NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-17-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

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There's a lot of news happening. You want to understand it better, but let's be honest, you don't want it to be your entire life either. Well, that's sort of like our show, Here and Now, Anytime. Every weekday on our podcast, we talk to people all over the country about everything from political analysis to climate resilience, video games. We even talk about dumpster diving on this show. Check out Here and Now, Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. The Trump administration has deported some 250 people it claims are gang members from Venezuela. But the people were not returned to Venezuela. They were flown to El Salvador. Salvadoran officials have imprisoned them. No evidence has been presented to support the accusations of crime against the deportees. A federal judge in the U.S. verbally told the federal government to turn the planes back, but that didn't happen. President Trump has invoked a rarely used wartime power to justify his action, but the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela. And Pierce Adrian Florido says the ACLU is suing the Trump administration.

The Trump administration has appealed the judge's order temporarily blocking deportations under the law. The ACLU says it'll fight this vigorously. They insist there is huge danger in allowing the president to invoke wartime authorities during peacetime, that it sets a dangerous precedent. And Piers Adrian Florido reporting. President Trump's threat to place a 200 percent tariff on alcohol imports from the European Union continues to hang over the European trading bloc. As Terry Schultz reports, some EU leaders are calling

for more talks with the Trump administration to avoid a trade war. French Prime Minister Francois Bairroux is suggesting it was a mistake for the EU to include Kentucky bourbon on its list of US goods that will be hit by tariffs next month in response to Trump's imposition of a 25% tax on imports of steel and aluminum last week. Beirut told French radio it was probably a misstep to treat Kentucky bourbon like a trade threat. France will suffer heavy losses as a major producer of wines and cognac if the U.S. goes ahead with further import duties, which Beirut says he hopes can be headed off.

Trump insists the E.U. drop its intention to tax bourbon. E.U. tariffs on a wide range of U.S. goods are due to take effect in phases April 1st and April 13th. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. President Trump is moving to gut a federal agency that oversees homelessness policy. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports a White House memo says the agency is no longer necessary, even as homelessness is at a record high in the U.S. The move targets the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates

policy among 19 agencies. It was created in 1987 precisely to make government more efficient, says Jeff Olivett, who led it most recently. The memo calls for reducing the agency to the minimum required by law, but with just 20 people, he says it's already bare bones. It's doing a lot with very little, and any cuts will make it impossible for the agency to fulfill its statutory mandates. All of it credits the agency with helping dramatically reduce veteran homelessness and helping certain cities stem the rise in people sleeping outside.

Jennifer Lutton, NPR News, Washington. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are lower. This is NPR. Deadly storms across the central and southeastern U.S. killed at least 39 people over the weekend. Sudden dust storms in Texas and Kansas turned deadly. A 71 car pileup in Kansas killed at least eight people when visibility plunged to near zero. Tornadoes killed more people in Missouri and Mississippi. One tornado in Arkansas had winds that peaked at 170 miles per hour. The bracket for the NCAA Division I men's college

basketball tournament has been announced. The SEC will send 14 teams to the dance, and NPR's Becky Sullivan reports that's a new record. College sports fans are used to the SEC dominating college football, but now the conference is dominating men's college basketball too, including the Auburn Tigers, who are the tournament's top overall seed. Auburn lost five games this season, four of them to teams who were named number one or two seeds. Duke, Houston, and Florida are the other one seeds.

Some of college basketball's most famous programs had mixed records this season. Kansas and UConn were named seven and eight seeds respectively. And the North Carolina Tar Heels are an 11 seed and will have to win a game Tuesday to even reach the round of 64. The first four games tip off Tuesday and Wednesday. Then the round of 64 begins Thursday. Becky Sullivan in PR News. Four astronauts are settling in at the International Space Station. Their arrival will allow astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore to come home. They launched into space last June. Their week-long stay is now turned into nine months.

NASA determined it would be safer if they did not return in their Boeing Starliner spacecraft. This is NPR. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kaufman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. kaufman.org