NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

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Hey, it's Amartines. I work on a news show. And yeah, the news can feel like a lot on any given day. But you just can't ignore las noticias when important world-changing events are happening. So that is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen to the Up First podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. President Trump's 25% tariffs are in effect on imported goods from Canada and Mexico, but he has given a one-month

reprieve to the big three US automakers. The high tariff rates are still in place for nearly all other goods. The tariffs affect many industries. Jack Vesey is a produce grower in California. He says so far he has not seen any losses. Any type of tariff or trade war there's winners and losers. There's certain things that you know might be a positive for us. There may be some things that might be negatives. You know concern on fertilizer price and some of our inputs. You know if those increase that's gonna put a damper on things. That's gonna increase our cost.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that he expects Canada and the U.S. to be in a trade war for the foreseeable future. Billionaire Elon Musk continues to oversee President Trump's efforts to overhaul the federal government with his Doge entity. Musk has stated an ambitious goal to cut $1 trillion in federal spending by the end of this fiscal year in September. But as NPR's Stephen Fowler reports, any major changes of that magnitude are supposed to be driven by Congress, not Doge. For every dollar the federal government has spent so far since the start of this fiscal

year in October 2024, Doge has claimed to save the equivalent of about four pennies. An NPR review finds those savings claims from actions like pushing agencies to fire workers and cut contracts are drastically inflated. But even if you take those numbers at face value, Doge's focus is on such a small part of the multi-trillion dollar federal budget handled by Congress. About two-thirds of this year's federal spending has been on social security, Medicare, health programs, income security, and veterans' benefits and services. Most of what's left goes toward interest on the debt and defense. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta.

Members of Congress grilled mayors from four Democratic cities yesterday for hours. They questioned the mayors about their policies concerning people who are illegally in the United States. NPR's Jimena Vastillo reports the mayors defended their use of taxpayer dollars to address the needs in their cities. The mayors of Chicago, Boston, Denver, and New York were summoned to Washington to defend their so-called sanctuary city policies. Those policies generally limit local law enforcement from participating in federal immigration and customs enforcement activity. Supporters argue this preserves trust

in local law enforcement and leaves federal law enforcement to federal agencies. Critics say there's a lack of cooperation bordering on obstruction and at odds with President Trump's goals to increase deportations. The Democratic mayors also said that much of their recent policy has been in response to Republican governors sending recently arrived migrants to their cities on buses.

Jimena Bustillo, NPR News. On Wall Street, the Dow is down about 150 points. The Nasdaq is down about 1%. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The House has voted to censure Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green. He stood up and criticized President Trump on Tuesday during Trump's address to a joint session of Congress. Trump claimed that he had a mandate from voters.

Green said he did not have a mandate to cut Medicaid. When Green was ordered to sit down, he refused and then was removed from the chamber. Green says he would do it again. The Republican-led House has now voted to censure Green. The Democrat is a former president of the Houston NAACP. Barnes and Noble workers in three stores in New York have reached a union contract with the company. This marks the first collective bargaining deal in the nation for the bookstore chain and Piers Alina Seljuk has more. Barnes & Noble has been expanding in the past two years and some workers have pushed to unionize. They've succeeded so far at

seven locations. At three of them the union and the company have now reached their first ever collective bargaining contract. a deal on pay and benefits like wage increases and new safety measures including anti-slip mats in the cafe and paid car rides for late night shifts. That's according to the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union which represents workers at these stores. All of them are in New York City including the Barnes and Noble flagship store. The union says a fourth location is expected to ratify its contract this weekend in Bloomington, Illinois. Alina Seluk, NPR News.

The Vatican says Pope Francis had a quiet night and remains in stable and guarded condition. He continues to rest in the Rome hospital where he is being treated for pneumonia.