NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-07-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

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This message comes from Wondery. At 24 years old, Monica Lewinsky was in a scandal that defined who she was for the entire world. And now she's ready to draw from her own experience on what it means to redefine yourself on her new podcast, Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump is due to speak from the Oval Office shortly, hours after the Labor Department reported 151,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month. The gains fell short of expectations but are still considered strong.

The unemployment rate slightly rose to 4.1 percent. However, the report is based on surveys conducted three weeks ago and reflects only a fraction of the layoffs in the federal government and the private sector. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says there's gonna be a detox period as the Trump administration increasingly moves the U.S. economy from public to private spending. We're trying to transition from public to private. I talked about we are going to have safe and sound regulation to get our banking system going again. So the banks should be generating loans to private companies. Employment should be from private companies,

not from government. Secretary Besson this morning on CNBC, in meetings with his visiting British counterpart, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, U.S. aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine is merely on pause for now. British officials have been lobbying the U.S. to restart those. And Piers Lauren Fair has more from London. With U.S. aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine on pause, the U.K. is stepping up its own efforts. It's announced a deal to send Ukraine more advanced attack drones. It's also frozen Russian assets inside the UK. Ukraine says it's received a first tranche of about a billion dollars secured by the

proceeds of those Russian assets. The UK has boosted British defence spending and encouraged other European countries to do the same. The government here says about 20 countries are interested in joining a, quote, coalition of the willing for Ukraine led by the UK. Lauren Freyer and Pierre News, London. The Trump administration is reopening a massive immigration detention center in South Texas. It's one of the largest detention centers in the United States with room for up to 2,400 parents and children. And PRS Jasmine Garst has details.

Private prison contractor Corps Civic Incorporated has reached an agreement with the U.S. government to reactivate the detention center. According to the company, annual revenue is expected to be $180 million. The practice of detaining parents and children was ended by the Biden administration. A court order bars the government from separating migrant families. Borders are Tom Homan has indicated they will start detaining and deporting them together instead. Advocates have denounced the move as inhumane. The announcement comes just days after President Trump reiterated his promise to conduct the largest mass deportation campaign in American history. Jasmine Garst, NPR News, New York. The Nasdaq is down more than 1% at last check. This is NPR News.

The president says he wants to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. In an interview with Fox Business Network yesterday, Trump said he sent a letter to the Islamic Republic's leadership to urge them to come to the table for talks aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. He says the other option is military action. The Department of Homeland Security says it is ending collective bargaining for the Transportation Security Administration's officers, saying it has constrained TSA's mission to safeguard the country's transportation systems. Today's announcement affects tens of thousands of U.S. employees at the front lines of working to keep air travelers safe. High-speed rail service between Britain and France was suspended after the discovery of an unexploded World War II era bomb

outside Paris. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley says the ordinance was found overnight near tracks during maintenance work. The unexploded ordinance was discovered approximately a mile and a half north of the Gare du Nord train station in Saint-Denis where the national stadium that hosted Olympic events last year is located. The French Rail Authority says the bomb dates to the Second World War and experts are working to disable the device. High-speed rail to London and Brussels and Paris region commuter trains have been affected. The Galdunor train station is the country's busiest rail terminal, serving an estimated

700,000 people every day, it's not uncommon to still find unexploded World War II ordinance in France and Germany. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. The Dow is down 277 points, S&P's off 51, the NASDAQ is down 213. It's NPR. This message comes from Wondery. Scam Factory, the explosive new podcast series, exposes more.