NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-28-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Health Secretary Robert of Kennedy Jr. confirms the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is gone. We let go, says Minare's yesterday. I'm not going to talk about personnel issues, but, you know, the CDC is an agency that is very troubled. Kennedy has heard through Reuters during a Texas event a day after the CDC director was ousted and several leading CDC officials resigned. Menares refused to resign from her role, which she assumed just weeks ago after her Senate confirmation. Her lawyers say Minars refused to rubber stamp unscientific, reckless directives, and fire dedicated health experts. Several people are still hospitalized a day after the shooting at a back-to-school church service for Annunciation Catholic school students in Minneapolis.

Two children died. NPR's Jason DeRose says people are visiting the site of the shooting today. Parents are bringing their kids who were in the church yesterday. One of them, a little girl named Rosie, wrote a note on a placard that said an 8-year-old whose name will appear here later. And another placard that said a 10-year-old whose name will appear here later. She wanted to pay her respects to two of her classmates who were killed. NPR's Jason DeRose. Washington, D.C. says it's carrying out another. count of its homeless population. NPR's Jennifer Levin reports the aim is to find out where many

of those displaced by a federal security surge have gone. Earlier this year, an estimated 800 people were living outside in D.C. The White House says federal agents have helped clear about 50 small homeless encampments. Mayor Muriel Bowser says anecdotal reports suggest many of those displaced are scattered to other parts of the district. We want to know where they are so that we can connect them to services and get them to come inside. She says 81 more people have moved into city shelter beds, though it's not known from where. D.C.'s regular tally this year showed a drop in homelessness. The new count will include only those living outside.

Bowser says her hope is to provide housing or shelter for everyone. Jennifer Lutton and Pierre News, Washington. Mexico's Postal Service says it is suspending package delivery to the U.S. NPR Zeta Peralt explains. In the past, packages containing goods that cost less than $800 were delivered in the United States without paying any taxes. The Trump administration has suspended that exemption, which is known as de minimis. Mexico says until it gets some clarity on how taxes will be assessed, it has paused all shipments of packages to the United States. In a statement, the Mexican Post Office said it continues to talk to the United States to try to come up with a clear tax mechanism.

Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand have also suspended shipments. to the United States for the same reason. Eidapralta, NPR News, Mexico City. This is NPR. A new study finds an interesting link between forest elephants and ebony trees. NPR's Nate Roth reports, jet black ebony wood is commonly used for stringed instruments and furniture. Ebony trees are rare.

They're wood expensive. The new study published in the journal Science Advances comes after nine years of fieldwork to better understand how the tree is spread in West. African forests. Tom Smith, the conservation ecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, says they worked with indigenous groups in Cameroon. And one day, they said, Did you know that ebony is often found in elephant dung and the seedlings often sprout in elephant dung? They found that by eating ebony fruit and depositing the seeds, the elephants are

moving the tree through the forest. Illegal poaching for the ivory trade has greatly reduced elephant populations, though, the study found also reducing the number of new ebony trees. Greece. Nate Rot, NPR News. Florida's Everglades National Park has a Burmese python problem. Researchers studying the invasive species habits have videotape putting trackers on some of the snakes and releasing them in marshland waters. But today, there may be hundreds of thousands more untracked Burmese python responsible for decimating native species in the Everglades. The Associated Press reports officials are now enlisting the help of robotic rabbits designed to, to look, move and even smell like the real thing to lure the snakes out of their hiding spots.

It's too early to tell if the experiment will be a success, but officials say they're optimistic. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.