NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-03-2026 3AM EDT

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Attorney General Pam Bondi is out at the Justice Department. President Trump made the announcement Thursday. MPR's Ryan Lucas. In his social media post announcing this, Trump offered a couple of kind words for Bondi. He said she had done a tremendous job overseen what he called a massive crackdown on crime. He said, quote, we love Pam. And he said she'll be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector. Those are his exact words. He didn't say what that would be, only that it would. be announced later. And he also said that Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, is going to step in as acting attorney general. Bondi's Alster follows months of scrutiny over the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files and Bondi's handling of cases against President Trump's perceived political enemies. Iran's state media have confirmed that an Iranian desalination plant hit earlier in the war is still fully out of service. Experts say that attacks on plants that create fresh water are becoming a weapon of war, as MPR's Julius Simon.

reports. Desalination is the process of using electricity to separate sea water into a salty solution on one side and freshwater on the other. Across the Middle East, countries rely heavily on the process. Qatar and Bahrain get more than 90% of their drinking water from it. As climate change increases the severity of droughts, experts see desalination plants as a key adaptation tool. Since the recent war began, strikes have hit plants in Iran, as well as. Kuwait and Bahrain. Earlier this week, President Trump wrote on social media that the U.S. may strike more Iranian desalination plants. Civilian infrastructure sites like water plants are banned as targets by international law. Julia Simon and Pierre News. The four astronaut Artemis

2 crew on track for their lunar flyby by early next week. Their spacecraft left orbit Thursday after getting the OK to fire their capsules engine. Astronauts on a 10-day mission and from macaroni and cheese to butternut squash, they have 189 menu items to choose from. Central Florida Public Media is Mary Ann Summerall reports. After a successful launch from the Kennedy Space Center, the crew of four and their space cuisine will fly around the moon. The menu includes a wide variety of foods with things like spicy green beans, tropical fruit salad, and maple cream cookies. In a NASA video about eating in space, astronaut Christina Cook says foods you wouldn't even imagine be

rehydrated are actually good. NASA's Norm Knight, the director of the flight operations directorate, says NASA tracks each meal to ensure the crew's health. We have a food lab and we have folks at the Johnson Space Center tracking what they eat, the nutrition, the calories. It makes a difference. Each crew member was able to help sample and craft their own menu preferences before launch. For NPR News, I'm Marion Summerall in Orlando. This is NPR. Myanmar's parliament has elected the general who ousted Nobel laurea Dong Song Suu Kyi as a country's new president.

The parliament vote comes after an election that analysts and opponents said was neither free nor fair. Nearly all childhood cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries, that's according to new research. And NPR's Gabriella Emmanuel reports that sub-Sahara African has some of the worst mortality rates and they're rising. pediatric cancers are generally not preventable, but with good medical care, they are treatable. Still, in 2023, there were nearly 150,000 pediatric cancer deaths worldwide, out of nearly 400,000 cases. Nikhil Bakhtam of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital co-authored the study published in The Lancet. He says in the U.S., the vast majority of children with cancer survive, but not in parts of Africa and Asia. less than 20% of children will survive, that disparity, that gap is one of the largest in all of global health.

That's because treating childhood cancer requires a well-functioning medical system. He says this research demonstrates where health systems need bolstering. Gabriela Emmanuel and PR News. Trump administration is designated microplastics and pharmaceuticals as contaminants in the nation's drinking water. The move was announced Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Director Lee Zeldon says it's a landmark move. However, the action does not require regulation and environmental groups say it comes even as the administration works to ease regulations on chemicals in the environment.