NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-09-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: March 9, 2025

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Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts. Perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. House Republicans have released a 99 page spending bill that would keep federal agencies funded through September 30th. The bill would offer slightly more money to defense programs and would trim non-defense programs below 20, 24 budget levels.

Congress must act by midnight on Friday to prevent a partial government shutdown, a vote on the measure is expected early this week. In Syria, human rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed in revenge attacks in recent days. Many of the dead are civilians. The new Syrian government has flooded the region with fighters to help try to restore order. NPR's Jane Arraff has more from Damascus. The killings targeted Alawite communities, the same religious minority to which deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belonged. The new government has been fighting loyalists of the old regime on the Mediterranean coast,

and the killings began there after government forces were killed in clashes. Syria has no army or even police force since the fall of the regime, and other fighters that the government now blames for the killings rushed in after the ambush. Syrian President Ahmed Al-Shara has tried to reassure minorities that government will protect them. This is the biggest challenge to central government rule since he took power. Jane Araf, NPR News, Damascus.

Members of the Liberal Party of Canada will elect their new leader today in Ottawa. As Dan Karpanchuk reports, that person will become the country's next Prime Minister. The new leader is almost certain to be former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney. The only other candidate with any real chance is former Deputy Prime Minister Christopher Freeland, a long-time member of Justin Trudeau's inner circle. The new leader, in addition to facing the tariffs coming from President Donald Trump, will have only two weeks before the Canadian Parliament resumes. And by inheriting only a minority government, it's widely expected that the new leader will have to call a national election. If it's carny, he will

need to win a seat and there will be a need for a strong mandate to deal with the trade war. Meanwhile, the voting today will mark the end of Trudeau's decade as Prime Minister. He will step down after discussions with the new leader. For NPR News, I'm Dan Karpanchuk in Toronto. In London, a barefoot man holding a Palestinian flag climbed onto the tower that holds the famed clock Big Ben on Saturday. Officials say it appears he was holding a protest. Roads around the palace of Westminster were closed as emergency crew tried to reach the man. Brush fires on New York's Long Island are spewing

thick gray smoke into the sky right now. The fires in the Pine Barrens have closed a major highway that offers access to the Hamptons on the island's east side. Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine says the weather is a major factor in trying to contain the fires. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency in that area. I'm Dale Willman and you're listening to NPR News. Israel says it will send a delegation to Qatar on Monday to discuss the delayed second round ceasefire in Gaza.

Under the previous deal, talks were supposed to have begun a month ago. Hamas meanwhile says it's received what it calls positive signals during talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on starting new negotiations. Last weekend Israel cut off all aid to Gazap as it pushed Hamas to agree to an extension of the first ceasefire. 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 has more. 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. Doctors say Pope Francis is showing some gradual and slight improvement in his overall health.

He has begun his fourth week in a Rome hospital where he's being treated for double pneumonia. The doctors say that he does remain stable with no fever and good oxygen levels in his blood, but his condition remains guarded. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.