NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-17-2026 8PM EDT

Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. Iranian State TV confirms that Israel killed two of its top officials overnight. Ali Larajani was the head of the country's Supreme National Security Council and acted as the country's de facto leader. He was also a close confident of the late Supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini. NPR's Emily Fang has more on what his death means for the U.S. Israeli War in Iran. There are fears that in his absence, his replacement might be even more hardline than Larajani. La Rajani was seen as very, very pragmatic, someone who could work with outside powers while still being very, very loyal to the Supreme Leader to the Office of the Ayatollah. And peers Emily Fang, Israel also killed Brigadier General Soleimani, the head of the powerful militia that's aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Starting point is 00:00:54 President Trump is pushing back against claims by Director of National Counterterrorism, Joe Kent, about his motivation to attack Iran. Kent quit today, saying he can't in good conscience back a war that he believes is Israel's doing. Trump says Iran is a tremendous threat. As head of the center, Kent, a former Green Beret and political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats. He was a Trump supporter because Trump said he opposed wars in the Middle East. To keep foreign bad actors like terrorists and drug traffickers out of the country, the federal government often imposes financial sanctions. Anyone on the sanctions list is barred from doing business here.

Starting point is 00:01:41 But as NPR's Robert Benacasa reports, the Treasury Department's sanctioned programs have taken a new direction, under President Trump. The Treasury Department under Trump has sanctioned people after they've criticized the president or his political allies. For example, shortly after Trump took office, he sanctioned judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes allegations.

Starting point is 00:02:08 Secretary of State Mark Arrubio has called the international court's actions politicized, but critics of the administration's use of sanctions make the same claim. David Pressman, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, says sanctions should reinforce the country's strategic interests and not, quote, advanced personal vendettas. Robert Benincasa, NPR News, Washington. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, is asking Florida officials to explain how they root out health care fraud, saying the state's long been a hotspot for that kind of fraud, this a day after President Trump signed an executive order creating an anti-fraud task force for federal benefit program. grounds. Florida is at least the fifth state, Oz has targeted, but is the first Republican-led one to get questions from Oz. U.S. U.S. Futures Contracts are trading lower at this hour. You're listening to NPR News. The Vatican Appeals Court declared a mistrial today in the conviction of a cardinal and several other people for financial crimes. The appeals court ruled the late Pope Francis and prosecutors made procedural errors nullifying the original indictment. The court said a new trial date in January. June. The case is about the Vatican's $413 million investment in London property. Prosecutors alleged brokers and Monsigniors fleeceived the holy sea of millions of dollars in fees and

Starting point is 00:03:29 commissions to acquire that property and then extorted the church to relinquish control of it. A new study of diet and disease finds the more ultra-processed food a person eats, the higher the risk of developing heart disease. And Pierce-Illis and Aubrey has more. study included more than 6,000 adults aged 45 to mid-80s and found that with every additional serving of ultra-processed foods, people reported as part of their typical diet the higher the odds of a heart attack or stroke. Dr. Amir Haider of U.T. Southwestern authored the study. If you were in the top 20 percent of those who consume the most ultra-processed foods, which was about nine servings per day, you had a 67 percent higher risk.

Starting point is 00:04:14 The study looked at several ethnic groups, including Asian, black, and his special. Hispanic participants, Heider says prior research shows junk foods have been more heavily marketed toward minority populations, which is one factor that may help explain the more pronounced relationship with black Americans. Alison Aubrey, NPR News. And I'm Janine Hirst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.

NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-17-2026 8PM EDT

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