NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-24-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: March 25, 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. US and Russian negotiators met in the Saudi capital Riyadh today as efforts to reach a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow continue, where even as the meeting was underway a Russian missile strike damaged a school and hospital in Ukraine, injuring at least 88

people. NPR's Charles Maynes in Moscow says Russia appears to be in no hurry to reach a deal. There's this larger argument you hear in Moscow, why compromise what the Kremlin seems to think it can take on the battlefield. So these temporary ceasefire proposals, whether they hold up or not, at least address two areas, oil facilities, gas facilities, and say attacks on naval ships where Russia's been remained vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks. Critics will say the Kremlin is now slow walking on Trump's larger goal of a full ceasefire while Putin presses Russia's

current military advantage. You know, meanwhile he seems to be finding some sympathy in Washington for his larger goal, a neutered NATO presence near Russia's borders, but really that can only come through negotiations with Trump and the process itself, you know, seems to restore Russia's stature as a global power on equal footing with the U.S. MPR's Charles Maynes, the head of the U.S. Postal Service is stepping down as MPR's Hansi Luong reports Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is leaving USPS weeks after Trump officials floated controversial ideas for taking over the independent mail agency.

In a statement, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he was planning to retire when he asked after Trump officials floated controversial ideas for taking over the independent mail agency. In a statement, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he was planning to retire when he asked the Postal Service's governing board last month to start looking for someone to replace him. Since then, President Trump has confirmed his administration is considering having the Commerce Department take control of what Congress set up to be an independent postal service. Legal experts say that will likely violate federal law. DeJoy recently signed an agreement that allows Elon Musk's Doge team to find efficiencies at USPS. DeJoy was appointed to lead the postal service during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he rolled out a 10-year reorganization plan in an attempt to bring financial stability to the postal system.

Critics of the plan, however, say that consolidating mail processing centers and other changes have slowed service, especially in rural communities. Anzila Wong, NPR News, Washington. The DNA testing company 23andMe is filing for bankruptcy. As NPR's Joe Hernandez explains, it comes after ongoing financial struggles at the company and raising questions about data privacy. The biotech firm that allows users to spit in a tube and send away the sample for DNA analysis is seeking a buyer. It comes a few months after the California company laid off

roughly 40% of its staff and two years after a data breach affected millions of customer accounts. Data privacy experts are now raising concerns about what could happen to the sensitive genetic information of 15 million users if 23andMe is sold. The company says customers can still delete their data and close their accounts if they choose and has vowed to remain in operation through the bankruptcy process. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street today.

The Dow up 597 points. The Nasdaq rose 404 points. This is NPR. A Georgia jury is ordering the parent company of Monsanto, Bayer, to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company's roundup weed killer caused his cancer. Friday's verdict in the case marks the latest in a long-running series of court cases involving the company. The giant agrochemical firm says it plans to appeal. Lawyers for the individual said it includes roughly 65 million in compensatory damages

and about 2 billion in punitive damages. Bonsanto says jury awards are sometimes reduced though before judgments are finalized. A Netflix show about a young boy who kills a classmate has become a source of media fascination and fodder for debates and dismay over misogyny and the power of social media to radicalize boys and young men. More from MPR's Nettie Ulubi. The four-part series, Adolescents, follows a 13-year-old boy, the cops who arrest him, and his distraught family in a working-class British suburb.

The show came out on March 13th. It's visually arresting. Each episode is filmed in one long shot. Its nuanced look at boys and their dads navigating contemporary masculinity even sparked a comment from the UK's Prime Minister who said he watched it with his children. The show was co-created by one of its stars, Stephen Graham, who plays the father. While adolescence has been viewed more than 24 million times, it's not what's most popular now on Netflix. That would be a movie with a million more views

about a war between humans and robots. Nettie Ulubi, NPR News. Will Rose 83 cents a barrel to 69.11 a barrel in New York? I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.