NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-07-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

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Here on Shortwave, we believe that science is for everyone and that every question is worth asking, no matter your age. My name is Willie and my question is, is magic real? Our podcast is for the curious at heart. Come embrace your inner child when you listen now to ShoreWave from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Trump is denying reports of tensions within his administration. The denial coming after New York Times reporting about an argument during a cabinet meeting between Elon Musk, his chief jobs cutter and Secretary of

State Marco Rubio. More from NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben. Trump spoke from the Oval Office where he was signing an executive order creating a task force ahead of the 2026 World Cup to be held in the U.S. When a reporter asked about friction between Rubio and Musk, Trump's reply was testy. No clash. I was there. You're just a troublemaker and you're not supposed to be asking that question because we're talking about the World Cup. Elon gets along great with Marco, and they're both doing a fantastic job. There is no clash. Danielle Pletka, NPR News, The White House.

Trump told reporters this week that he had told cabinet secretaries that they, not Musk, are in charge of staff reductions. Danielle Kurzlaven, NPR News, The White House. The fired head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in Washington, Hampton Dellinger, announced this week he's ending his fight over President Donald Trump's decision to remove him. It follows a federal appeals court decision allowing the White House to remove the head of the federal watchdog group. Dellinger in an interview with NPR's All Things Considered said for a number of reasons he felt a Supreme Court decision was unlikely

to go his way. It could have been up to a year and I've seen the damage that is being done to federal agencies on a day by day, even hour by hour basis. And I didn't think I could in any meaningful way pick up the pieces a year from now, even if I prevailed. Dellinger's case previously reached the Supreme Court, which should have climbed to allow Trump to immediately fire him. However, a DC Circuit Court put other rulings on hold, resulting in a swift removal. Refugee aid groups across the U.S. are cutting staff and closing offices since the Trump administration froze

funding for resettlement programs. MBR's Jennifer Ludden reports it's left thousands of newly arrived refugees scrambling. Soon after arriving in the U.S., 21-year-old Jefferson, who asked not to use his full name, was alarmed when his case manager in Maryland was let go and his work phone cut off. I was left alone with no guidance in this new country, he says. Jefferson is a political refugee from Nicaragua and fears retaliation if he speaks publicly. The federal freeze also meant no rent money, so he says his refugee roommate paid it, with hardly anything left to live on.

Amy Huang-Rona at Homes Not Borders says her group has stepped up fundraising to keep people from being evicted. We are filling in the gaps. Resettlement agencies are challenging the federal freeze in court. Jennifer Ludden and Pierre News, Washington. Stocks closed modestly higher today after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said it remains to be seen if the Trump administration tariffs will be inflationary. February jobs numbers that largely held up also ease some investor

worries. The Dow was up 222 points today to 48,801. The NASDAQ rose 126 points. The S&P 500 gained 31 points. You're listening to NPR. New Mexico authorities today shed new light on the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa. Officials say they determined Arakawa apparently died first of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, potentially fatal disease resulting from exposure to rodent droppings. Chief medical examiner, Dr. Heather Jarrearrell also released Hackman's cause of death. The cause of death for Mr. Gene Hackman, aged 95 years, is hypertensive antherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributory factor.

Caretaker at the couple's gated community discovered the couple dead last month. Drone footage of gnar walls shows these Arctic whales sometimes use their long tusks to manipulate fish but as NPR's Noel Greenfield reports it's not clear why. The narwhal tusk is a long spiral like a unicorn horn. Males have them but most females don't. Recently researchers have been spying on narwhals with drones. They've seen narwhals chasing fish and using their tusks to mess with them, flipping them, hitting them. It seems like play, but they could stun or kill fish this way. Courtney Watt is a scientist with Fisheries and

Oceans Canada. She says females hunt just fine, so tusks aren't necessary for getting food. But I think maybe they've learned to use them to assist them with foraging. The new observations are in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Scientists think the main job of a narwhal's tusk is to impress females when males are competing for a mate. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. And I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.

This message comes from NYU Langone. And I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.