NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-21-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

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Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life, powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington on Korova Coleman, Federal Judge James Boesberg is criticizing the Trump administration. He says it gave a quote, woefully insufficient response to his orders in a case involving the Alien Enemies Act.

NPR's Jimena Bustillo reports he is seeking more information about the deportation flights of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants last weekend. Boesberg had issued an emergency order to temporarily block President Trump's use of the wartime authority known as the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport people. But some planes carrying hundreds of people still flew to El Salvador. Boesberg is seeking details about the government's compliance with his order. In a filing, a regional immigration and customs official said that cabinet secretaries are considering whether to refuse to provide evidence in the court case on grounds that it's information

that could harm national security or foreign relations. Boasberg ordered the government to explain any discussions regarding this matter, known as invoking the privilege of state secrets, and to decide whether to invoke such privilege by March 25. Ximena Bustillo, NPR News. Federal safety officials say that for years, the state of Maryland failed to check the Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore.

Parts of it collapsed last year after an enormous cargo ship collided with the bridge, killing six people. The National Transportation Safety Board says, as bridges have gotten older, ships have gotten a lot bigger, and government authorities have failed to take extra precautions. From member station WYPR, Scott Massioni reports, the NTSB says the Baltimore area bridge isn't the only one that needed to be reviewed. It also identified 68 other bridges across the country

that weren't built to the needs and specifications. NTSB is strongly urging those bridge owners right now to conduct assessments to report back to the NTSB with remediation plans. And those bridges, they span from California to Washington to New York. They're all over the United States. Scott Massioni reporting. European Union leaders have agreed at a summit to keep up the pressure on Russia to end its

war on Ukraine. Terry Schultz reports on some disagreements. EU foreign policy chief Kaya Khalis failed to get enough support for her proposed 40 billion euro assistance package for Ukraine. So she's adapted that to trying to provide 2 million artillery shells worth 5 billion euros. Khalis spoke at the EU's latest summit focused on defense investment. Let's decide on the short term, which is the imminent needs that Ukraine has regarding the ammunition right now. Leaders debated European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's readiness plan, which includes EU loans to countries buying weapons from European manufacturers.

It is of utmost importance that we develop the defense industrial base in the European Union. That's part of the bloc's urgent efforts to reduce security dependence on the U.S. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Israel's Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the firing of Israel's top domestic intelligence chief. Israel's prime minister had moved to fire the leader of the agency, Shin Bet.

The Israeli Supreme Court says this is on hold until April 8th to allow time for a hearing. International airline flights around the world have been snarled. That's because power is out at a major hub, London's Heathrow Airport. Officials say a fire at a nearby substation cut the power. The airport is closed for the day. London police say there is no indication of foul play, but counterterrorism officials are leading the British investigation into the fire. People don't remember anything from the time that they were babies, but is that because

people don't make memories when they're infants? Reporter Ari Daniels says new research may hold the answer. One of the hardest parts of this study was getting the babies into the fMRI machine. Infants in many ways are the worst possible, you know, subject population. That's Yale cognitive neuroscientist Nick Turk Brown. His team showed infants a series of images they'd never seen before while snapping photos of their brains,

including the hippocampus. A region that we know is super important for memory in adults. Tristan Yates is a cognitive neuroscientist at Columbia. The more active the hippocampus was when seeing an image for the first time, the more likely babies were to remember it later, meaning that infants seem to form memories. Whether we can retrieve them later in life remains an open question. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel.

And I'm Korva Kuhlman, NPR News from Washington. On the embedded podcast. No. It's called, it's not in a speech. It's misinformation. News from Washington.