NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-20-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

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Oh, hey there. I'm Brittany Luce. And I don't know, maybe this is a little out of pocket to say, but I think you should listen to my podcast. It's called It's Been A Minute, and I love it. And I think you will too. Over the past couple of months, over 100,000 new listeners started tuning in. Find out why. Listen to the It's Been A Minute podcast from NPR Today. Laxmelea Sing Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Laxmelea Sing. President Trump is expected to sign an executive action this afternoon to start dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. NPR's Kori Turner reports the White House has been moving toward this moment since it publicly disclosed its intentions last month.

The anticipated signing comes a week after sweeping layoffs at the Education Department. Between early retirement buyouts, the firing of newer hires, and last week's big reduction in force, the department will soon be down to roughly half the size it was when Trump took office. The White House insisted in a fact sheet to NPR that the executive action would not cut key federal funding streams That help schools serve low-income students kids with disabilities and rural communities But last week's purge included the entire legal staff at the department responsible for making sure that funding Is spent according to law and reaches the children who needed most Corey Turner NPR news

and reaches the children who need it most. Kori Turner, NPR News. The Pentagon is now trying to figure out which of the web pages it took down because of the Trump administration's anti-DEI order should be put back up. NPR's Tom Bowman reports some pages have been restored following public outcry over the removal of pages that highlight the military stories of American heroes, including those who broke racial and gender barriers. They have keywords to search, let's say, gender or African American or Hispanic. So some of this was taken down to review it. And then they decided it took a while to do because

it's labor intensive. So many people were noticing, well, where's Jackie Robinson, Tuskegee Airmen? What have you done with Navajo Code Talkers? And then the explanation was, we're not gonna completely eliminate those or take those down. We're gonna put them back after we review it. NPR's Tom Bowman reporting. As fighting resumes in Gaza, a former hostage held by Hamas is appealing to the United Nations to do more to secure the release of all remaining hostages. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports the U.S. is blaming Hamas for not accepting a deal that it says would have prevented deadly Israeli strikes. Elie Sharabi says he came back from hell to tell his story to the Security Council about

his time in captivity in Gaza. Where was the United Nations? 491 days of torment, 491 days of starvation, of being chained underground. The 53-year-old was released under a ceasefire deal that has since collapsed and only learned when he got out that his wife and two daughters were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel. U.S. Acting Ambassador Dorothy Shays says President Trump has been clear that Hamas must release all remaining hostages or pay a quote steep price. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, the State Department. From

Washington, this is NPR News. Kirsty Keventry has been elected president of the International Olympic Committee. She's the first woman and the first African chosen for perhaps the most prominent role in global sports. This is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl, I never thought that I would be standing up here one day, getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours.

Coventry was the only female among seven candidates for IOC president. The Zimbabwean sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist secured enough votes in the first round of the IOC contest that was widely expected to go several rounds. New research suggests that ingesting plastic has consequences for seemingly healthy seabirds. NPR's Jonathan Lambert explains high levels of plastic were associated with signs of organ failure. Jonathan Lambert Much of what scientists know about how plastic harms wildlife comes from studying dead animals. To figure out how live animals might be impacted, researchers drew blood from visibly healthy

sable shearwater chicks with varying amounts of plastic in their gut. Chicks with lots of plastic showed molecular signs of kidney and liver dysfunction. Plastics seemed to degrade the stomach lining of the chicks and were even associated with signs of neurodegeneration. The study, published in Science Advances, can't say how plastics caused these changes or whether the birds will ultimately be harmed by them. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. U.S. stocks lower this hour. The Dow's off 48 points. It's NPR News. When you take a shower or get ready in the morning, how many products are you using? Everything from your shampoo to your lotion. In our study we found that the average woman used about 19 products every day and the average man used about 7. These products might come

at a cost. The ingredients they contain can be harmful to our health. Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR to learn more about the risks of personal care products.