NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-18-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Korova Coleman, the Israeli military says its air assault on Gaza is ongoing. Air strikes started overnight, and health authorities in Gaza say the Israeli strikes have killed at least 400 Palestinians. At least 560 others have been wounded. Israel says it is targeting terrorist cells and infrastructure. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf has more. NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba,

stood in the courtyard of the Al-Akhli 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, they did 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 former Columbia University graduate student is asking a federal judge to be released from custody. Mahmoud Khalil is being detained in Louisiana.

NPR's Adrienne Florido reports the Trump administration is trying to strip Khalil of his green card and deport him over his pro-Palestinian activism. Marc Thiessen, Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D.,

Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph. while he fights deportation. Khalil's wife is pregnant with their first child and expects to give birth next month. The petition filed by his legal team also asks the federal court to temporarily block the Trump administration from arresting anyone else for deportation because of their pro-Palestinian activism or for protesting Israel and its military operation in Gaza. Adrienne Flaherty, NPR News, New York. President Trump is scheduled to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone this morning. Trump has been urging Russia and Ukraine to end the war three years after Russia's full-scale

invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day truce. But NPR's Charles Maines reports, before Russia will agree to a specific truce, Putin has set several conditions. That Ukraine give up territory annexed by Moscow and end its ambitions to join NATO. I put the question of what if anything the Kremlin was giving up to Sergei Markov, he's a former Putin spokesman. His answer, a promise not to seize more Ukrainian territory. That is the concession.

If there are any concessions from Putin, they appear to be aimed at Trump. Putin is essentially offering Trump business opportunities, everything from rare earth minerals to investments, if and when sanctions are lifted. NPR's Charles Means reporting. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are lower. This is NPR. 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. That happened even though the judge verbally ordered the U.S. planes to be turned around. The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General appears to have taken down the web page that included an advisory on gun violence. That advisory was issued last June by then Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. He declared gun violence a public health crisis that leads to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief. The California legislature is considering whether to divert funding for climate change toward efforts to lower the cost of living in that state.

Residents are facing rising energy prices among other costs. For Member Station KQED, Guy Marzorotti has more. Fires and heat waves made worse by climate change have driven up the price of home insurance and electricity in California. Right now, money in a state greenhouse gas reduction fund largely goes toward long-term projects like building housing and transit. Stanford climate research scholar Michael Wara says the question for lawmakers is whether that approach is sustainable or whether we need to be thinking about giving money back to people.

That could mean larger credits to lower residential electricity bills. For NPR News, I'm Guy Marzorotti in San Jose. And again on Wall Street and pre-market trading, Dow futures are down by nearly 100 points. This is NPR.