NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-09-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: March 9, 2025

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On the embedded podcast. No, no. It's called denying a speech. It's misinformation. Like so many Americans, my dad has gotten swept up in conspiracy theories. These are not conspiracy theories. These are reality. I spent the year following him down the rabbit hole, trying to get him back. Listen to alternate realities on the embedded podcast from NPR.

All episodes available now. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Aarom. At this hour, organizers in Selma, Alabama are preparing to hold a re-enactment of the events of Bloody Sunday, 60 years after the original march. Kyle Gasset of Troy Public Radio reports that Trump administration's efforts to roll back DEI initiatives are causing concerns for some participants. In 1965, black protesters marching for the right to vote faced an uncertain future when

they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were met by Alabama state troopers who savagely beat them. Deidre Wilson of Montgomery says in 2025, movements to roll back the progress made by those original marchers could prompt future protests. So we just may have to start marching again. The younger generation may just have to start marching again and fighting for their rights again. We just don't know. Educators across the country have voiced concerns that new executive orders from President Trump could limit or forbid them from teaching historical events like the Bloody Sunday March.

For NPR News, I'm Kyle Gassett in Selma, Alabama. President Trump says the reciprocal tariffs he plans to impose next month may just be the beginning and there could be some pain for the US economy. NPR's Tamara Keith reports. Trump made the comments in a sit-down interview on the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. Are you expecting a recession this year? I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing and there are always periods of... it takes a little time. He dismissed concerns raised

by business leaders that the on-again off-again tariffs in recent weeks have created uncertainty saying that's just a talking point. Tamara Keith, NPR News. The European Commission president spoke to reporters today to mark 100 days into her second five-year term. Ursula von der Leyen said the first day, December 1, feels like a lifetime ago. She said the world is changing at lightning speed and decade-old certainties are crumbling. As European values, democracy, freedom, the rule of law, are under threat.

We see that sovereignty, but also ironclad commitments are called into question. Everything has become transactional. So the pace of change has accelerated and the action that is needed has to be bold and determined. She says she hopes EU countries will team up with like-minded nations, naming Canada, the UK and Norway. French officials say they're sending an additional $200 million worth of weapons to Ukraine to help fight Russia after the US paused its military assistance. This is NPR News.

Canada's Liberal Party selects its new leader today, who will succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau had announced in January that he was stepping down. After more than nine years in power, the new Prime Minister will face threats by President Trump to impose additional tariffs on Canada and may soon face the opposition conservatives in a general election. Archaeologists know early humans used stone to make tools, but a new discovery suggests that early humans in eastern Africa were also using bone and one million years sooner than researchers previously thought. NPR's Rachel Carlson reports.

The finding suggests early humans were intentionally shaping animal materials, like elephant and hippopotamus bones, to make tools. Ignacio de la Torre is a study author and archaeologist at the Spanish National Research Council. He says this could show an advancement in cognition since early humans applied what they knew about shaping stone tools to new materials. Now we have a human species here that is able to create an innovation by applying a knowledge they know for the working of stone. They're applying this to a new raw material. This study appears in the journal Nature. Rachel Carlson, NPR News.

Thousands of people demonstrated in Nepal today calling for the South Asian nation to return to a monarchy. The last king gave up his throne in 2006 in response to street protests. Now protesters blame the republic for a struggling economy and widespread corruption. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.