NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-25-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

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Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. President Trump has claimed ignorance about claims that his national security team added a journalist to a group chat on whether the U.S. military was planning action. Details from NPR's Tamara Keith.

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. A federal judge has blocked the DOJ team's access to sensitive personal data at the Office of Personnel

Management and the Departments of Education and Treasury. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions. The Trump administration is invoking the state secret's privilege in a standoff with a federal judge over information about recent deportations. NPR's Joel Rose reports. Federal Judge James Boasberg has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under a rarely used wartime law. And Boasberg is pushing the Trump administration to explain whether it defied his orders when it allowed two deportation flights to continue.

But the Justice Department has stonewalled, refusing to answer the judge's questions about the timing and other operational details of the flights. Now the Justice Department is invoking the state secrets privilege, arguing in a court filing that answering the judge's questions even under seal would harm, quote, diplomatic and national security concerns. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. U.S. and Russian negotiators met in Saudi Arabia Monday to discuss organizing a ceasefire in the Black Sea. As NPR's Charles Mains reports, Russia has made few concessions so far. The Kremlin spokesman today said that Russia values the American diplomatic efforts, but

it made clear that they saw this as a long process. More talks, more negotiations needed to work out a range of technicalities towards an eventual ceasefire. In the meantime, Russia doesn't seem to be offering much of anything in the way of concessions, and maybe the question is, why should they? The Trump administration appears to agree with them on many of Russia's core demands. We've already heard Trump say no to NATO membership for Ukraine and talk about Ukraine making territorial concessions to Russia.

Well, this weekend, the White House's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, went further. Witkoff endorsed Russia's seizure of four Ukrainian territories based on referendum votes. The U.S. and indeed the entire West had regarded as complete sham. Charles Maynes in Moscow. This is NPR. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigned Monday, weeks after Trump administration officials taking suggested taking control of the independent

agency. Last month DeGioia announced plans to retire and asked the postal board to begin a search for his successor. Acting Postmaster General Doug Tolino is set to take the helm until a permanent replacement is found. The DNA testing company 23andMe is seeking bankruptcy protection. As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, the move raises questions about the private data it's collected. 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 percent 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. Brazil's government has apologized to the families of victims targeted under the country's

military dictatorship. The official apology was part of a deal between prosecutors, families and the state. Dozens of families are still awaiting word on whether their relatives or among remains recovered in thousands of bags that were discovered in a Sao Paulo ditch some 35 years ago. This is NPR News.