WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 3-19-26 (1/3)

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

The latest headlines in three minutes from WORLD updated three times throughout the day.Sign-up for the daily Sift email at thesift.org.Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.Additional support comes from WatersEdge. Competitive rates and supporting churches. 4.55% APY on a 13-month term investment. WatersEdge.com/invest

With World Radio News, I'm Kent Covington. Intelligence community officials answered pointed questions on Capitol Hill Wednesday about threats to the nation. World's Harrison Waters reports from Washington. America is safer thanks to strict border control and cracking down on drug trafficking, according to Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. But she told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that threats from Islamist groups and nuclear powers like Russia and China are on the rise. The IC assesses that threats to the homeland will be.

expand collectively to more than 16,000 missiles by 2035. Other threats include drug cartels and cyber attacks. Lawmakers also probed Gabbard on her assessment of the imminent risk posed by Iran. It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. Okay. That is up to the president based on a volume of information. No, it is, it is precisely that he received. Gabbard avoided specifics on what the CIA and other intelligence agencies told the president before he authorized airstrikes on Iran. Reporting for World, I'm Harrison Waters in Washington. The Federal Reserve is once again holding interest rates steady.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced that on Wednesday. Powell said that a major factor in this week's decision is the war in Iran. The chairman said its impacts on the U.S. economy are unknowable. The U.S. economy is doing pretty well. It's just we don't know what the effects of this will be, and really no one does. Powell also said that he has no intention of leaving the Federal Reserve before a Justice Department probe into his congressional testimony is resolved. Washington is taking steps to boost global oil supplies during the war with Iran.

The Treasury Department has announced it is easing sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company, letting U.S. buyers purchase Venezuelan oil on world markets. That marks a sharp policy shift after years of restrictions. The President, though, says he's confident that elevated gas prices will come down. quickly once the war in Iran is over. Pakistan and Afghanistan have announced a temporary pause in fighting following a deadly strike in Kabul. World's Benjamin Iker reports. Dozens of plain wooden caskets lined a Kabul cemetery Wednesday as Pakistan announced a temporary

halt in its strikes against Afghanistan. Afghan officials claim a Pakistani airstrike one day killed more than 400 people at a drug rehabilitation hospital. Pakistan flatly denies targeting the hospital, insisting it strikes hit military facilities, and that the Taliban casualty figures are pure propaganda. The pause comes ahead the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitter, and runs through midnight Monday. For World, I'm Benjamin Iker. And I'm Kent Covington.

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