NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-15-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

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Should you throw out your black plastic cooking utensils? Can we decode whale language? And how do you stop procrastinating? I'm Maiken Scott. Every week, the Pulse digs into health and science issues that matter to you and your life. Listen to the Pulse podcast from WHYY, part of the NPR Network.

Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Trump offered a litany of grievances about his recent legal difficulties during a speech at the Justice Department yesterday, and he found retribution for what he called the lies and abuses he suffered. We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose and very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct of which was levels. You've never seen anything like it. The speech was intended to rally support for his tough on crime agenda.

The Senate approved legislation that would impose stricter penalties on fentanyl trackers, and Piers Windsor-Johnston reports that the bipartisan bill passed the House last month and is also expected to gain support from both parties in the upper chamber. The legislation proposes to permanently classify fentanyl as a schedule one controlled substance. That distinction would allow for harsher punishments for people using or selling the drug. Under the new classification, offenses involving 100 grams or more would trigger a 10-year mandatory prison sentence. The bill aims to curb the distribution of fentanyl in large quantities in the U.S.

Critics argue that it may lead to the incarceration of people struggling with addiction without addressing the root causes of the opioid crisis. Senate Majority Leader John Thune this week said the bill gives law enforcement a critical tool to go after criminals bringing fentanyl into the U.S. Windsor-Johnston, NPR News, Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he's kicking out the new ambassador from South Africa. He's accusing him of hating America and Donald Trump. Rubio had skipped a G20 meeting in South Africa as well as NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports. In a fiery tweet, Secretary Rubio calls Ambassador

Ibrahim Rasool a quote race-baiting politician who hates the US president. Rubio says the US has nothing to discuss with Rasool and so he's considered persona non grata. Rubio initially misspelled the ambassador's name as did an article he posted by the right-wing news organization Breitbart. The article says that the ambassador told a foreign policy seminar that the Make America Great Again movement is a white supremacist response to demographic shifts in the U.S. Rubio canceled a trip to South Africa earlier this year after Trump and his South African-born

adviser Elon Musk falsely accused the government there of trying to steal land from white farmers. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, the State Department. The Trump administration's tariff threats are creating historic jumps in public anxiety. The index of consumers' sentiment from the University of Michigan plummeted 10.5% in March and it also fell 27.1% over the same period last year. The drop in the index occurred across all political ideologies. You're listening to NPR News. A group of inmates on Tennessee's death row have filed a lawsuit that challenges the state's new lethal injection process.

Catherine Sweeney, a member station WPLN, has more. After a federal investigation found rampant mismanagement of lethal injection drugs, Tennessee announced a new protocol late last year using one drug, pentobarbital, instead of the traditional three-drug cocktail. Both three-drug and single-drug lethal injections have been tied to a form of lung damage that can cause the sensation of being waterboarded. That's one of the reasons plaintiffs' lawyers argue the protocol is a cruel and unusual punishment. They also say that Tennessee has a long history of reckless

noncompliance with its own lethal injection regulations. The state's first execution in five years is scheduled for May. For NPR News, I'm Catherine Sweeney in Nashville. The price of gold soared to another record high on Friday. Gold futures moved past the three thousand dollar per troy ounce mark for the first time and the cost of New York spot gold closed at about $2,988 on Thursday. Interest in buying gold often comes at times of uncertainty as some investors look for alternative places to put their money. A SpaceX rocket launched from Florida on Friday night. It carries four astronauts who will replace a team on board the International Space Station. The pair now in space has been there for nine months after their Boeing capsule malfunctioned

back in June. I'm Dale Willman and you're listening to NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut. With WISE, you can convert between up to 40 currencies at the mid-market exchange rate. Visit WISE.com. T&Cs apply.