NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-15-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

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This message comes from Wondery. Kiki Palmer is that girl, and she's diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest to have real conversations on her podcast, Baby, This is Kiki Palmer. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. The Storm Prediction Center is issuing a rare, highest-level warning for severe thunderstorms in the deep south today, after the system led to multiple tornado reports in the central U.S. At least one death has been reported in Missouri, and the death toll is expected to rise. More than 200,000 power outages across six states, as NPR's Amy Held reports. Overnight, numerous reports of tornadoes, some destructive, hit parts of Missouri, including

the St. Louis area, Indiana and Arkansas. The system is moving eastward, spurring a highest level five severe weather warning for parts of Mississippi and Alabama. Meteorologist Frank Pereira says such a warning is rare. Those are tornadoes that have the potential to stay on the ground for several miles and produce intense violent swaths of damage. Then there's heavy rain bringing flood risk to parts of the Tennessee Valley. At the same time, critical fire weather goes on in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri, dry gusts that have already

contributed to dozens of wildfires forcing evacuations. Amy Held, NPR News. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is defending his decision to vote to advance a spending measure that prevented a government shutdown last night. The CR bill is a bad bill. But as bad as the CR is, I believe that allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option. Schumer's decision to join nine other Democrats to vote with Republicans sparked anger among House Democrats exposing divisions within the party over how to respond to President

Trump's second term. The head of the U.S. Postal Service has agreed to allow Elon Musk's Doge team to help find efficiencies at the country's mail service. Dempiers-Hanse Lo-Mong reports the agreement includes limits to the access Doge has to the records of postal workers. The leaders of two postal service unions tell MPR 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 to 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. On Zila Wang, NPR News, Washington. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Russian leader Vladimir Putin will have to come to the table sooner or later. During an online meeting today, Starmer urged world leaders to keep the pressure on Putin to back a ceasefire in Ukraine. And from Washington, this is NPR News. Federal appeals court has temporarily lifted a block on President Trump's executive order

that seeks to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at federal agencies and businesses with government contracts. The decision allows the order to be enforced while the lawsuit plays out. Arlington National Cemetery has begun wiping from its website sections about prominent black, Hispanic, and female veterans, the change in line with President Trump's directive to remove information about diversity, equity, and inclusion from the federal government. NPR's Ayanna Archie has more. Ayanna Archie, NPR News Anchor A U.S. official told NPR, the removal of 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 during World War I. Their stories are no longer prominent on the website, but can still be found using the search function. Ayanna Archie, NPR News. The replacements for the two astronauts who've been stuck on the International Space Station

for the past nine months are on their way to the orbiting outpost. They are to arrive at the ISS late tonight. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected back on Earth next week. They were only supposed to remain aboard the station for a week, but the Boeing Starliner capsule they were testing malfunctioned. And from Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.

Should you throw out your black plastic cooking utensils? Can we decode whale language? And how do you stop procrastinating? I'm Mike and 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.