NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-05-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korova Coleman, President Trump gave his address to a joint session of Congress last night. He told lawmakers he will accelerate his efforts to dramatically reshape the federal government. Trump also pointed to his work to stop illegal immigration into the U.S. NPR's Jimena Bustillo reports Trump is claiming illegal border crossings into the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level ever. The agency itself, that's Customs and Border Protection, has not reported the numbers for February.

However, posts on social media by the president suggest the administration believes it's on track to report about 8,500 arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border in the month of February. This could be the lowest number of crossings since Homeland Security started reporting the data in 2000. And Piers Jimena Bustillo reporting. The Democratic response in English to Trump's speech came from Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin. The Spanish response came from New York Congressman Adriana Espaillat. Other Democratic lawmakers protested during the speech.

Texas Congressman Al Green heckled Trump, saying he did not have a mandate to cut Medicaid. And Pierce Elena Moore reports Green was removed from the chamber. Lawmakers in the opposition party have been vocal from their seats in years past, but Green's removal was a break from tradition. He stood up and began yelling at Trump after the president claimed he had been given a mandate following his 2024 election win. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country.

Green responded by saying Trump didn't have a mandate, but was escorted out after refusing to take his seat after a warning from House Speaker Mike Johnson. Other lawmakers led quieter protests. A group of Democrats walked out during the address. Some were wearing shirts that read, resist. Elena Moore, NPR News. The Office of Personnel Management has revised a January memo. This directed federal agencies to identify probationary employees whom they would later

fire from their jobs. As NPR's Andrea Hsu reports, the reissued memo comes after a federal judge said the mass firing of probationary employees was illegal and should be stopped. 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. This is NPR. Arab leaders meeting in Cairo have proposed a plan to rebuild Gaza. The plan keeps Gazan Palestinians in the enclave and envisions it as part of a future Palestinian state.

This plan is not supported by President Trump or by Israel, but the Arab nation's plan was hastily developed to counter a different one from Trump that would force out Palestinians and turn Gaza into a U controlled tourist destination. An international commission of US and Canadian officials is reporting that water levels in the Great Lakes have fallen. From member station WCMU, Teresa Homesy reports the levels are at their lowest in a decade. Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior are all about eight inches lower than the historical average, spanning the last 100 years.

Low water levels can cause shipping vessels to run aground, limit recreational access, and increase erosion. Ricky Roode is a professor with the University of Michigan. He says climate change is resulting in extremes of both high and low lake levels, in a tug-of-war trend. Climate change has the potential to amplify the flood and drought cycles. The levels are expected to rise during the spring thaw. For NPR News, I'm Teresa Homesy in Sheboygan, Michigan. A major winter storm is hammering much of the central U.S. and it is sweeping to the

east. There are blizzard conditions from northern Missouri to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The storm is also bringing damaging winds to the south. At least two people were killed yesterday in Mississippi. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News from Washington.