NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-20-2026 4AM EDT

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Israel has launched a new wave of attacks on Iran. The Israeli military says the strikes have been named at targets in the Iranian capital. And they come a day after President Trump said he told Israel not to repeat strikes on Iranian gas infrastructure. I did. I told him, don't do that. And he won't do that. We didn't discuss. You know, we do, we're independent, we get along great. It's coordinated. But on occasion, he'll do something. and if I don't like it.

And so we're not doing that anymore. Trump speaking at the White House Thursday alongside the visiting Japanese prime minister. On social media, Trump said he was not informed in advance of Israel's attack on Iran's South Parson gas field. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel acted alone. Tid for tat strikes on energy facilities have led to sharply escalating prices. And as the Iran war escalates, the Trump administration plans to release 150,000, million barrels of oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve.

From Houston public media, Natalie Weber reports that experts say the release will have little effect on the cost at the pump. The nation's oil reserve is stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas. Ramanan Krishna Morty is a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Houston. He says the reserve locations are also near several. refineries and in close proximity to Texas oil fields. However, he says the oil release is unlikely to have a long-term effect on energy prices. It's a great band-aid, but you know, you start to run out

of band-aids pretty quickly. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve currently holds enough oil to sustain U.S. consumption for about 20 days. For NPR News, I'm Natalie Weber in Houston. California Governor Gavin Newsom is supporting a plan to rename the state hollors. holiday name for Cesar Chavez as Farm Workers Day. The move comes after new sexual misconduct allegations against the late labor leader. It's so they surfaced earlier this week as Frida Javala Romero reports from member station KQED. Maria Garcia is a member of the United Farm Workers, which Chavez and labor icon Dolores Werta co-founded in the 1960s. Garcia, like many other California farm workers, is still struggling to believe that a man who fought hard for basic rights could sexually abuse

Huerta and underage girls decades ago. It's too much, she says. If it's true, why wasn't this spoken about before? Why until now? In a statement, the UFW called the allegations profoundly shocking. Other farmworkers say they want this moment of reckoning to help prevent similar crimes in the future. For NPR News, I'm Farida Javala Romero in Oakland, California.

This is NPR. A senior vice president of Super Micro Computer and two others affiliated with the company have been charged with conspiring to smuggle at least $2.5 billion of computer servers with advanced Nvidia chips to China. The indictment was unsealed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday. The U.S. has had export restrictions on China for advanced AI chips since 2022. The Justice Department says two of the men have been arrested. A third remains a fugitive. A private investigator has been trying to convince the U.K., not to send him to the U.S. to face

charges of orchestrating a hacking campaign against climate activists. And bears Michael Copley reports a court in London has denied the appeal. The private investigator is an Israeli named to Meet Forlet. He was arrested in London in 2024. Federal charges against Forlet include conspiracy to commit computer hacking. He's denied ever ordering or paying for hacking. A lawyer representing U.S. authorities in London confirmed for its request to appeal extradition was denied. U.S. prosecutors alleged the hacking operation was commissioned by a former lobbyist for ExxonMobil,

with the goal of discrediting climate activists and fighting lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry. ExxonMobil has said it's never been involved in or aware of any hacking activities. Michael Copley, NPR News. A federal panel made up of members appointed by President Trump. has green lit a commemorative coin featuring his image. The coin won unanimous approval Thursday from the Commission of Fine Arts. It's a 24-eart gold coin and is to be part of a series of coins the U.S. Mint is planning to produce to mark the 250th birthday.