NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-27-2026 3AM EDT

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Trial Snyder. After more than 40 days, the Senate has agreed to end most of the homeland security shutdown. Politico is reporting that Senate Republicans have agreed to a Democratic plan to fund most of DHS, except for the agency's immigration enforcement operations. The House could vote as soon as today. Congress under pressure to finalize a deal before the start of the spring recess this weekend. President Trump has delayed a threatened U.S. strike on Iranian energy infrastructure and extended a deadline for reopening the straight-of-hormoos until April 6th. Trump says talks with Iran are going well and Iranian leaders are begging to make a deal. And Pierce Ayah Petrauri reports on the back channel messages.

Egypt foreign minister actually met with some reporters in Cairo on Wednesday, and he told our producer and the other journalist there that actually it was President Trump who asked Egypt to reach out and get this going. So it was actually, doesn't seem to be that Iran was the one that asked for this, but rather it was the White House President Trump himself who asked for this. Iran has said it is not engaged in talks with Washington and has rejected a 15-point ceasefire proposal as one-sided and unfair. A global policy forum predicts a world inflation will surge due to energy shocks brought on by the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports a Paris-based group of wealthy nations. says the U.S. will have the highest inflation rate.

Matias Korman is General Director for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He presented the group's downward revised economic outlook for the next two years. This conflict and the relighted energy supply shock have now lowered a projected path for global growth this year and next. He says U.S. inflation will surge to 4.2%, more than one percentage point higher than the group's previous forecast made late last year. rising energy prices will also sharply curb economic growth around the world. It will worsen in 2027, said Korman, if the conflict doesn't end and the Strait of Hormuz reopen. Eleanor Beardsley and P.R. News, Paris. Venezuela's ousted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were back in federal court Thursday.

NPR's Ryan Lucas reports. Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores have pleaded not guilty to the charges. At the hearing in federal court in Lower Manhattan, both Maduro and his wife were dressed in Bay's jumpsuits and headphones through which they listen to the proceedings via an interpreter. The hearing focused on a dispute over allowing the Venezuelan government to pay for the Maduro's legal defense. Maduro's attorney says the U.S. isn't allowing Venezuela to pick up the tab. He says that interferes with Maduro's constitutional right to counsel and the case should be dismissed. Prosecutors say the Venezuelan government can't pay because it is under American

sanctions. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein did not rule from the bench on the matter and noted that this case is unique. This is NPR news. Transgender women athletes are being excluded from Olympic events. The International Olympic Committee agreed Thursday to a new eligibility policy that aligns with President Trump's executive order on women's sports ahead of the Los Angeles Games in 28. The IOC says eligibility for female events at the games or any other IOC event is now limited to biological females. California, Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill renaming Cesar Chavez's State Holiday to Farm Workers Day.

Newsom signed the bill Thursday after state lawmakers approved it earlier in the day. The change came after sexual abuse allegations against Chavez. The warm and dry winter in the West has hit Colorado ski resorts hard, many closing early, some weeks ahead of schedule from Colorado Public Radio Stena Sieg reports. By the end of this weekend, more than a third of Colorado, ski areas will be closed, and the resorts still operating only of partial terrain open. Some of these closures have come with little or no warning, with typical closing day celebrations canceled. That says resorts react to Colorado's warmest winter on record, with a snowpack

at an all-time low for this time of year. Several resorts have decided to keep their prices steady for next winter, or even lower season-pass costs, to entice skiers back after this truncated season. Some of the state's smallest ski hills didn't open at all. For MPR News, I'm Stina Sieg, in Grand Junction, Colorado. Asian stock markets mix. Stocks in Japan, down shares a mainline chana advanced. This is in P.