NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-03-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

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At this year's Oscars, Anorah took home the award for Best Picture, Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin also picked up wins, and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo delivered a show-stopping opening number. For a recap of all the highlights, listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Rahm. President Trump announced today that tariffs on Canada and Mexico are about to go into effect. Tomorrow tariffs 25 percent on Canada and 25 percent on Mexico and that'll start. So they're going to have to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States.

The tariffs are being imposed to pressure Canada and Mexico to do more to stop the flow of illegal drugs across their borders into the U.S. As Trump was speaking, stock markets move sharply lower. The National Science Foundation says it plans to reinstate roughly half the staff it fired last month. As NPR's Jonathan Lampert reports, the move is in response to a federal court decision last week. Jonathan Lampert, NPR As of February, the National Science Foundation terminated about 10 percent of its staff in response to President Trump's executive orders aimed at reducing the federal workforce. At NSF, roughly half of those fired were probationary

employees who are typically in the first year of a new job. Last week, a federal judge ruled that the mass firings of probationary employees is illegal and should be stopped. In response, NSF says it plans to rehire, with full back pay, all 86 probationary staff they terminated. But the NSF will not be rehiring the other half of those fired as they were temporary employees. Many scientists worry that the mass firing would slow or stall the agency's work funding basic research across the U.S.

Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. As the West Texas measles outbreak continues to grow, infectious disease experts stress that vaccination is the best defense against the disease. Even longtime vaccine opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the nation's health secretary, wrote an op-ed this weekend in favor of inoculation. As NPR's Maria Kedoy reports, measles is one of the world's most contagious diseases. Measles is so contagious that if no one is vaccinated, one infected person can spread it to 18 others. By contrast, when at least 95% of a community is vaccinated, a sick person will be able

to infect less than one other person on average and an outbreak will die out. In Gaines County, Texas, the epicenter of the current outbreak, just under 82% of kindergartners are vaccinated. At that rate, one sick person could infect an average of three other unvaccinated people. Experts say high vaccination rates in Texas as a whole make it unlikely that the current outbreak will grow to include thousands of cases. But if vaccination rates continue to plummet, we could see more widespread infections in the next five to ten years.

Maria Godoy, NPR News. All the major stock indexes fell today. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 184 points, the S&P 500 was down 25 points, and the NASDAQ was down 130 points. This is NPR News in Washington. The National Weather Service is warning of more wildfires in North and South Carolina because of dry conditions and gusty winds. Fire crews battled dozens of fires in both states over the weekend.

The preliminary results of a study tied to NPR's Stress Less series shows that a set of eight skills can help improve positive emotions and reduce anxiety. NPR's Alison Aubrey reports. The thousands of people who signed up were offered the chance to practice a series of skills through an online course, including positive reappraisal, noticing positive events, and savoring them. One of the most striking findings is that participants' sense of self-efficacy increased, which means they started to believe more in their own ability to set a goal and accomplish it. Judy Moskowitz of Northwestern University, who developed the program and ran the study, says self-efficacy can go hand-in-hand with feeling more positive.

It's an upward spiral where you maybe take the first step. You feel some progress towards your goal. And this can increase positive emotion, which can then help people take the next step. Alison Aubrey, NPR News. The Senate is expected to vote this evening on whether Linda McMahon should be the next Secretary of Education. President Trump nominated her to head the department he wants to shut down.

McMahon had spent a year on the State board of education in Connecticut and was CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. McMahon also served as the leader of the Small Business Administration during President Trump's first term. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.