Iran War, Political Violence in US, New Action on Housing Affordability

Some of those big hits, military sites on Hark Island, I'm Ayy Sharasko.

And I'm Scott Simon, and this is up first from NPR News.

Hark Island is important for Iran's oil industry in a moment, the latest in the war. Also, three separate incidents of political violence in the last eight days against protesters in New York, Ksenegog and Michigan, and at a Virginia University, are there any links between them? And President Trump's latest executive orders geared toward making home ownership affordable. We have details.

“So please stay with us, we've got the news you need to start your weekend.”

It's Oscar season, and we watched the nominated movies, so you don't have to. We are making some bold predictions for Hollywood's biggest night, and we may help you win your Oscar's pool. Listen to pop culture happy hour in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's now been two weeks of the war with Iran, a war that's widened to include several countries in the Gulf as well as Lebanon. The death toll is rising with the latest number out of Iran at more than 1300 people killed according to Iranian officials.

Over night, President Trump says the U.S. struck an island, critical to Iran's oil industry, Iran has vowed retaliation.

And an Iraqi security official unnamed, because he's not authorized to speak publicly tells NPR that an air strike hit a radar installation at the U.S. and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and Piero's carry condescent Tel Aviv, carry thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. And let's begin.

“What do we know about strikes on that, Iranian island?”

President Trump says the strikes on Ark Island only hit military sites, but he said oil facilities could be next if Iran continues to interfere with ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that 20% of the world's oil supply passes through. Ark Island is off the coast of Iran, it's in the northern Persian Gulf, 90% of Iran's crude exports are handled there. Iran's military quickly threatened retaliation and said it would turn oil and energy firms working with the U.S. in the region into quote, "a pile of ashes."

And while we can't Iran is still launching missiles and drones at several Gulf nations already today, Dubai and Bahrain are reporting aerial infiltrations. Yesterday Saudi Arabia's defense minister says it intercepted nearly a dozen drones. The intensity of the war and to rhetoric remain heightened in the region is there any sign that Iranian leadership seems to be softening after a couple of weeks of bombing. Well, I'll tell you that yesterday Iran's leaders were out in public. The government brought out thousands to an annual pro-Palestinian rally in a huge square in Tehran, even the president and the head of the regime's feared security forces were there.

The head of the forces, he's actually listed on this new bounty the U.S. put out offering up to $10 million for information on top Iranian officials.

Here's a bit of that rally from State TV and you're going to hear an air strike hit very close to the crowd. The crowd doesn't disperse and instead you hear people chanting defiantly against Israel in the U.S. Iran is sustaining relentless aerosols. Israel says overnight it hit numerous command centers of the regime security apparatus. You and defense secretary says it's obliterated Iran's navy and has near total control of Iranian airspace, but in Israel the number of missiles and drones from Iran have dropped dramatically.

Although yesterday a cluster missile from Iran did spark fires in several areas in several sites in central Israel.

“And of course you're reporting from Israel. What are you able to pick up about the goals Israel might have in this war?”

Leaders here are moving away from talking about regime change as the goal of the war, a Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his first press conference since the war this week. And he pretty much said regime change probably not happening, expect just a weekend regime and official in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. Told MPR that Israel is estimating one more week of fighting in Iran. The official said Israel is working on preparing the public here to accept the government's new line that this will not be a war leading to Iranian leadership change.

But a war that puts Israel in a much better security situation.

One in seven are now displaced and that's according to a leading international refugee organization.

There is a lot of concern about Israel expanding further into Lebanon. That same official in the region told MPR that Israel is not ruling out an expanded ground operation in southern Lebanon. In Paris, Kerry Con and Tel Aviv. Thanks so much for being with us, Kerry. You're welcome. Three separate incidents in the U.S. since last Saturday have been marked as political violence, two are being investigated as acts of terrorism.

And Paris domestic extremism corresponded to that use of joins us now to sort through attack on the synagogue in a separate book Detroit and attempted attack on anti-Muslim protesters in New York and a shooting at the University in Virginia.

“Oh, debt. Thanks for being with us. Thanks, Scott. What is the latest we know about all these attacks?”

Well, the synagogue attack in Michigan involved in naturalized Lebanese American citizen who NPR has learned lost two brothers last week, two in Israeli strike in Lebanon and his parents and sisters in law were also wounded.

Security at the synagogue shot and killed him. Nobody else died in that incident.

Earlier on that same day, a gunman shot and killed someone at Old Dominion University in Virginia. He also died at the scene. There is still more to learn about this person, Scott, but he did serve time in prison after pleading guilty about a decade ago to providing material support for ISIS, the Islamic State. And then last weekend, there was an attempted attack on Islamic phobic protesters outside the mayor's mansion in New York City, an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old have been charged and they allegedly made statements effectively saying that they were inspired by ISIS.

Obviously it can be attempted to tie these attacks together. Is that called for as a premature?

“I think it's important to look at each individual instance. It certainly feels like the war on Iran is elevating uncertainty here.”

In the case of the attempted attack outside Gracie Mansion in New York, though, there's no indication that it ties directly to grievance about the war. In the case of the Old Dominion attack, we simply don't know enough right now to say, and in the attack on Temple Israel outside of Detroit officials have not stated a motive. I think what we can absolutely say is that the US is really war on Iran has provided a new opening that foreign terrorist groups are exploiting. Here's Michael Masters, he's national director of the secure community network, which does threat monitoring and security trading for the Jewish community across North America.

