NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-25-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

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When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's Throughline podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity. On Throughline, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism. Time travel with us every week on the Throughline podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The nation's top two intelligence officials have testified that they did not share classified information in a group chat about a US bombing campaign in Yemen. NPR's Greg Myhre reports Democratic senators pushed

back aggressively against those claims. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee that they have not shared classified material outside of proper channels. They did not speak on behalf of other officials who were also part of the group on the Signal Messaging app. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said national security officials in the Trump administration have already taken a number of actions he described as, quote, sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior.

The hearing came just a day after journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that he was inadvertently included in the group chat with other national security officials. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Washington. NPR has seen an internal Pentagon memo that warned against use of the SignalMessage app. That memo was sent out last week to the entire Department of Defense. It reads, quote, a vulnerability has been identified in the SignalMessenger application, end quote. NPR CEO Catherine Maher chairs the board of the Signal Foundation, a

nonprofit that supports the Signal app. British security officials are reacting cautiously to reports that senior Trump administration officials discussed military operations on the unsecured group chat. We have more from Billa Marx. Many European leaders have declined to comment publicly on the inadvertent leaking of sensitive military operations including British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, but she did insist the UK would continue its close intelligence-sharing cooperation with the United States, even as the UK's Armed Forces Minister warned a similar breach by British officials would lead to disciplinary actions.

Villa-Marx reporting. In other news, consumer confidence in the US fell in March for the fourth month in a row. NPR's Scott Horsley reports expectations for future economic conditions dropped to their lowest level in 12 years. Consumer confidence has been hovering in a fairly narrow range for more than two years, but it dipped below that level this month while survey respondents still feel good about the current job market, their assessment of current business conditions, and their outlook for the

future worsened. The confidence index is compiled by the Conference Board, a non-profit think tank. People who answered the survey say inflation is still a big concern, and many expect prices to climb even faster as a result of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. More people say they're planning to buy big ticket items, such as appliances and electronics, but rather than a vote of confidence in the economic outlook, that's seen as a largely defensive move to try to beat the looming import taxes. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is down 72 points at 42,510.

The S&P is off three. The NASDAQ is up 24 points. This is NPR News. Witnesses report seeing Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank beating up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary film No Other Land yesterday. Two of Hamdan Bilal's fellow directors and his attorney say he was assaulted and then detained by the Israeli military in the village of Susia. Troops say they had detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and a civilian. A new law

requires Illinois' public institutions, including public schools and state hospitals, to offer halal and kosher meals. For Member Station WBEZ, Adora Namigade reports. Adora Namigade reports. Advocates say the Faith by Plate Act is one of the first laws of its kind in the U.S. The legislation will require the Illinois State Board of Education to have one or more statewide master contracts with vendors that schools of all sizes can access. Muslim civic coalition president Dr. Delara Said says this means, For principals trying to implement this policy, he knows where there

are resources that exist so his students can have the meals they need. State facilities will have one year to implement the new requirements. For NPR News, Amidora Namigadde in Chicago. A presidential portrait of Donald Trump that GOP lawmakers commissioned for $10,000 no longer hangs at the Colorado State Capitol. Nearly six years after the oil painting was put up on Sunday, Trump complained on social media that he thought the painting was, quote,

purposefully distorted. The legislature's Republican leaders then had it taken down. The Democrats did not object. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington. A lot happens in Washington.