NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-15-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

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There's no place like the garden, and this season, Garden Variety wants to help you flourish. Each week, the Heartland's top horticulturists, insect experts, foresters, and others drop by with fresh tips about everything you want to grow or grow better. Dig in to Garden Variety from Iowa Public Radio, part of the NPR Network. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. At least 13 people are dead in Arkansas and Missouri after severe weather swept the central and southern U.S. Several tornadoes were reported. More than 200,000 power outages are reported across six states.

Officials and residents are now assessing the damage. Robbie Myers is the emergency management director of Butler County, Missouri. He says the city of Poplar Bluff saw considerable damage. Robbie Myers is the emergency management director of Butler County, Missouri. He says the city of Poplar Bluff saw considerable damage. It was just a big stretch where it hit, took a roof off of kindergarten center, did great damage to a grocery store, a church, and that mobile home park, and a library building were all in that same area. So that's probably going to be the biggest concentration of physical damage.

He was interviewed on CNN. The union representing the National Weather Service says nearly 300 meteorologists and technicians are no longer on the job between firings and resignations. Some were scientists working on forecast models. Exper experts say the cutbacks mean less accurate forecasts. The head of the U.S. Postal Service has agreed to allow Elon Musk's Doge team help find efficiencies at the country's mail service. NPR's Hansi Luwong reports the agreement includes limits to the access Doge has to the records of postal workers. Hansi Luwong, NPR's NPR Spokesperson The leaders of two Postal Service unions tell

NPR that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy assured them the agreement prevents Elon Musk's Doge team from having unfettered access to the records of the more than half million postal employees. The Trump administration is currently facing more than a dozen lawsuits over Doge's access to data at other federal agencies where they've been pushing the slash the government workforce.

It's not clear exactly what Doge will try to do at the postal service. DeJoy has been leading a reorganization there since 2021 that includes a voluntary early retirement program that's set to reduce its labor workforce by 10,000 people over the next month. President Trump has suggested folding what Congress set up to be an independent mail agency into the Commerce Department. Such a move would likely spark a lawsuit.

Anzala Wong, NPR News, Washington. British Prime Minister Keir Stormer held a virtual summit on Ukraine today. He says he's had new commitments from multiple countries to support a peace deal. Vicki Barker reports from London. After consulting with more than two dozen world leaders, including the heads of NATO and the EU, Keir Stormer said a high-level military summit will convene in London on Thursday to discuss a possible peacekeeping mission for Ukraine. Starmor said there were also commitments to ratchet up sanctions and military pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to get him to the table.

President Trump has offered Putin the way forward to a lasting peace. Now we must make this a reality. The U.S. was not represented at the virtual summit, but Starmer said he's been talking to U.S. officials every day. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London. You're listening to NPR News in Washington. Arlington National Cemetery has begun wiping from its website sections about prominent Black, Hispanic, and female veterans. The change is in line with President Trump's directive to remove information about diversity, equity, and inclusion from the federal government. NPR's Aya N links and sections about these groups from the Arlington Cemetery website has been dubbed a quote, digital content refresh by top Pentagon officials.

Articles, photos and videos seen as promoting the EI will be removed under the new approach. That includes biographies of General Colin Powell, the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the 8666 Postal Corps, the first corps comprised only of black women to work overseas. Their stories are no longer prominent on the website, but can still be found using the search function. Ayanna Archie, NPR News.

A SpaceX rocket took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last night. Five, four, three, two, one. Ignition. It's expected to arrive at the International Space Station tonight carrying four people, two from the U.S., one from Russia, and one from Japan. They'll replace Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, who've been on the orbiting outpost for nine months. Their mission was supposed to last about a week, but their Boeing Starliner capsule developed problems, and NASA decided to bring it home back to Earth empty. The two astronauts are now scheduled to leave for the trip home next week. I'm Nora Rahm.

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