NPR News: 03-09-2026 3AM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. In Iran, a panel of senior clerics has named a new supreme leader to head the country. As NPR's Jackie Northam reports, the choice signals continuity for Iran's hardline regime.
A panel of 88 clerics chose overwhelmingly to make Mojtaba Khamenei Iran's new supreme leader. He's the 56-year-old son of the former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike at the start of the war. The younger Khamenei is considered a hardliner who was closely associated with a violent crackdown on protesters during the 2009 so-called Green Revolution. Khamenei is close with the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. It has pledged its support for the new supreme leader. Pro-regime state TV showed images of large crowds celebrating the news. Last week, President Trump said Khamenei was a lightweight and an unacceptable choice to lead Iran. Israel has vowed to target him.
Jackie Northam, NPR News.
A senior Chinese official says he hopes U.S.-China relations will have a landmark year. It's the first positive signal China has given that a planned meeting between the country's two leaders might still go ahead this year. NPR's Jennifer Peck reports from Beijing.
Over the past week, China has continually criticized the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and that raises questions over whether the China-U.S. summit will still happen. On Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China is open to dialogue, though he did not confirm a meeting date. China and the U.S. are big countries. We can't change each other. China and the U.S. are both big countries. Neither side can remodel the other, he says. But we can choose how we want to engage. Wang says U.S.-China talks are vital for global stability. Jennifer Pak, NPR News, Beijing.
A senior OpenAI executive has resigned. That move follows the company's decision to provide its artificial intelligence technology to the U.S. military. As Villa Marx reports, the departure highlights growing tensions in the tech industry over how advanced AI should be used in national security in the country.
Caitlin Kalinowski, who worked in a senior role on robotics and consumer hardware at OpenAI, announced she was stepping down after the company agreed to deploy its AI models on the Pentagon's classified networks. In a statement on social media, Kalinowski said AI could play an important role in national security, but warned the deal itself lacked sufficient safeguards. She cited concerns about potential uses such as surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomous systems operating without human authorization. OpenAI says the agreement includes restrictions and that its technology will not be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons, though Kalinowski said the company moved too quickly in approving its government partnership.
For NPR News, I'm Willem Maag. And this is NPR News.
Japan's Nikkei index closed down more than 5% when markets closed Monday as traders pulled back because of concerns over the war in Iran. South Korea's Kospi fell 6% and the price of Brent crude oil jumped 18% to finish at more than $108 a barrel. Louisiana's crawfish industry is facing a shortage of workers as the season gets underway. As Mel Bridges with Member Station WWNO reports, it's due to the Trump administration's changes in federal work visa policy.
Louisiana Agricultural Commissioner Mike Strain explained to state legislators that the issue isn't a lack of eligible workers. Crawfish peeling plants remain understaffed even with an expanded number of H-2B visas.
They simply cannot get their workers. And so some of the plants that normally get 100, 135 workers have gotten zero.
The visas allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers for seasonal agricultural jobs. While the administration recently lifted the cap on visas by an additional 35,000, the extra visas were distributed via lottery system and only through early February, three months after crawfish season began, leaving many peeling plants at diminished capacity.
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