NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-18-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

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NPR informs and connects communities around the country, providing reliable information in times of crisis. Federal funding helps us fulfill our mission to create a more informed public and ensures that public radio remains available to everyone. Learn more about safeguarding the future of public media. Visit ProtectMyPublicMedia.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Palestinian health officials now say at least 250 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded in today's Israeli airstrikes across Gaza. NPR's Hadil Al-Shalchi reports from Tel Aviv. This is the first round of Israeli strikes in Gaza since the first phase of a ceasefire deal ended at the beginning of the month.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the strikes because Hamas had, quote, repeatedly refused to release all the hostages. No official death toll was reported by the Gaza Health Ministry, but individual hospitals reported some dozen Palestinians killed. 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. Netanyahu wanted Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase to release more hostages and Hamas insisted on beginning second phase talks which would

see a permanent end to the war. Hadeel Al Alshalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Administration officials insist that President Trump's order to remove plane loads of alleged Venezuelan gang members is protected under the Alien Enemies Act. But a federal judge says the Justice Department violated a weakened court order to turn around planes headed to El Salvador with the deportees aboard. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says it's unclear whether the court order was issued properly. There's actually questions about whether a verbal order

carries the same weight as a legal order, as a written order, and our lawyers are determined to ask and answer those questions in court. U.S. District Judge James Boesberg is giving government lawyers until noon today to submit a plan for returning the Venezuelan deportees to the U.S. District Judge James Boesberg is giving government lawyers until noon today to submit a plan for returning the Venezuelan deportees to the U.S. Civil rights scholars are expressing concern that the Civil Rights Act is being rapidly undone by the Trump administration.

NPR's Sandhya Dirks reports. Civil rights scholars are warning of the consequences of closing civil rights offices and the firing of civil rights investigators and lawyers alongside attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion. Victor Ray is a professor of sociology and American studies at the University of Iowa. Civil rights law might still be on the books, but if you don't have anyone doing audits, if you don't have anyone firing people who are systematically discriminating, it doesn't matter because there's no enforcement of the law. The Trump administration argues for colorblind enforcement of civil rights law and says DEI

is anti-white racism. Sandhya Dirks, NPR News. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sent letters to 20 major U.S. law firms seeking information on their diversity and employment practices. Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas says those firms may be violating federal civil rights laws. The agency has set up an email address for whistleblowers who have information on EEO diversity.

This is NPR. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sooty Williams are heading back to Earth after a nine-month stay aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Wilmore and Williams were supposed to spend just several days at the International Space Station, but a Boeing Starliner capsule that ferried them there last June developed mechanical issues

and was forced to return. They are heading home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend to support a former president who is facing trial on coup charges. And Paris' Kary Kahn reports. Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro crowded onto Rio's iconic Copacabana beach, sporting Brazil's national soccer teams, green and yellow jerseys. Many held signs demanding amnesty for Bolsonaro and the hundreds of his followers who've

been convicted and many sentenced for rioting Brazil's capital in January 2023. Bolsonaro told the crowd that the charges against him are fiction and he was in the U.S. at the time his supporters stormed the Capitol. He says the government is just trying to stifle free speech and dissent with the attempted coup charges. Brazil's Supreme Court will decide on March 25th whether Bolsonaro and his allies will stand trial. If convicted, he faces decades in prison.

Keri Kahn, NPR News. Cruz President Dina Bula-Warte has declared a state of emergency and deployed soldiers amid a surge in violence there following the killing of a popular singer. Her decree restricts some rights for 30 days, including freedom of assembly and movement. This is NPR News. Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend This is NPR News.