NPR News: 03-22-2026 3AM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Iran's state news agency says Israeli and U.S. forces have hit a uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. As NPR's Emily Fang reports, Israel and the U.S. say Iran's enrichment capabilities have now been severely degraded.
On Friday, Netanyahu said this. Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles. Iran's state news agency said joint U.S. and Israeli strikes began hitting the Natanz uranium enrichment facility the next day, early Saturday morning. Israel's military denied such strikes, telling NPR in a statement it was not aware of them. The Natanz facility was already struck by Israel on March 2nd. The United Nations nuclear watchdog said it had detected no increase in off-site radiation levels today after Iran's report of a second strike. Emily Fang, Empire News, Van, Turkey.
Iran struck two communities near Israel's main nuclear research center late Saturday. The attack destroyed some of the buildings and seriously injured at least seven people. It was the first time Israel's nuclear research center has been targeted in the fighting. The attack came after Tehran's main nuclear enrichment site was hit in an Israeli attack. President Trump says he'll order federal immigration officers to help out with airport security as early as Monday unless a bill to fund homeland security is passed by Congress. TSA officers have been working without pay since the partial government shutdown began five weeks ago, and that's led to sometimes hours-long delays in security lines at some airports.
Ann Alrick was passing through Atlanta's airport where lines at one point were two hours long. She says they don't blame the TSA agents for the slowdowns.
We're federal workers ourselves. We went through this last fall not getting paid, but TSA workers have been so wonderful and compassionate and kind and positive in spite of their circumstance.
A powerful storm continues to move across Hawaii this weekend, and the entire state remains under a flood watch. Hawaii Public Radio's Bill Dorman has our reports.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green calls it the worst flooding in 20 years to hit the state and estimates damages already around a billion dollars and counting. The storm system slammed Oahu Friday night and Saturday, swamping houses, cars and power lines and forcing the evacuation of more than 5,000 people. Now the flash flooding and the evacuations are moving east across the island chain to Maui. Power is out to more than 8,000 customers across the islands, the vast majority of them on the most populous island of Oahu. For NPR News, I'm Bill Dorman in Honolulu.
Fighting is continuing in Ukraine this weekend. Officials say a Russian drone hit a home in Zaporizhia Saturday. Two people were killed in that strike. Russian attacks also knocked out power across a northern portion of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces also shelled the Belgorod border area. Officials there say two women were killed in that attack. You're listening to NPR News. At least 64 people have been killed, including at least 13 children, after a strike hit a hospital in Sudan's Darfur region this weekend. The World Health Organization says the attack also left the hospital non-functional. The rapid support forces are blaming the Sudanese military for the attack, but the military says they targeted a police station nearby.
The UN says fighting in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people since April of 2023. New research out this month says President Trump has damaged American democracy at remarkable speed, and they say he's pushed the U.S. closer to authoritarianism. NPR's Frank Langford has more on that story.
Brightline Watch, which surveys more than 500 U.S. scholars, finds that through tactics such as amassing executive power and attacking the media, Trump has pushed the U.S. system to a point nearly midway between liberal democracy and dictatorship. Dartmouth's Brendan Nyhan co-directs the survey.
I would say the goal is to govern as an authoritarian.
Another report out by Sweden's VDEM Institute found America's democracy ranking plunged last year from 20th to 51st out of 179 countries, a sign it said that U.S.
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