterday on an alleged drugbode in the Caribbean, killing four people. The US military says intelligence confirmed that the boat was smuggling drugs without providing evidence that brings the number of people killed in strikes

on alleged drug smuggling boats to at least 163 since the Trump administration began targeting them last fall. A pivotal US Senate race in Maine is intensifying as the two leading Democrats vying to topple Republican Senator Susan Collins, trying to get the upper hand in the June primary election. As Steve Misler from Maine Public Reports, Democratic Governor Janet Mills and combat veteran turned oyster farmer Graham Platner are going toe to toe on the airways.

Both Democrats are dipping into their campaign coffers while Collins spends very little as she eyes a sixth term. Last week, Governor Mills released an ad featuring several supporters reacting to a voice and personating Platner, reading excerpts from his 2013 Reddit post about women worried about sexual assault. He responded with an ad by that's nearly four times as large as Mills's spot. These are words and statements I implore from a time in my life when I was struggling

deeply after returning from war. These words are not going on. Collins, meanwhile, has spent very little on advertising, but outside group supporting her have spent big. One group has spent more than Mills and Platner combined. For NPR News, I'm Steve Misler and Augusta Maine.

Compare and Explore