NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 1PM EST

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

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Laxmelea Sing Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Laxmelea Sing. President Trump's announced on social media that the U.S. plans to exempt more imported goods from Mexico until April 2nd. Earlier this week, he launched 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on CNBC. Howard Lutnick Hopefully, Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part

of the conversation will be off the table and will move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation. President Trump set April 2nd as the date to begin reciprocal tariffs on goods from a wider range of countries. Billionaire Elon Musk continues to oversee President Trump's efforts to overhaul the federal government with his Doge entity. He 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 tells us, 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 towards interest on the debt and defense. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. The European Union's holding emergency talks in Brussels about increasing its defenses, including in support of Ukraine against Russian military forces in the event President Trump

disengages with the U.S.'s longtime allies. About a week after he visited the White House, French President Emmanuel Macron said he plans to speak with other European leaders about the possibility of using France's nuclear deterrent to protect the continent from Russian aggression. President Trump says he has issued the Palestinian militant group Hamas its, quote, last warning to release hostages held in Gaza. And Piers Hadil Al-Shalchi has more. President Donald Trump threatened Hamas this week, saying if they don't release all the hostages, both dead and alive, it's quote over for the group.

In a social media post, Trump also said he was quote sending Israel everything it needs to quote finish the job. This comes after the White House said U.S. officials have had direct talks with Hamas on the hostage deal. Hamas rebuffed Trump's threat saying that it will only free the Israeli hostages if all sides reached a deal that would see a permanent end to the war in Gaza. The group said that it wanted to enter the second phase of the ceasefire, which would also see a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. From Washington, this is NPR News. A new report says that students are doing worse in math and reading in the U.S. That's partly due to students missing school. NPR's Janaki Mehta tells us the report shows that attendance rates are improving, but there are some exceptions. A group called School Status has been tracking over a million students in more than 143 districts across seven states. Most districts it tracks are in California. Its latest report looked at the first half

of the current school year and found that average daily attendance rates for pre-K through 12 students is 93.45%. Close to numbers before the pandemic, which averaged around 94%. But older students between 10th and 12th grade are chronically absent more often than younger students and momentum toward more regular attendance has slowed this year compared to last, raising concerns that

if students don't get back in the classroom their grades and their very futures could be at stake. Janaki Mehta, NPR News. Some basic operations in eastern Australia are at a standstill. Cyclone Alfred has forced public transportation, airports and schools to shut down. Local officials say the storm is likely to make landfall by Saturday morning near Brisbane, one of Australia's most populous cities. The government says Australia's defense forces are on standby to assist with emergency operations. U.S. stocks trading sharply lower this hour.

The Dow is down more than 500 points or more than 1 percent at $42,497. The S&P is down more than 100 points, more than 1.8 percent. NASDAQ is down 2 percent. It's NPE off.