NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

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These days, there's so much news, it can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community. The Consider This podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump has signed executive orders that give both Canada and Mexico a break on import tariffs of 25% for goods covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement. The break will last until at least April 2nd when Trump plans to begin reciprocal tariffs

on goods from a wider range of countries. Canada and Mexico may avert the 25 percent tariffs beyond April 2nd if they show they have made more progress curbing fentanyl trafficking, according to a senior administration official who spoke with reporters on a conference call ahead of the signing. Trump convened cabinet secretaries and Elon Musk today where federal workforce cuts were discussed in a social media post. Trump wrote that now that he has his cabinet in place, he's instructed the secretaries and leadership to work with Doge on cost cutting measures and staffing. He says as the secretaries learn about and understand the

people working for the various departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain and who will go. Musk met with Senate Republicans at the Capitol for more than an hour yesterday, and PRC's Deidre Walsh reports Musk sought to explain how the unit known as DOGE actually works. Some GOP senators want more specifics about cuts, and Musk offered to provide a phone number they could call for answers. Florida Republican Rick Scott said Musk explained how the Doge team was operating. They're going through and looking for anomalies where they can say

hey does this make sense? Should we be spending money this way? But Scott insisted that agency heads are the ones making decisions about any changes. Doge's critics dispute that. Democrats have railed on Musk's blunt and fast moves to fire federal workers. Congress approves spending levels for federal departments. But so far, few Republican lawmakers are publicly complaining about Musk stepping on their power of the purse. Deirdre Walsh, NPR

News, the Capitol. Deirdre Walsh, NPR News, the Capitol. The head of a federal office that protects whistleblowers says he is ending a legal battle to keep his job. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports a move comes a day after a federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration to remove him. Hampton Dellinger says he strongly disagrees with the decision that allows Trump to sideline him while the dispute moves through the court system, but that he will accept and abide by it because that's what Americans do. Dellinger says it could take months for the legal fight to play out in the

courts and all the while the office of special counsel would be run by someone quote, totally beholden to President Trump. That office helps investigate whistleblower claims and protect them from retaliation. This year, Dellinger's also been investigating the firings of federal workers who'd been on probationary status. Kari Johnson, NPR News, Washington. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down

more than 500 points or 1.2%. It's NPR News. Engineers with the company Intuitive Machines are still evaluating what happened to a small probe that landed earlier today on the surface of the moon. NPR's Jeff Brumfield says the lander appears to be struggling to communicate with Earth. Everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly as the lander came down towards the surface of the moon, right where it was supposed to to be and then all of a sudden at the moment of touchdown mission control got very very quiet. Now they do say the lander appears to be on the moon and it is getting power

but they're not quite sure what's wrong. We should hear more soon. NPR's Jeff Brumfield reporting. Now to South Sudan where security forces have arrested the oil minister and an army general who are senior members of the main opposition. NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu reports the arrests have sparked fears the peace deal that led to the end of the country's brutal civil war may be in trouble. General Gabriel Duplam and the oil minister Pot Kanchol are key figures in the Sudan people's liberation movement in opposition. Their arrests have ignited tensions in the world's youngest nation. Both

men are also allies of the first Vice President Riek Machar, who is a major rival of President Salva Kiir. A heavy deployment of security forces were also sent to Machar's residence, and allies of the Vice President have been put under house arrest. A 2018 peace deal led to an end of the civil war, but the deal expired last month and a power struggle continues. Emanuel Akiwoto, NPR News, Lagos. The Nasdaq is now down 2.6 percent, the S&P is down nearly 2 percent. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.