NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-18-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

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Hey, it's A Martinez a lot of short daily news podcasts focus on one story, but sometimes you need Tomas for up first on NPR We bring you the three top world headlines every single day in under 15 minutes because no one story can capture all that's happening It's the mundo tangrande on any given morning. So listen to the up first podcast from NPR Sunday on any given morning. So listen to the Up First Podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. Israeli forces have resumed airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza. Palestinian health officials say more than 300 Palestinians have been killed and almost

a thousand others were wounded in the attacks. NPR's Hadil Al-Shalchi has more. Israel says it is conducting, quote, extensive strikes in Gaza. This is the first major round of Israeli strikes in Gaza since the initial phase of a ceasefire deal ended at the beginning of the month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes because Hamas has repeatedly refused to release all the hostages. The shaky first phase of the ceasefire deal saw 33 hostages held by Hamas released and

about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails. The White House spokesperson said that it was, quote, consulted before the attacks. Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. The Trump administration has fired most of the board at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Attorney George Foote says employees of Elon Musk's Doge team forced their way into the organization's building in Washington Monday and seized it. We're very confident that what's happened here under the guise of a change of control is wrong and will be upheld in court, but we were having civil discussions about that, and then suddenly muscle arrives with guns and we're kicked out of the building.

But says the Doge workers deceived the Institute's security guards to gain access to the building and did not allow evicted workers to take their belongings with them. A federal judge has given the Justice Department until noon today to provide a sworn declaration on how it plans to return plane loads of Venezuelans back to the U.S. Migrants accused of being Venezuelan gang members were flown to El Salvador over the weekend in defiance of a court order to have the planes returned with the deportees. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg has chastised GOJ for ignoring multiple court orders on the matter. Government lawyers

say that the judge's initial order was improper. Two astronauts are heading back to Earth following an unexpectedly long stay aboard the International Space Station. NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams climbed aboard a capsule built by Elon Musk's company SpaceX and, undocked from the station early this morning, they're now on their way home following more than nine months in space. Williams and Wilmore arrived in June of last year aboard an experimental capsule built by Boeing. After that capsule experienced technical problems, NASA decided to send it back to Earth empty.

The space agency added Williams and Wilmore to the regular space station crew, whose rotation is now complete. In recent months, President Trump and Elon Musk have repeatedly claimed that the duo was deliberately stranded by the Biden administration. Four of our NASA leaders and other astronauts have disputed that claim. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News. You're listening to NPR. Forever 21 is closing all its stores in the U.S. following the company's second bankruptcy filing in less than six years. The fast-fashioned retailer cites economic hardships and competition from overseas rivals,

including Sheehan, Timo, and Zara as reasons for closings. The State Emergency Operations Center in Oklahoma responded to 130 fires last week. The blazes, which claimed at least four lives, were fanned by strong winds and extremely dry conditions. For member station KOSU, Grayson Wheeler has more on recovery efforts. Oklahomans are still working to get a handle on how much they lost. As official damage assessments began today. Preliminary numbers show hundreds of buildings were destroyed.

Local churches, casinos, and community centers have opened their doors to feed and house people who lost their homes or found themselves otherwise displaced. As Oklahomans deal with the fallout from the infernos, fire crews are preparing for the possibility of more. That's because critical fire weather is ramping up again. An Oklahoma Forestry Service spokesperson says today could be bad and Tuesday will likely be worse. For NPR News, I'm Grayson Wheeler in Oklahoma City.

A federal judge has dismissed charges against a Minnesota man accused of hiding a pair of stolen red sequin slippers that actress Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz. The charges against 77-year-old Jerry Seliderman were dropped on Monday, a day after he died. In 2005, the so-called ruby slippers were stolen from a museum in Minnesota. The shoes were recovered in 2018 and sold in auction last year. This is NPR News. A lot happens in Washington every day, from the White House to Capitol Hill and everywhere recovered in 2018 and sold in auction last year. This is NPR News.