NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-04-2025 9PM EST

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

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This message comes from Wondery. At 24 years old, Monica Lewinsky was in a scandal that defined who she was for the entire world. And now she's ready to draw from her own experience on what it means to redefine yourself on her new podcast, Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Donald Trump is delivering a joint address to Congress at this hour. The White House says the theme of Trump's speech tonight will be the renewal of the American Dream. But NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports there are also plenty of controversies for the new

administration. Trump's speech comes as new tariffs he's imposed have gone into effect on China and allies Canada and Mexico. Tariffs are taxes paid to import goods from abroad. That means U.S. businesses pay U.S. tariffs. Those tariffs can cause higher prices for consumers. The speech also comes as the U.S. has suspended military aid to Ukraine days after an Oval Office argument between Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. During his speech, Trump is expected to ask Congress to pass new funding

for border security and possibly also an extension of tax cuts. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Excerpts of Trump's speech released by the White House says, quote, we have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started. The Office of Personnel Management has revised a January memo directing federal agencies to identify probationary employees they would later fire. NPR's Andrea Shue reports the reissued memo comes after a federal judge said the mass firing of probationary employees was illegal.

The new language in the memo states that OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees and that agencies have ultimate decision-making authority for such actions. But the revised memo does not tell agencies to reinstate the tens of thousands of probationary employees they fired after receiving instructions from OPM for how and when to do so. The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 800,000 civil servants, continues to call on agencies to rescind the terminations anyway. Already, the National Science Foundation says it is reinstating all 86 probationary employees it fired. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. The Supreme Court

is siding with San Francisco over the EPA in a lawsuit about its sewage from member station KQD Kevin Stark reports. Rainstorms can overwhelm San Francisco's water system causing it to repeatedly discharge raw sewage into the bay and ocean. The EPA said that violated the Clean Water Act but the city argued it was being held responsible for more than its share of water pollution, and the high court agreed. Environmentalists say this ruling could roll back clean water protections on a national scale, but UC law San Francisco professor Dave Owen says the narrow ruling tees the EPA up to respond with tighter regulations.

It's very possible that San Francisco comes out of this litigation in the long run with more burdensome and less effective permit terms that cost just as much, if not significantly more to deal with. EPA officials say they're reviewing the decision. For NPR News, I'm Kevin Stark in San Francisco. This is NPR. A Hong Kong-based conglomerate has announced plans to sell a controlling stake in a subsidiary that operates ports near the Panama Canal to a group that includes the investment firm

BlackRock. The move would effectively put the ports under U.S. control amid allegations from the Trump administration of Chinese interference with operations at the critical shipping lane. The deal is valued at nearly $23 billion plus $5 billion in debt. It would give BlackRock Group control over 43 ports in 23 countries. A research team says it has the tools scientists need to possibly detect fossilized microbial life on Mars. Ari Daniel has the story. The machine is about the size of a water bottle, and it was built to detect different elements,

including the chemical signatures of life. Youssefam is a PhD student at the University of Bern. It's basically a laser beam hitting the sample, and this laser will vaporize part of the material, creating some atoms. Salam used the instrument on a piece of gypsum he harvested from northern Algeria, gypsum that he knew contained fossilized microbes. We proved that our instrument is capable to detect signatures of life in the gypsum. Since gypsum is present on Mars as well, perhaps one day the instrument could be used to look for ancient microbes on the red planet, too.

The study highlights the intimate interconnection between minerals and microbes on our planet and perhaps beyond. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. Repeating this hour's top story, President Trump is delivering a joint address to Congress at this hour. The White House says the theme of Trump's speech will be the renewal of the American Dream. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.

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