NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-24-2026 8PM EDT

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. President Trump says that Iran, quote, gave us a present that is worth a tremendous amount of money. Trump said he wouldn't reveal what the present is, but said it is related to the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said, quote, it showed me that we're dealing with the right people. He also claimed for the second day in a row that Iran had agreed to stop pursuing nuclear weapons. What I said yesterday was exactly correct. We're in negotiations right now. they're doing it along with Marco, J.D.

We have a number of people doing it, and the other side, I can tell you, they'd like to make a deal. And who wouldn't if you were there? Iran has denied negotiating with the U.S. The commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and members of his headquarters staff will deploy to the Middle East, as the White House and Pentagon weigh sending troops from the division. That's according to an official not authorized to speak publicly. President Trump has said he's not putting boots on the ground in the conflict, but has continued to send more troops to the region.

Thousands of Marines are expected to arrive in the Middle East later this week. A jury in New Mexico has found that Facebook parent company, META, failed to warn users about the dangers of its platforms to children. NPR's Shannon Bond reports. New Mexico's Attorney General sued META in 2023, alleging it created a, quote, breeding ground for child predators on its apps, including Instagram and Facebook. Following a nearly seven-week trial, jurors agreed with the state. They found META violated New Mexico's consumer protection law by hiding what it knew about risk to children's safety and mental health. The jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in penalties based on thousands of violations. Meta says it works hard to keep people safe on its platforms.

The company plans to appeal the verdict. Shannon Bond, NPR News. There are more older drivers on the road in the U.S. than ever before. NPR's Joel Rose reports many families face hard choices about when it's time for. for aging loved ones to stop driving. States have policies that are supposed to stop risky drivers from renewing their licenses. But in practice, it often falls to adult children to decide when it's time to take the car keys away from an aging parent. Jacqueline Hamilton struggled to convince her 94-year-old father to stop driving and finally took matters into her own hands.

The hard part was if I didn't take the keys, then anything that would happen after that point would be my fault. Americans are keeping their driver's licenses for longer than ever before. In some cases, too long, according to safety advocates. But crash rates for older drivers have been falling, and many are reluctant to give up driving because they're afraid of losing their mobility. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. U.S. Stock Indexes wobbled up and down to a mixed close today as uncertainty continues about how long the war with Iran will last. The S&P 500 closed down more than a quarter of a percent. The Dow slipped a fraction and the NASDAQ fell. more than three quarters of a percent. This is NPR News from Washington. A majority of conservative justices on the Supreme Court seemed sympathetic to the Trump administration's push to turn away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border when the system is overcapacity. That would allow President Trump to revive a policy he used in his first term, stopping asylum seekers from setting foot on U.S. soil despite federal law that allows them to

claim asylum to be protected from persecution in their home country. President Obama first began turning back some asylum seekers in 2016. The policy was dramatically expanded during the first Trump administration before it was rescinded by President Biden in 2021. The head of NASA says the agency is going to pause its effort to build a small orbiting space station around the moon. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Bois reports, the agency will instead focus on the lunar surface. Since private astronaut and wealthy entrepreneur Jared Isaacman became NASA, NASA's administrator a few months ago, he's been shaking up its Artemis Moon program. In a speech at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., he said work on the lunar space station,

known as Gateway, would stop so that all efforts can go towards constructing a permanent moon base. The moon base will not appear overnight. We will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build it through dozens of missions. NASA is on the verge of launching four astronauts on a mission to circle the moon and return for first time since the 1970s, with a launch opportunity coming in about a week, landing astronauts on the lunar surface is targeted for 2028. Nell Greenfield-Boice, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington.