NPR News: 03-31-2026 1PM EDT
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What are the current U.S. gas prices and their causes?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. U.S. gas prices are the highest they have been since 2022. The Auto Club AAA finds drivers are now paying on average $4 for a gallon of regular gasoline. The surge at the gas pump connected to higher oil prices tied to the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. The latest attack involved an Iranian strike on a Kuwaiti oil tanker. Today, authorities in Dubai said there was no oil leakage and no known injuries. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently made an undisclosed trip to the Middle East to visit U.S. troops. He discusses visit during a news conference at the Pentagon. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports Hegseth claims regime change has been achieved in Iran.
Hegseth visited troops over the weekend. He said morale was high and the U.S. is rapidly building bunkers to protect troops and aircraft from Iranian strikes. Hegseth echoed President Trump's claim that Iran's new leadership is now more moderate. Many Iran experts believe it's more hardline. Hegseth said opening the Strait of Hormuz and rocketing worldwide oil prices are not America's problem.
Countries around the world who ought be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well. It's not just the United States Navy.
He said the Trump administration prefers a negotiated settlement but would not rule out using ground troops. Quill Lawrence, NPR News.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 against a law that bans conversion therapy for LGBTQ plus minors in Colorado. The majority of the court finds the law raises free speech concerns. Here's NPR's Nina Totenberg.
Colorado's law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it centers speech based on viewpoint. Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same, but the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.
NPR's Nina Totenberg. Federal prosecutors in New York are examining whether large payouts on prediction market sites like Polymarket have violated insider trading laws. NPR's Bobbi Allen reports.
Polymarket bettors earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on the timing of military strikes in Iran and when Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was captured. Now, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are investigating the trades. CNN first reported the probe. Both Polymarket and its main competitor, Cauchy, say they ban insider trading, but policing is largely left up to the platforms themselves. Polymarket has had many markets on wars and military actions.
What did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say about U.S. troops in the Middle East?
It operates an overseas exchange based in Panama. A spokesman for New York's U.S. Attorney's Office said prediction markets are not outside the scope of anti-money laundering and insider trading laws. Billions of dollars are bet every week on polymarket in Kaoshi.
That's Bobby Allen. It's NPR. A Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of oil docked today at the Cuban port of Matanzas. It's the first such tanker to reach the island in three months since shipments were halted by its main supplier, Venezuela. In January, the U.S. military seized former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife to face drug trafficking charges in New York. Despite a U.S. blockade, the Trump administration says it did not object to other assistance to Cuba. As sports betting expands across the U.S., concerns about addiction are growing, especially among young people. Now, the University of Mississippi is launching what it calls the first research center of its kind in the nation focused on gambling on college campuses.
Here's NPR's Windsor Johnston.
The Center on Collegiate Gambling will study how betting affects students and student-athletes, including addiction risks, mental health, and pressure tied to game outcomes. It will also develop prevention strategies and help shape policy. Kate Humble with the National Council on Problem Gambling says the ease of access is a major concern.
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