We have seen the calls for violence coming from Iran, coming from its proxies. We have seen the calls for violence coming from other designated terrorist organizations from the so-called Islamic State to Al-Qaeda and others. We know that people are working to answer that call and that they are answering it at quicker pace. Answering it at a quicker pace sounds alarming. Yes, and this is something that extremism researchers have been observing now for some time.

Scott, that people are indoctrinating into extremist ideologies faster than had ever really been the case before. A big part of that has been technology, you know, social media companies have largely pulled back on content moderation. And this means that we're seeing an increase in dehumanizing content threats and extremist propaganda on mainstream platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Here's Bill Braneth, he's with the polarization and extremism research lab at American University. The internet is becoming a more and more dangerous place.

And AI is accelerating that trend as resources are being pulled back from not just content moderation, but all the different ways one can make a platform a safer place.

“Or did what are people in faith communities asking for?”

Most immediately Scott, I'm hearing calls for more federal funding for physical security. And for physical security and training. They are asking for roughly three times what is currently provided in federal grants. But I will be frank, you know, the people I've been speaking to are not seeing this problem getting better anytime soon. You know, we don't have a clear idea of how long the fighting in Iran will go.

And ultimately what Braneth and others say we need is to shift to a prevention model that can address some of the underlying reasons that people may go looking for extreme ideas or communities online.

Thank you.

“The cost of a typical home in the US is much more than most families can afford.”

There's urgency in Washington, D.C. to try to do something about it with both Congress and the White House trying to help. Here to talk to us about their proposals to improve housing affordability is in PR's personal finance reporter Steven Bassaha. Hi Steven. Yeah, he's a good be with you. So it's almost spring and that's typically the start of home buying season.

I know I bought my home last spring. Yeah, who wants to move in the winter? Exactly. What does the housing market look like right now? Yes, well, you know, the sun is staying up later.

Birds are coming back.

“The pollen has effectively coated my car in Alabama.”

It should be a big time for home buying. But instead, the sentiment is. That is because we are short millions of homes based on what the need is in this country. And that drives up prices. Home builders could help with that.

But they also have those lingering winter blues. They are not planning on building a lot of new homes because the cost of borrowing is high and so are materials in labor. So what is the government doing about it? Well, President Trump on Friday signed two executive orders on this.

Both of them basically turning to deregulation as a solution.

The first is about loosening up mortgage rules, like making it easier for smaller banks to give customers alone.

“The idea is more lenders will mean more competition and lower rates.”

The second is deregulation on home construction. One thing that drives up construction costs is meaning standards for things like energy efficiency and waiting on approvals. President Trump's order tells all sorts of agencies to look for rules. To either streamline or just get rid of them to speed things up. I spoke with nerd balls housing expert Kate would about this.

And she said, yeah, cutting regulations can make the sticker price of homes cheaper. And by cutting those corners are you essentially, you know, settling a homeowner with a home that's not necessarily going to be the most comfortable to live in. Where you might have problems on the road and where you're sort of everyday expenses of home ownership are higher than they might necessarily need to be. So this deregulation could have negative consequences in the long run. So what about in Congress? What's happening there?

The Senate just approved the largest housing bill in decades and they did so with huge bipartisan support. The bill has more than 40 different ideas programs and changes to old rules. But the core of it is pretty similar to what Trump's orders are trying to do. Encourage more building through things like deregulation and grants. So it sounds like a lot is happening in Congress and at the White House.

But will all of that make housing more affordable?

Well, they could make a dent here but ultimately anything coming from Washington is going to be limited.

The reason that Senate bill is so sprawling is because it's really a lot different nudges for state and local governments. They have a much bigger influence on home construction through things like building codes and zoning laws. So what about mortgage rates? I know they were going down. Well, that was before the war with Iran. I mean, just about two weeks ago, mortgage rates fell below 6% for the first time in years. But they also quickly rose back up because of all the uncertainty in the economy, primarily because of the war of Iran.

And so lawmakers can propose 40 different measures all men to improve affordability. And the president can sign executive orders to try and help, but this war that he launched has made it a scary time to lend money. And that makes it more expensive to get a mortgage and buy a house. That's NPR's personal finance reporters, Steven Basaha. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me.

And that's up first for Saturday, March 14th, 1226, I'm Ayasharasko.

And I'm Scott Simon, an electric producer today's podcast with help from Michael Redlin. Our editors were Hannah Block, Andrew Sussman, Emily Kopp, Diana Douglas, Jacob Finston and Melissa Gray. Fernando Narrow directed. Our technical director is David Greenberg with engineering support from Zovan Gunhoven, Jason Simon Johnson and Jimmy Keely. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor, our executive producer is Evie Stone.

And Keane is our deputy managing editor if you wondered. To Marrow on the Sunday Story, March Madness is about to begin. Great for college basketball fans, great for players who get to showcase their skills. But some athletes say they've been pushed too hard by coaches. We hear about an investigation into emotionally abusive coaching and NCAA sports.

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“It's Oscar season and we watched the nominated movies, so you don't have to.”

We are making some bold predictions for Hollywood's biggest night and we may help you win your Oscar's pool.

Listen to pop culture happy hour in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.