NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-05-2025 1PM EST

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

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Lai from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started. President Trump's address last night to a joint session of Congress, heralding an overhaul of federal government and upheaval for its workforce. The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to shrink its workforce by about 80,000 jobs. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports an internal VA memo set the goal at 2019 staffing levels. Quill Lawrence A memo from the VA Chief of Staff seen by NPR says VA will increase efficiency

and cut jobs in cooperation with Elon Musk's Doge team and return VA to its size six years ago. That's before Congress passed the PACT Act. That law opened the doors of VA health care and benefits to millions of veterans who'd been made sick by toxic exposures going back decades, like nuclear tests, Agent Orange in Vietnam, or burn pits in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Biden administration went on a hiring spree to cope with a massive influx, both to process veterans' applications and treat their health issues. Veterans groups warn the VA is still short-staffed, especially in hard-to-fill health care positions. The

VA secretary has repeatedly promised that cuts won't hurt veterans. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. An independent federal agency is ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily rehire more than 5,000 employees who were fired since February 13, finding reasonable grounds to believe the agency acted illegally in terminating the workers. A Hamas official tells NPR that it is holding direct talks with the United States over the fate of several Americans taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel. This is a major shift in U.S. policy, which previously did not have any direct communication with Hamas.

Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled to make a stop in Eagle Pass, Texas today. The border city had been at the center of the fight between the Biden administration and the state of Texas over immigration enforcement. Here's Texas Public Radio's Maria Navarro. Vance is expected to visit an immigration processing center and deliver remarks on the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies in Shelby Park, a public park on the banks of the Rio Grande seized by the state of Texas. America Garcia-Graywall with the Eagle Pass Border Coalition says the Mexican government has played a large part in the reduction of crossings.

They had the Mexican military, the Mexican National Guard out patrolling the river banks and keeping people from even getting on buses to come up toward the border. A large base camp is being constructed in the city for Texas National Guard soldiers deployed on state orders. I'm Marianne Navarro in San Antonio. US stocks from Mix Vesau were at last checked on Wall Street. The Dow was up 133 points and the S&P was up four while the NASDAQ climbed 28. From Washington, this is NPR News.

The Prime Minister of Greenland, Mute Eggede, has a blunt message for President Trump. Greenland is ours. Egede reacting hours after President Trump declared in his speech to a joint session of Congress last night the U.S. needs the territory for international world security and will acquire Greenland, quote, one way or the other. Trump's vocal interests in Greenland have elevated calls for the semi-autonomous region to be fully independent of Denmark, but the Prime Minister of Greenland argues his people have no interest in becoming American.

People around the world are tuned into a 24-7 livestream of the newest reality TV stars perched high in the mountains east of Los Angeles. As Madison Aumont of member station KVCR reports, two eaglets have hatched in Big Bear Lake California and their introduction into the world has gone viral. The new parents, two eagles known as Jackie and Shadow, have become internet celebrities. Early in the morning, some 75,000 people watched as the chicks, only about three inches tall, hatched. Sandy Steers, who runs the camera, says from now on, Jackie and Shadow will be busy.

They will be protecting the eaglets and keeping them warm and covered and away from the elements and they will be bringing food continuously. Listen closely and you can hear Jackie pick tiny pieces off a fish from nearby Big Bear Lake to feed the chicks. Steer says a third egg could still hatch. She says to stay tuned because soon the chicks will learn to fly. For NPR News, I'm Madison Aument. The Dow is up more than 300 points.

It's NPR News.