NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-05-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

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Bella DiPaolo is glad if you're happily married, but she is perfectly happy being single. I would love to have someone who took care of my car or someone who cleaned up the dishes after dinner, but then I'd want them to leave. From yourself to your dog to your spouse are significant others. That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. President Trump says his administration is just getting started. Speaking to a joint session of Congress, Trump touted his first six weeks in office.

But he was greeted by boos from Democrats when he claimed his election win in November amounts to a mandate for sweeping change. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country. Republicans began chanting USA to drown out the Democratic objections. Trump's speech was his first to Congress since regaining the White House, and it followed market turmoil after he imposed new tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada, and China. Here's St.Pierce Osmucalli. There are additional tariffs on steel and aluminum that are coming into place later this month, and then these big reciprocal tariffs on any country, he says, that puts

a tariff on us, he'll put a tariff back on them at an equal rate. He believes that this is a way to essentially increase revenue, balance the budget. There are many sort of multipurpose uses he feels for tariffs and that is really the central economic vision. However, in Trump's speech, he acknowledged that his tariffs will bring what he called a little disturbance and he asked American farmers to bear with him. During his first term, he made $20 billion available to help offset their losses. Toward the end of his address to Congress, President Trump read from a letter he said

he received from the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday. He said Zelensky expressed a willingness to come to the negotiating table. Earlier Tuesday, Zelensky said in a social media post that the Oval Office blow-up with President Trump was regrettable and that he's ready to work for peace. Zelensky's remarks came after the White House announced a pause in military aid to Ukraine. A top European Union official has launched a plan to raise $840 billion for defense spending. Terri Schulz reports the EU under pressure as the Trump administration suspends aid to Ukraine and warns it will scale back security commitments for Europe.

Many EU countries have lagged behind their commitments to increase their defense budgets and they're reluctant to make joint purchases of major weapons systems. Worried over developments both in Russia and the US, and reacting after the Trump administration cut military funding to Ukraine, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen unveiled proposals to make it easier for governments to spend more in a plan she calls Rearm Europe. This is Europe's moment and we must live up to it. The five-point plan lays out options such as relaxing the EU cap on national debt when it comes to military spending and

moving unspent money designed to go to underdeveloped regions into defense projects instead. Von der Leyen hopes leaders will approve the plan at a summit Thursday. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. And you're listening to NPR News. The White House is rejecting a Gaza reconstruction plan developed by Egypt and endorsed by other Arab states. The administration says in a statement that the plan does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and that President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza. Trump's plan calls for depopulating Gaza and redeveloping it as a beach destination. United Nations has made an emergency appeal for $11 million to

help the East African country of Uganda deal with an Ebola outbreak. The World Health Organization says two people have died from this latest outbreak. Uganda has for years depended on U.S. assistance to fund its health ministry, but Emmanuel Agunza reports that the country has been strained due to cuts to U.S. foreign aid. Uganda, like other countries in the region, relied heavily on U.S. funding for its health services. The United Nations says the emergency funds it is requesting will cover the Ebola response until May in seven high-risk districts. During Uganda's last Ebola outbreak in 2022, the United States provided $34 million

to fund surveillance and infection prevention. The Trump administration aid freeze has also affected other projects that were being run or funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development. For NPR News, I'm Emanuele Gunza in Nairobi, Kenya. The Vatican is out with its latest update on Pope Francis' recovery from double pneumonia, saying Francis rested well overnight and that he remains in stable condition with a guarded

prognosis, meaning he's not yet out of danger. He had two breathing crises on Monday. I'm Jyle Snyder, NPR News.