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

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

NPR News: 03-18-2025 4PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

These days, there's so much news, it can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community. The Consider This podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. truth. Listen to the Consider This Podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. US-Russia talks today appear to have advanced President Trump's quest to negotiate a full ceasefire in Ukraine. Readouts from the White House and the Kremlin on today's phone call between the leaders show Russian President

Vladimir Putin has agreed to a 30-day truce and strikes on energy infrastructure, a Kremlin statement maintain any broader resolution hinged on a complete cessation of Western military aid and intelligence support to Ukraine. Meanwhile, a ceasefire in the Middle East appears to have collapsed. In Tel Aviv, NPR's Daniel Estrin reports Israel launched airstrikes across Gaza overnight that it says aimed to get Hamas to agree to release more hostages. Ceasefire negotiations reached a dead end in recent days. Israel and Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, had been laying down new terms for Hamas. The terms were to release half of the living hostages Hamas has in Gaza and then to begin discussing

the end of the war after that. NPR's Danielle Lestrin, Gaza health officials say the airstrikes have killed or injured nearly a thousand people. Federal government agencies say they're in the process of reinstating approximately 24,500 probationary federal employees, at least for now. Scott Massioni with the member station WYPR reports a move comes after a federal judge in Maryland granted a temporary restraining order to 19 states suing the White House over the layoffs.

Tens of thousands of probationary federal employees will soon be back on agency payrolls, but not necessarily returning to work. Human resources officials at the department say the employees will be returning on administrative leave as the suit continues. The Trump administration is appealing the ruling. Federal Judge James Berdard ruled last week that the states were incurring irreparable harm because they were not provided prior notice of the firings. Legally, the federal government must warn states of reductions in force 60 days beforehand. The states have had to set up impromptu websites for outreach to laid off employees and provide

unemployment benefits. For NPR News, I'm Scott Moschione. Three NASA astronauts in a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida tonight. Here's NPR's Jeff Brumfield. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny 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. This is NPR.

The Federal Reserve's policymakers are holding a two-day meeting, the Washington, D.C. gatherings being held against the backdrop of the Trump administration's sweeping cuts across the federal government and tariffs due to take effect next month, the uncertainty raising fears of a recession this year and roiling markets. A French politician who accuses the administration of siding with tyrants is asking the United States to return the Statue of Liberty. First, give us back the Statue of Liberty. Raphael Glucksmann drew cheers as he opined that maybe Lady Liberty, a global symbol of

freedom and democracy, is better off in France, the country whose support helped win the American Revolution. New research examines how iguanas made it to the island of Fiji, and Pierre's Jonathan Lambert reports, How iguanas got to Fiji from the Americas has long been a mystery. The lizards could have walked, over many generations, across ancient land bridges. Or they could have floated there on a raft of tangled vegetation. New genetic analyses published in the journal PNAS point to the raft idea. The study says Fijian iguanas are likely too young, evolutionarily speaking, to have crossed the ancient land bridges. And that suggests that these lizards

floated around 5,000 miles to reach the island. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. US stocks have ended the day lower. The NASDAQ closing down more than 300 points or 1.7 percent. The S&P was down more than 1 percent. The Dow closed down more than half a percent. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.