NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-10-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

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A lot happens in Washington every day, from the White House to Capitol Hill and everywhere in between. That's where we come in. On the NPR Politics Podcast, we keep you up to date on what happens inside Washington and what it means for you and your community. The NPR Politics Podcast. Listen wherever you listen. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman.

President Trump says the reciprocal terrorists he plans to impose next month might just be the beginning. And Piers Chammer-Keith reports the president says there could be some pain ahead for the U.S. economy. Trump made the comments in a sit-down interview on the Fox News program's 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. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is announcing huge cutbacks at the US Agency for International Development. Writing online, he says that after a six-week review, 83% of the programs at USAID will be canceled. He claims these programs spent tens of billions of dollars

that did not serve or even harm to the core national interests of the United States. However, the Trump administration has been ordered by a federal judge to pay certain foreign aid bills. That deadline is 6 p.m. Eastern Time. The Trump administration's cost-cutting effort is looking at shedding hundreds of federal government buildings.

That could include selling them or canceling leases. And PR Stephen Fowler says this will affect taxpayers. Almost all of these buildings are actually outside of D.C., and a lot of them provide public services. I mean, think about how many people need to interact with the IRS and Social Security. There are more than a hundred buildings on this list from those two agencies. There's also disparate impact on rural areas like the Farm Service Agency and Forest Service within the Agriculture Department and Interior Department

bureaus like the National Parks and the Fish and Wildlife Service. NPR's Stephen Fowler reporting. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has announced new leadership for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, also known as ICE. NPR's Juliana Kim reports. In a statement, Noem said she's appointing Todd Lyons as the acting director of immigration and customs enforcement, a key role in President Trump's plans to aggressively crack down on immigration. Lines had previously served as the Assistant Director of Field Operation in ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch responsible for identifying, arresting and detaining immigrants

without legal status. Noem also said she is appointing her former aide, Madison Sheehan, as ICE's next deputy director. On Sunday, Gnome also told CBS' Face the Nation that she's ramping up polygraph tests for her department's employees, days after she said two workers leaked information about her department's operations. This is NPR. The British Coast Guard says it is responding to a major ship collision and fire off the East Coast of England. A cargo ship and an oil tanker have hit each other. The oil tanker is on fire. British Coast Guard officials say they've dispatched lifeboats and a rescue helicopter to the scene.

Other ships with the ability to fight fires are going too. The Vatican says Pope Francis continues to rest in a Rome hospital and is receiving treatment for pneumonia. Officials say he's stable and in guarded condition. Virtual reality is a super immersive gaming experience where you can see and hear another world. But what if gaming included an aspect of taste? And Pierce Emily Kwong reports on a novel form of tech that allows you to sort of eat cake in virtual reality. Re, eTaste doesn't exactly feed you cake.

Instead, the new tech allows you to taste a synthetic replica of cake, using a cocktail of edible chemicals that are pumped across the user's tongue. Researchers have also experienced with sending taste data across distance. So data from Lemonade in California was sent hundreds of miles to a lab at The Ohio State University, where it was tested by materials scientist and lead author Jinghua Li. The long-term goal here is for us to establish the new way for people to interact with each other. Li's paper acknowledges that flavor is far more complex than taste. But still, with improved

tech comes perhaps a better way to diagnose loss of taste or bring us one step closer to virtual dining. For NPR News, I'm Emily Kwong. And I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News from Washington. Making time for the news is important. But when you need a break, we've got you covered on All Songs Considered, NPR's music podcast. Think of it like a music discovery show, a well-deserved escape with friends, and yeah, some serious music insight. I'm gonna keep it real.

I have no idea what this story is about. Hear new episodes of All Songs Considered every Tuesday, wherever you get podcasts.