NPR News: 03-16-2026 3PM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh.
What executive order is President Trump expected to sign regarding fraud?
President Trump is expected to sign an executive order this hour launching a whole-of-government approach to tackling fraud. The president announced the effort in a State of the Union address last month. Here's NPR's Deepa Shivaram.
Trump tasked Vice President J.D. Vance with overseeing the task force that will look into fraud on the federal and state level. In an interview with Fox News, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt specifically mentioned tackling fraud in states like New York and California, both led by Democrats. We're going to turn every page to find and identify this fraud, to prosecute the individuals who are engaged in it. This will be, again, a whole-of-government effort. Vance has also been tasked with looking into fraud in Minnesota, another Democrat-led state. Last month, the administration suspended Medicaid payments to the state until they came up with a plan to tamp down on fraud. Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, the White House.
The president slamming allies who are rebuffing a U.S. request for warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Iran war's closure of the strategic bottleneck has an impact on global oil supplies and prices. But Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, says the straits open to countries not at war with Iran.
It is only closed to the tankers and ships belonging to our enemies, to those who are attacking us and their allies. Others are free to pass.
Meanwhile, the State Department is giving its embassies talking points to try to encourage more countries to impose sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps and Iran's proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. This coming as President Trump seeks help again in reopening the Strait. More from NPR's Michelle Kellerman.
U.S. diplomats are being told they should lobby their host governments to designate the IRGC and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, and they should work on that with Israeli diplomats. The diplomatic cable seen by NPR says that the Iranian regime is more sensitive to collective action than unilateral action. It gives examples of the history of Iran's nefarious actions in Asia, Europe, Latin America, as well as across the Middle East. It also says the goals of the U.S. and Israeli strikes are to, quote, neutralize Iran's nuclear program, destroy its ballistic missile program, disrupt its proxy networks, and diminish its naval capabilities. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is rallying other Democrats to help force a vote on a bill that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security and therefore get staffers at the TSA, FEMA, and other agencies paid again. But immigration enforcement agencies would not be included. Democrats who've accused the administration of flouting due process are demanding sweeping immigration enforcement reforms. From Washington, this is NPR News. Various forms of extreme weather is hitting nearly every part of the United States. The National Weather Service says, "...a major winter storm will continue to bring blizzard conditions, heavy snowfall, icing, and strong winds through today across the upper Midwest and upper Great Lakes."
Widespread severe storms are expected across the entire eastern U.S., with the highest threat over the interior mid-Atlantic, where there is a risk for damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes, and blistering heat continues to build in the western U.S. Today marks 100 years since the launch of the world's first modern rocket from a snowy field in Massachusetts. Sam Turkin of member station GBH in Boston reports the launch set the stage for space exploration as we know it.
Massachusetts scientist Robert Goddard figured out that in order to reach space, a rocket would need liquid fuel, like gasoline mixed with oxygen. And even though his first liquid-fueled rocket a century ago only rose a couple dozen feet, liquid fuel would go on to become the main propellant for rocket ships. Lori Leshin is a space scientist who formerly led NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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