NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-18-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

NPR News: 03-18-2025 6AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts. Perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washingtonhington i'm corva colman israel has launched a series of deadly overnight airstrikes across gaza killing more than three hundred twenty people and injuring hundreds more that's according to the gaza ministry of health israel says the strikes targeted

hamas officials hamas says four of its senior leaders have been killed and beers cat lansdorf reports that's as mediated talks between Israel and Hamas to extend a ceasefire have stalled. NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, stood in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, the only fully functioning hospital in the north, where scores of bodies were laid out following the strikes. Women and children, entire families, laid in front of me here.

The smell of blood mixed with gunpowder and burning flesh is returned once more in Gaza. He says people are in shock at the sudden return of war. The strikes come after a relatively quiet several weeks as Palestinians in Gaza had tried to start picking up the pieces after more than 15 months of war. The Israeli military has told residents from several neighborhoods to evacuate immediately, saying that Israel has, quote, launched a strong offensive against terrorist organizations.

Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. In the U.S., a federal judge is demanding a sworn written response from the Justice Department by noon Eastern time today. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wants details of how hundreds of Venezuelan migrants were deported to El Salvador over the weekend. The head of the U.S. Institute of Peace was forced to leave his office yesterday,

and Piers Michelle Kellerman reports it's been taken over by President Trump's cost-cutting entity, DOJ. Retired Ambassador George Mous spent much of his career in the State Department serving in Africa. Now he's trying to save the U.S. Institute of Peace from being dismantled by the Trump administration. This is an institution that was created by the Congress. It's not the only one that has been under attack of late.

And our hope would be that members of Congress who created us for a purpose would wish to see that purpose continued. He's also counting on the courts since USIP is not a government agency and it owns the building, which Moose calls a symbol of the aspiration of the American people to be peace builders in the world.

Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, the State Department. Tens of thousands of files related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy are expected to be released today. NPR's Giles Snyder has more. President Trump says some 80,000 pages linked to President Kennedy's assassination will be released, but it's not clear how many of them are already public. The National Archives says a vast majority of more than 6 million pages in its collection have been declassified. Trump spoke to reporters at the Kennedy Center.

He was elected board chair last month after leading a purge of Kennedy Center leadership. NPR's Giles Snyder prepared that report. You're listening to NPR. President Trump is expected to hold a phone call today with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump says he's trying to conclude a peace deal in Russia's war in Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials have accepted a 30-day ceasefire. But Russia's president has not and has demanded conditions.

President Trump wrote online that many elements of a final agreement have been agreed to but he didn't explain what they were. Two astronauts are heading back to Earth and BRS Jeff Brumfield reports that comes after an unexpectedly long stay aboard the International Space Station. 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, for over NASA leaders and other astronauts have disputed that claim. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. President Trump has nominated an airline executive as his nominee to run the Federal Aviation Administration. He's tapped the CEO of Republic Airways, Brian Bedford. Leaders of other airlines

are praising Bedford's selection to run the FAA. On Wall Street and pre-market trading, Dow futures are lower. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News. On the embedded podcast. No, no. It's called denying a freedom of speech. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.