NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-09-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: March 9, 2025

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Hey, it's Amartines. I work on a news show. And yeah, the news can feel like a lot on any given day. But you just can't ignore las noticias when important world-changing events are happening. So that is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen to the up-first podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. President Trump continues to downplay tensions between members of his cabinet and White House adviser, billionaire Elon Musk. NPR's Tamara Keith reports Musk is leading an extensive effort to slash

the government and make it more efficient. In a weekend post on his social media site, the president wrote in all caps, Elon and Marco have a great relationship. Any statement other than that is fake news. Three exclamation points. Trump was responding to reports that Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a blow up in a cabinet meeting late last week. The upshot coming out of it was that Musk and his Doge team could make suggestions

for spending cuts and reductions in force, but that it would be up to the cabinet secretaries to make those decisions. Trump said he wanted cuts made with a scalpel. This after Musk had embraced a chainsaw as an analogy for his approach. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Palm Beach, Florida. Ukrainian President Zelensky lashed out on social media today as Russia stepped up attacks on Ukraine after the U.S. said it would stop sharing intelligence with Kiev. And here's Eleanor Beardsley has more.

In a post on X, Zelensky said Russia had carried out hundreds of attacks against Ukrainians this past week using various types of weapons, he said, including 1,200 guided aerial bombs, 870 attack drones, and over 80 missiles of different types. Zelensky said each weapon contained thousands of components supplied by the circumvention of sanctions, but he said Ukraine is working with its partners to bring a just peace with reliable security guarantees closer. The Institute for the Study of War says the pause in intelligence exchange is already making it harder for Ukraine to defend itself and putting civilians at greater risk. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Lviv, Ukraine.

Selma, Alabama is commemorating the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday when peaceful voting rights TR News, Lviv, Ukraine. SELMA, ALABAMA IS COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF BLOODY SUNDAY WHEN PEACEFUL VOTING RIGHTS PROTESTERS WERE VIOLENTLY BEATEN WHILE CROSSING THE EDMOND PETTIS BRIDGE. HISTORY PUBLIC RADIO'S JACK ANDERSON REPORTS AT A PRE-MARCH RALLY, SPEAKERS DISCUSSED THE CURRENT STATE OF VOTING RIGHTS. Bridge crossing director, Johanse Mokbella, spoke at the historic Brown Chapel AME church where the original march began. For over 60 years, the world has stood on the backs of Selma. And instead of just being held up, Selma has been pushed down further and further and further

and further. The rain didn't stop thousands of participants from marching across the bridge with signs and banners supporting voting rights. Sitting presidents and vice presidents have been among the special guests in the past, but neither President Trump nor Vice President Vance were at this year's commemoration. For NPR News, I'm Jack Anderson in Selma, Alabama. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. In Germany, more than 40,000 passengers have been affected by flight cancellations at Hamburg

Airport after a surprise strike by workers. The airport says that only 10 of the more than 280 scheduled flights landed and took off as planned today. This comes a day before wider protests are set to take place at 13 airports across the country amid new contract negotiations. Tomorrow strikes were announced previously. The union called on the strikes by security control staff to boost pressure and collective bargaining talks with an association of aviation security services companies.

Archaeologists in Britain have identified a circular burial site that may have been a prototype for the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge. Vicki Barker has more from London. The prehistoric flagstones monument near the town of Dorchester is a circular ditch made of intersecting burial pits, a so-called proto-henge formed as Neolithic Britons moved from building straight or rectangular monuments to circular ones. Now a new analysis of some of the human remains, deer antler pickaxes and charcoal found there,

reveals it was dug around 3200 BC, at least 200 years before Stonehenge. Trade and cultural exchanges were very much a fact of late Stone Age life and the researchers say it's plausible to posit that flagstones would go on to influence the builders of Stonehenge some 50 miles away. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London. And I'm Janine Herbst and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.