NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-16-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

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Neuroscientist Ethan Cross says you may think it's healthy to vent about what's bothering you, but... The problem is you often leave that conversation feeling really good about the person you just communicated with, but all the negative feelings are still there. Sometimes they're even more activated. Tools for managing our emotions. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine

Herbst. The Trump administration has sent more than 200 suspected prison gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador. This after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely used law giving the president wartime deportation powers. It's unclear, though, if the deportations took place before a federal judge blocked Trump's use of this law yesterday. Amperos Eta Peralta reports the country has agreed to jail them for a fee.

The government of El Salvador released videos showing U.S. Border Patrol handing over dozens of men. Then the videos show the men in chains being escorted by armed guards. The videos show the men being shaved and then taken to El Salvador's maximum security prison. Salvadoran President Ay Bukele said 238 of them were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and another 23 were Salvadoran gang members. The US, he said, would pay a quote, very low fee to keep them in prison for a year.

A spokeswoman for the presidency told NPR they did not yet know whether these detainees had been convicted in the United States. Ada Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City. At least 35 people are dead from tornadoes this weekend across the Midwest and South. Officials and residents in many states are out today, assessing damage and cleaning up as tens of thousands of customers remain without power.

Debbie Parnell is with Appalachian Power, which covers Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee. She says they're ready to help if the storms knock out power and has advice for preparing for an outage. Have perhaps the outage kit available that has flashlights with fresh batteries, canned food, that type of thing. Anything that you may need, your medication, anything that might be difficult for you to find. Today storms are breaking out in the east. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Federal Reserve holds its latest policy meeting this week

and Piers Rafael Naam reports. After cutting interest rates three times last year, the Fed is widely expected to keep them on hold for a second consecutive meeting this year. The main reason is still inflation, which is still a little higher than what the Fed would like. And now there are rising concerns about how President Trump's tariffs will impact the economy. The US has introduced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, and the European Union and Canada have said they will retaliate. Trump is threatening to impose more tariffs, which is all but certain to make things more expensive, potentially

making it a lot harder for the Fed to bring down inflation. to NPR News from Washington. Four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station early this morning. As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, they're part of a crew to replace two NASA astronauts who've been on the base for nine months after an unexpectedly long mission. Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore were only supposed to be in space around a week when

they launched into orbit last June, but after issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, NASA decided to keep them at the International Space Station, where they've remained for more than nine months. Now they can go home. Crew 10, welcome aboard the International Space Station. The replacement crew arrived at the ISS early Sunday morning and were greeted with hugs and smiles by Williams, Wilmore, and the other astronauts aboard the space station. Williams, Wilmore, another NASA astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut

are set to begin their journey back to Earth as soon as Wednesday. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. At the weekend box office, NovaCane took the top spot with an estimated $8 million in ticket sales. That's slightly lower, though, than analysts had expected. The movie stars Jack Quaid as a man who can't feel pain. Second and third places were a tie. The Bong Joon Ho and Robert Patterson sci-fi film Mickey 17 and the spy pick Black Bag were neck and neck for the spots with both taking in an estimated seven and a half million dollars. Rounding out the top five, Captain America, Brave New World with five million dollars

and The Day the Earth Blew Up, a Looney Tunes movie with three million dollars. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies, sending million. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News.