NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-02-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

NPR News: 04-02-2025 8AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On the Embedded Podcast. No, no. It's called denying a speech and mis-speech. It's misinformation. Like so many Americans, my dad has gotten swept up in conspiracy theories. These are not conspiracy theories. These are reality. I spent the year following him down the rabbit hole, trying to get him back. Listen to Alternate Realities on the Embedded Podcast from NPR, all episodes available now.

Live from NPR News in Washington, Oncorva Coleman, a pair of Republicans in Florida won special congressional elections yesterday. Jimmy Patronus and Randy Fine will help keep the GOP's majority in the House. Randy Fine's margin of victory was 14 points, but that's far smaller than his GOP predecessor who won by a margin of 33 points. Fine is brushing off the difference. It's a special election. You have to look at the turnout.

I mean, there were twice as many people that voted. I don't think you can read much into it. We won by double digits. We're super excited. It was an incredibly powerful victory. But Democrats take a different view. They say it suggests that some congressional districts may be more competitive than thought. In another closely watched nonpartisan election,

a liberal candidate won election to Wisconsin's Supreme Court. Susan Crawford won comfortably. Billionaire Elon Musk had poured millions of his own money into the race to support her conservative opponent. Musk is also pointing to a measure Wisconsin voters passed to enshrine voter ID requirements into the state constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case testing whether states can remove Planned Parenthood clinics from state Medicaid programs. NPR's Nina Totenberg says Medicaid

funds cannot generally be used to fund abortions. In 2018, South Carolina's Republican governor issued executive orders terminating Planned Parenthood's participation in the state Medicaid program. That meant that many low-income residents who use Planned Parenthood for their health care would be out of luck, and Planned Parenthood's two clinics in the state would have to close its doors. The lower courts repeatedly blocked the governor's orders, citing the federal Medicaid statute specifically allowing Medicaid patients to get medical care from any qualified and willing

medical provider. Today, the state will tell the Supreme Court that patients are not entitled to go to court to vindicate those rights, that the only remedy they have is to persuade the Secretary of Health and Human Services to cut off all Medicaid funds for the state. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. President Trump is poised to announce a raft of reciprocal tariffs on foreign imports today. The European Union says it's willing to negotiate over these tariffs. But Terry Schultz reports from Brussels the European Union is prepared to retaliate.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the expected new tariffs are extremely disappointing. Many Europeans feel utterly disheartened by the announcement from the United States. The two sides already launched one such round of tit-for-tat tariffs in March, but von der Leyen notes the battle was started by Washington. And she says the EU is still willing to discuss the situation but is also ready to use what she called all instruments to fight back. Europe holds a lot of cards from trade to technology to the size of our market.

For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are down 200 points. This is NPR. The U.S. Senate has confirmed Matt Whitaker to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to NATO. Whitaker has more law enforcement experience rather than foreign policy expertise. He served in the Justice Department during President Trump's first term. Climate scientists in the Southwest say that only two states, Nevada and Arizona, are doing meaningful work to recycle and reuse water from the drying Colorado River.

NPR's Kirk Siegler reports on a new study that comes as seven states are under federal orders to negotiate a deal to use far less water. Climate scientists at UCLA crunched numbers from water districts across the seven western states where 40 million people and countless farms depend on the Colorado River. They found that Nevada is recycling 85% of its total wastewater. Las Vegas, after all, has been internationally recognized for this. But despite a law passed in 2009, California, the largest wastewater producer, only recycles about a quarter.

Colorado and its booming population not even 4%. Scientists say these states are missing a huge opportunity to access more water ahead of a looming deadline of next year when federal regulators could order mandatory cuts if a new water sharing truce isn't brokered. Kirk Siegler, NPR News. The military government running the country of Myanmar now says more than 2,800 people have been killed in last Friday's earthquake. Thousands of others are injured. A man has been pulled from the rubble of a hotel in Myanmar's capital, but hope is fading

for the rescue of others. The quake also killed more than 20 people in neighboring Thailand. This is NPR.