NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

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On Thru Line from NPR. The consequences for the country would have been enormous. It would have been a crisis. The man who saw a dangerous omission in the US Constitution and took it upon himself to fix it. Find NPR's Thru Line wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump now says he will suspend 25 percent tariffs on more imported goods coming from Mexico. NPR's Frank Ordonez reports on the latest twist in the tariff saga.

The one-month pause would apply to goods that fall under the free trade agreement Trump negotiated in his first term with Mexico and Canada. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement allows goods to move between the three countries tariff-free if they are produced entirely of materials sourced in those countries. Trump said he agreed to the exemption out of respect for Mexican President Claudia Schoenbaum, who he says is working hard with the U.S. to stop migrants from entering the U.S. illegally. Trump says he agreed to pause the tariffs until April 2nd, which is also the date that Trump says he'll impose reciprocal tariffs on goods from a wider range of countries. Franco Ordoñez, NPR News, the White House. The White House says it has brought down migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border to record

level. NPR's Jasmine Garst has details. Customs and Border Protection has not yet released its official numbers for the month of February, but President Donald Trump says that it's a historic low. 8,326 apprehensions by Border Patrol agents on the southern border. For comparison, back in 2023, the US-Mexico border saw a record high number of border apprehensions, nearly 250,000. However, migrant encounters began decreasing mid-last year, going down to about 96,000

by December 2024. In a statement, the Trump administration said, quote, illegal border crossers have given up and are returning to their own countries. Jasmine Garst, NPR News, New York. In a statement released today, Hampton Dellinger, who's challenged the administration's decision to fire him as special counsel

of the US Office of Special Counsel, says his legal battle is now over. Late yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia responding to an appeal by the administration allowed Dellinger to be removed from his post after district court reinstated him. The European Union's 27 member nations are holding an emergency meeting. They're working on ramping up their military spending in the event President Trump reduces support for European allies, including for Ukraine's defense against Russia. Here's Terri Schultz. You can really feel the worry here in a way I haven't seen since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine

started three years ago. And interestingly, that isn't because Moscow's doing anything differently. It's been relentlessly attacking Ukraine since the beginning of the war. The difference is this rapid deterioration of relations between the Trump administration and Ukraine, the spat between the presidents in the Oval Office last week and a subsequent suspension of military assistance and now intelligence sharing, which is essential to Ukraine on the battlefield. Terry Schultz covering the meeting in Brussels. This is NPR News. A Houston-based company says Athena, its privately owned robotic spacecraft, landed on the moon, but its status is still unclear. When intuitive machines

put another lander, Odysseus, on the moon a year ago, it ended up sideways. On this flight, the Athena lander is carrying equipment, including an ice drill, to cut into the surface of the Moon's South Pole and collect samples. On Sunday, another U.S. company, Firefly Aerospace, became the first private company to successfully land its spacecraft on the Moon. 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. NPR's Alina Soliuk reports. 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 Nasdaq Composite Index is now down more than two and a half percent. The S&P has fallen more than two percent and the Dow down more than one percent. This is NPR News.