NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-24-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

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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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Trump is claiming ignorance on a story sending shockwaves through Washington. As NPR's Tamara Keith explains, a journalist from The Atlantic was apparently inadvertently added to a

group chat where top Trump administration national security officials were discussing planned military action. Atlantic magazine's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg somehow got included in a group chat on the messaging app Signal where the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and others were discussing plans for an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. When asked about the story and the breach hours after it came to light, President Trump said it was news to him. Well, it couldn't have been very effective because the attack was very effective. I can

tell you that. I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time. A spokesman for the National Security Council confirms the chat, which broke with longstanding national security protocol, appears to be authentic. Tamara Keith, NPR News. The Trump administration's plans to shun it at the Department of Education have met the first court challenge. NPR's Alissa Nadwarni reports a group of unions, school districts, and educators filed suit today in federal court, saying the effort to seek to overrule 46 years of

congressional decision-making. The lawsuit comes just a few days after President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to quote, take all steps necessary to facilitate the closure of the department. Trump later announced that the Health and Human Services Department would oversee nutrition programs and special education services, and that the Small Business Administration would take over the federal student loan portfolio, which amounts to about $1.6 trillion in debt.

The Education Department was formally created by Congress in 1979, and it cannot be closed without Congress' consent. Alyson Adwani, NPR News. After an incident in Gaza where UN officials say an Israeli tank struck one of its compounds, killing a staffer and wounding five others, the agency says it's reducing its presence there. Israel is denied being behind the explosion March 19th at the UN guest house in central Gaza. Stocks rallied today on hopes of fallout from President Trump's trade war may not be as damaging as had been feared. Here's NPR's Scott Horsley.

Concerns about tariffs and retaliation from US trading partners have been a drag on the stock market in recent weeks, but investors now hope the White House might take a more targeted approach. The Treasury Secretary has said countries that open their own markets to US exports could be spared in the trade war. A key sign could come next week when the president's promised to unveil additional tariff plans. Trump still sees tariffs as a useful tool even if they raise costs for domestic consumers and invite a hostile response from other countries. In a social media post, Trump threatened to slap new import taxes on goods from countries

that buy oil from Venezuela. Scott Horsley in Pear News, Washington. The Dow jumped nearly 1.5 percent. The Nasdaq rose more than 2 percent today. You're listening to NPR. If you pay attention to how you look in virtual meetings, but not to how you sound, you may want to think again. NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce says there's a new study that shows that higher quality audio can create more positive impressions of a speaker.

Cognitive scientists at Yale University made recordings of people speaking in a variety of contexts. Here's one from a job interview scenario. My tenacious and proactive approach resulted in numerous important contract wins. Then the researchers altered the recordings to create lower quality versions. My tenacious and proactive approach resulted in numerous important contract wins. People who heard the high quality audio were consistently more likely to have favorable impressions of the speaker, seeing them as more intelligent, attractive, and convincing.

A report on this research appears in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Nell Greenfield-Boice, NPR News. It's tax time, which also means it's prime time for scammers to swoop in. That can include anything from stealing your identity, money, or other sensitive information, to using too-good-to-be-true payday promises on social media, or even phone calls, pretending to come from a federal agency. Bottom line, if someone on the phone says they are from the IRS, chances are good they're not.

Layoffs in the federal government could also increase uncertainty amongst consumers. Critical futures prices closed higher following stocks hot up. Oil rose 1% today after the Trump administration proposed imposing a 25% tariff on countries that buy oil from Venezuela. Oil rose 83 cents a barrel to settle at 69.11 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. 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.