Live from NPR News in Washington, on Janine Herbst.
President Trump says he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce his
country's attacks on Lebanon. Trump confirmed with NBC News that he made the request in a phone call on Wednesday. And here's Daniel Kurtzlebin has more.
“President Trump told NBC that, quote, "I spoke with BB and he's going to low-key it.”
I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key," unquote. A ceasefire was announced on Tuesday between the U.S. and Iran. Israel continued attacking Lebanon where the Iran-backed group Hezbollah is based. There has been disagreement among the countries involved in the ceasefire as to whether attacks on Lebanon are a part of that agreement.
Trump posted on social media late Wednesday night that U.S. military personnel will remain in and around Iran until there's a "real agreement." Vice President JD Vance will lead a delegation to Pakistan for Saturday peace talks. Daniel Kurtzlebin and PR News the White House.
First lady Melania Trump, today, says she didn't have ties to the late convicted sex
offender Jeffrey Epstein or knowledge of his crimes, which includes sexual abuse of minors and accusations of sex trafficking.
“This even though the Epstein files include emails she sent to Epstein's accomplice, convicted”
sex trafficker, Guillain Maxwell, in which she praised a magazine profile on Epstein. Trump says that was only casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn't amount to anything more than a "trival note." She's been photographed with Epstein at least once in the early 2000s alongside Donald Trump.
Melania Trump says Epstein didn't work alone and that the truth needs to be uncovered. Donald Trump appears many times in the Epstein files, all of which have not been released. Melania Trump is also calling on Congress for hearings to allow victims to speak publicly. Energy traffic in the Middle East remains snarled despite a tentative ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
If your Scott Horsley has more on the economic ripple effects, here at home. Crew to all prices rose as a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran failed to provide
“much relief for bottleneck tanker traffic in the state of Hormuz.”
Triple A says retail gasoline prices showed little change overnight, hovering around $4.16 a gallon, diesel prices rose, about two cents a gallon. High gasoline prices are expected to push the government's cost-deliving measure up when March inflation numbers are released tomorrow, even before the war prices were climbing faster than the Federal Reserve would like.
The Commerce Department says the U.S. economy grew more slowly than the final months of 2025 than earlier reports had indicated. A final tally says GDP grew at an annual rate of just half a percent, in October, November, and December. Scott Horsley and Parenthood is Washington.
And just ahead of the close-on Wall Street that I was up 275 points, the NASDAQ up 187, the S&P 541, you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The number of babies born in the U.S. dropped again last year, with the country's fertility rate, hitting another record low. That's according, according to new preliminary data from the CDC.
As impairs Brian Mann reports, immigration into the U.S. is also plunging. This latest drop means roughly 710,000 fewer babies were born in the U.S. in 2025, compared with the peak in 2007, lead CDC researcher Brady Hamilton says the steady drop in U.S. fertility is sizable and has persisted for almost 20 years.
Since 2007, there's been a decline in the general fertility rate of 23 percent.
It's partly driven by a big decline in teen pregnancies. At the same time, immigration into the U.S. has plunged under the Trump administration a report earlier this year by the Congressional Budget Office found that these combined demographic trends mean the U.S. population will age faster and grow much more slowly than once predicted, Brian Mann and PR News.
The U.S. Postal Service says its cash crunch is so bad, it has to temporarily suspend employer contributions to a federal pension plan for employees. The Postal Office says it will stop making $200 million payments every two weeks starting tomorrow. U.S. P.S. says if it doesn't get more money from Congress, it could run out of money soon.
This after raising prices temporarily for some services because of rising fuel costs. And again, on Wall Street at the close, the Dow up 275 points, the Nasdaq up 187, the in P541. I'm Janine Herbst and PR News in Washington. On NPR's wildcard podcast, George Saunders says "ambition gets a bad rap." But ambition, if you took the name off it, is kind of a love for life, it's kind of a life energy, it's kind of a aspiration to bring out the best in yourself.
Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR wildcard.
