NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

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NPR informs and connects communities around the country, providing reliable information in times of crisis. Federal funding helps us fulfill our mission to create a more informed public and ensures that public radio remains available to everyone. Learn more about safeguarding the future of public media. Visit ProtectMyPublicMedia.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. President Trump is walking back 25 percent tariffs on some goods from Canada and Mexico

for four weeks. Trump signed executive orders at the White House this afternoon pausing the tariffs on goods that are covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. He says this action isn't related to the recent market downturn, which he blames on what he calls globalist companies, calling the tariff market shocks, a, quote, little short-term interruption. I'm not even looking at the market, because long-term, the United States will be very strong with what's happening here. Now, these are countries and companies, foreign companies,

that have been ripping us off, and no president did anything about it until I came along. Trump also says both countries could avert the 25 percent tariff beyond April 2nd if they show they've made more progress curbing fentanyl trafficking. This is the second one-month postponement that Trump has made since first unveiling the import taxes early last month. And Trump told his cabinet to date, they're in charge of staff reductions, not Elon Musk. As MPR's Bobby Allen reports, it marks one of the first times Trump appears to be reigning in the authority of Musk. Since Trump took office, Musk has been exerting

wide and unusual control over federal agencies. In his capacity as a special government employee in the White House, Musk has pushed the termination of thousands of federal workers and the near total dissolution of some agencies. In his big speech to Congress this week, Trump praised Musk for doing it. But now Trump is telling his cabinet and other officials they are in charge of policy and firings, not Musk. Elon has been really teaching everybody about the numbers that you can do, but what I want is I want the numbers, but I also want to keep the good people. This follows lawmakers of both parties raising concerns about

Musk's chainsaw approach. Bobby Allen, NPR News. This commercial company, SpaceX, has again lost one of its giant Starship rockets during a test launch. As NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports, the rocket exploded, scattering debris across the Caribbean. The rocket appeared to lift off smoothly. But eight minutes into flight, four of Starship's six rocket engines cut out, sending the spacecraft tumbling out of control. Moments later, onlookers in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic all posted on social

media what appeared to be shots of debris streaking across the sky. Flight tracking data shows many airliners were forced to divert suddenly to avoid the debris as it fell to Earth. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. Wall Street sharply lower by the closing bell, the Dow down nearly 1 percent, the Nasdaq down 2.6 percent. But U.S. futures contracts are trading positive. Dow futures up two-tenths of a percent.

Nasdaq futures are up about a half percent. You're listening to NPR News. The Trump administration is appealing a federal judge's decision that President Trump didn't have the authority to fire a National Labor Relations board member. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell says the firing of Gwen Wilcox was illegal because presidents don't have the power to remove Labor board members accepting cases of neglect of duty or malfeasance. She ordered Wilcox return to her seat on the board to finish out her term, which expires

in 2028. With her return, the NLRB once again has a quorum and can resume its work adjudicating labor disputes between workers and employers and issuing decisions. Butterfly numbers have fallen 22 percent since the year 2000, according to new research in the journal Science. As NPR's Jonathan Lambert explains, such declines likely extend to all kinds of insects. Jonathan Lambert Monitoring insect populations over time can be tricky, since they're often small and hard to find. But for decades, butterfly enthusiasts

and scientists alike have counted butterflies across the country. Now a team of researchers analyzed butterfly counts from 2000 to 2020, finding declines in all parts of the US for all sorts of butterflies. The researchers found 13 times as many species dropped in numbers as opposed to increased. Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change are all likely to blame. Those forces harm other insects too, ones that are harder to study but play key roles in many ecosystems. Jonathan Lampert, NPR News. And I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.

This message comes from Wondery. At 24 years old, Monica Lewinsky was in a scandal that defined who she was Washington.