"Li," from NPR News, "I'm Lakshmi Singh.
An American journalist has been kidnapped in Baghdad, the Al-Monitor News Organization
“identified the reporter as contributor Shelley Kittelsen.”
The U.S. Embassy had advised Americans to leave Iraq due to threats posed by militias backed by Iran, which is locked in conflicts with Israel, the U.S. and the U.S. as partners in the Middle East since last month. Rocky Security Forces say they have arrested one of Kittelsen's kidnappers. The United Nations says it was a roadside bomb that killed two peacekeepers in Lebanon
on Monday. Israel, which has been expanding its control over southern Lebanon, blames Iran backed his bullet for the deaths. Here's NPR's Michele Kaliman. "Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting, Israel's ambassador Danny Denon expressed condolences
to the UN peacekeepers from Indonesia, who he says were killed by Hezbollah, explores of devices. The head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre, Lakquad, did not pin the blame on his Pola in
“his comments, saying only that initial findings suggest they were killed in a roadside”
explosion. A day earlier, another peacekeeper from Indonesia was killed when he says a projectile hit a UN base. U.S. ambassador Mike Walsh paid tribute to the Indonesian peacekeepers and urged security council members not to jump to conclusions, but to allow the UN to investigate.
Michele Kaliman and PR news, the State Department. The war in Iran is causing more upheaval for American farmers who are already dealing with high fertilizer and fuel prices before the Strait of Hormuz was cut off. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports on new government data out today showing how farmers are trying to adapt.
Spring planting season is always a gamble for farmers, but in the last year it's been
even higher stakes with continued high fuel and equipment prices and Trump's tariffs. With the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual spring planting report based on surveys
“with farmers, reveals what many had expected.”
More farmers are switching to soybeans over corn and wheat, which require more fertilizer. These are still estimates, but the USDA predicts this could be the smallest American spring wheat crop since 1919. The soybean crop is up by 4% over last year, but that comes with its own risk. China did resume buying soybeans from the Midwest late last year, but it amounts much smaller
than before Trump's latest trade war. Kirk Sigler and PR News, Boisey. A Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of oil docked today at the Cuban port of Matanses.
It's a first such tanker to reach the island in three months since shipments from its
means supplier of Venezuela were halted. Despite a U.S. field blockade, the Trump administration says it did not object to the Russian shipment sighting need in Cuba. U.S. stocks sharply higher this hour. The Dow is now up more than a thousand points or 2.3% at 46,261.
This is NPR News. The countdown's underway at NASA. The space agency is getting ready to send up four astronauts on a historic trip around the Moon and back. Jeff Spalding is a senior NASA test director at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
He says even though the launch may not happen until tomorrow evening, it'll be an early start to the day for the crew of Artemis 2. During the propellant loading the flight crew will wake up at about 9.45 tomorrow morning. They'll have breakfast and start working towards their preparations for launch day, getting their suits on and doing all the other work that they have to get ready to head out to the
pad. NASA's last crude lunar mission was 54 years ago with Apollo 17. The K-pop group BTS has returned to the top of this week's Billboard albums chart after a long time away, then Piers Steven Thompson is more. BTS recently returned after a hiatus of nearly four years.
In that time, the boy band's members released solo projects and completed mandatory military service in South Korea. Four years is a long break for any K-pop group, but BTS picks up where it left off on this week's Billboard charts. The group's new album, Ari Wrong, debuts at number one, thanks in part to sales of more
than 500,000 copies.
Ari Wrong's first single swim also debuts at the Billboard Hot 100.
It's BTS's first number one single since 2021. Steven Thompson and PR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh and PR News in 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.
