Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corvo Coleman, President Trump says Iran...
reach a deal with the U.S. and immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers.
“He wrote online this morning, "If Iran fails, the U.S. will blow up all of Iran's”
electricity plants and oil wells." He also threatened desalination plants, tens of millions of Iranian civilians need these plants where they cannot get water. Trump also says his administration is talking to New Iranian regime he described as reasonable. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says there's been a change.
"There are clearly people they are talking to us in ways that previous people in charge and Iran have not spoken to us in the past. Some of the things are willing to do, some of the things they're saying they're willing to do. Obviously they have to go do it.
We're going to test that proposition very strongly because we always prefer to settle
things through negotiation and diplomacy." However, the Trump administration continues to send more U.S. troops to the mid-East to join others who are already there.
“About 50,000 U.S. troops are now in the region.”
Iran's capital experienced mass power outages over the weekend after air strikes damaged power facilities. Now Russia's state nuclear energy corporation warned, ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes are endangering a nuclear power plant in southern Iran, and fears Emily Fang reports. Iranians' date media says "shrapnel from weekend strikes damaged power equipment and
take-run and nearby carolage city leading to hours long blackouts in both places." Israel said over the weekend, it had hit some 140 targets in Iran. Iran said several of those strikes hit universities and is now threatening to hit U.S. campuses in the Middle East and retaliation. Meanwhile Russia's state nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, is warning that strikes
are deteriorating the condition of Iran's Bashahar nuclear plant. Rosatom helped build the Bashahar plant, which has been hit multiple times during the war. Note damage has been reported from those strikes, but more than 160 Rosatom staff members have returned to Russia, according to the company, with more evacuations planned from
the plant in the coming days. Emily Fang and Pyrenees van Turkey. Stocks open mixed this morning as crude oil prices continue to climb, and P.R. Scott Horsesley reports the Dow's up about 200 points. Crudal prices in the U.S. jump back above $100 a barrel retail gasoline prices, or hovering
just below $4 a gallon. Traders are trying to sort through mixed signals about the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran. That country has retaliated with attacks on energy infrastructure in both Israel and Kuwait. Yemen's Houthi rebels also fired missiles at Israel raising concern the Iranian-back
group might resume its attacks on commercial shipping traffic and the Red Sea. Now it had another complication for global commerce, already squeezed by Iran's choke hold on the straight of Hormuz. Asian stocks were mixed overnight, down in Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong, but slightly higher in Shanghai.
Scott Horsesley and Pyrenees, Washington. You're listening to NPR news.
The Bank of America has agreed to pay more than $72 million to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's
sex trafficking ring. The civil lawsuit alleged the bank enabled and profited from his crimes. The Bank of America does not admit wrongdoing in the case, and it insists it did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, but Bank officials say the settlement provides closure for victims. People in two states in the Midwest have only days left to register to vote in upcoming
primary elections, and Pyrenees Hansi Lohong has more. To vote in Indiana and Ohio's primaries in May, elder voters have to be registered by April 6. There are still a few weeks left to register in time for the primaries in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia. If you've already registered to vote, you may want to check your status before your
state's deadline. Else of a voters can sometimes be removed from lists, especially if they move, change their name, or haven't voted in a while. And if you're planning to register to vote by mail, you may want to avoid waiting until the last minute to send in your application by a postmark deadline.
Changes at the U.S. Postal Service mean that your mail may not get a postmark on the same day you drop it off.
“U.S. V. S. says if you want to make sure it gets a postmark, stop by a post office”
and ask for one. On Zila Long and Pyrenees. A teenager in Vermont is running for governor and will appear on the general election ballot
this fall, 14-year-old Dean Roy created his own third party, the freedom and unity party
to secure his place on the Vermont ballot. Roy says he does not identify with either major party. He also does not expect to win, Roy says he is seeking to create change. This is NPR.
