NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-03-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The National Weather Service says it's hiring more than 100 employees to stabilize operations at its field offices. NPR's Greg Allen reports they were forced to scale back after the Trump administration cut nearly 600 positions. A National Weather Service spokesperson says the new hires will fill positions at field offices where there's quote, the greatest operational need. Following job cuts ordered by the Trump administration, some of the services more than 100 field

offices were no longer staffed around the clock. Some have also cut back on weather balloon launches, critical in gathering data needed for local and national forecasts. Following severe tornado outbreaks and with the beginning of hurricane season, the Trump administration granted the Weather Service an exemption to a government-wide hiring freeze. The agency says it will soon begin advertising for the mission-critical field positions. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami. The Democratic mayor of Newark is suing the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey and a

homeland security official. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports the lawsuit stems from his arrest outside of an immigration detention facility last month. Newark Mayor Ross Baraka filed his lawsuit against acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba and a Homeland Security investigations official named Ricky Patel. Baraka accuses them both of false arrest and malicious prosecution. He also accuses Habba, who was Trump's personal attorney, of defamation. Federal authorities arrested Baraka outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility near Newark last month.

Federal prosecutors charged him with misdemeanor trespass, but later dropped the charge. A judge admonished prosecutors over the case and questioned what he called the mayor's quote unquote hasty arrest. Now in his lawsuit, Baraka is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, but does not specify an amount. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. Ukraine says it's detonated underwater explosives targeting a key road and rail bridge that connects the occupied peninsula of Crimea to Russia. NPR's Joanne Kikisis reports the bridge is used by Russia's military as a key logistics route. After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed to build the 12-mile-long bridge, which opened in 2018. Ukraine's security service confirmed it had planned Tuesday's

attacks and claimed the blast severely damaged the bridge's base. It also posted video footage showing a blast in the sea and a photo of damage to the bridge. Russia says the bridge was temporarily closed to traffic. This is the second covert attack on Russia's infrastructure in the last three days. On Sunday, Ukraine struck Russia's strategic bomber fleet using drones smuggled deep into the Russian heartland. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kiev. On Wall Street, the Dow was up 194 points. This is NPR.

South Korea has a new president. The Democratic Party's candidate Lee Cha-myung has been elected. The 61-year-old has pledged political and economic reforms to South Korea. The country held a snap election to choose a new leader after the former president was impeached last year. A new report from the American Psychological Association warns of the potential harms of artificial intelligence on the mental health of adolescents. NPR's Ritu Chatterjee reports it also calls for developers to build safeguards into AI

systems to protect the mental health of youth. The authors note that systems using artificial intelligence are already becoming pervasive in the lives of adolescents and that their age makes them especially vulnerable to the pitfalls of AI. Report author Mitch Prinstein is chief of psychology at the American Psychological Association. Already we're seeing that kids are getting information from AI that they believe when it's not true and they're developing relationships with bots on AI. Prinstein says some teens are being driven to violence and even suicidal behaviors by bots. He and his colleagues are calling on AI developers to build in guardrails to protect

youth from such exploitation and manipulation. Reetha Chatterjee, NPR News. Today marks 100 years since the Goodyear blimps' inaugural flight in Akron, Ohio. To celebrate, all three U.S.-based blimps are soaring over the city today. The original blimp, known as the Pilgrim, first took flight on June 3rd of 1925. This is NPR News in Washington. Listen to this podcast, sponsor free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or a free free