NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-03-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. More than 1,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services say they want Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to quit. Today, they signed an open letter. They state that Kennedy's leadership has put the health of all Americans at risk. This open letter to Kennedy is also addressed to Congress. The staffers say they've already pleaded with Kennedy to stop spreading inaccurate health information and to stop firing health experts. The staffers say Kennedy has never responded to them. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says he believes the Trump administration is already staging federal agents and military vehicles in Chicago.

The governor says he's getting information about the president's plans from sources within the federal government. From member station WBEZ, Mahjah Iqbal reports. Governor Pritzker says Trump is readying to send the Texas National Guard and immigration officials currently stationed in Los Angeles, just as many Chicagoans prepare to throw festivals and parade. raid celebrating Mexican Independence Day. Unidentified agents in unmarked vehicles with masks are planning to raid Latino communities and say they're targeting violent criminals. Illinois's Attorney General Kwame Raul says he will not hesitate to sue the Trump administration. For NPR News, I'm Mawa Iqbal in Springfield, Illinois. President Trump has decided to move the U.S. Space Command from Colorado to

Alabama. NPR's Mar-Aliason reports. In an Oval Office event, President Trump says he's reversing Joe Biden's decision to keep the command in Colorado. The Space Command oversees military space operations and the defensive satellites. This is not a new position for Trump. At the end of his first term, he also tried to move the command to Alabama from Colorado. But now he says the move will boost the economy in Alabama. This will result in more than 30,000 Alabama jobs and probably much more than that and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. Trump says the Space Command will help.

the U.S. dominate the high frontier by building the so-called Golden Dome, a missile defense system for the U.S. and Canada. Mara Liason, NPR News. China is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Chinese leaders staged an enormous military parade and some two dozen foreign leaders attended. That included Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-un. They were welcomed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn says those three leaders did not hold a three-way meeting. She, Kim, and Putin are expected to hold bilateral meetings among themselves, but there's no trilateral meeting of these three nuclear-armed nations expected. The question is, will they have them in future? Unlike the U.S. South Korea and Japan, they don't have a trilateral office of their own. They don't have three-way joint military drills yet. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reporting. You're listening to NPR News.

A federal appeals court panel says President Trump cannot use a wartime power to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang. Late last night, the appeals panel disagreed with Trump's arguments that the migrants are part of a, quote, invasion of the U.S., and he cannot use the Alien Enemies Act. The appellate panel says Trump can deport undocumented migrants in other legal ways. A new study finds that deforestation in South America's Amazon rainforest is war. worsening during the dry season. NPR's Nate Rodd reports it makes the region more susceptible to wildfires. Think of a tree like a water pump. Rain falls and is absorbed by the ground, where tree roots suck it up and move it back upwards. Water vapor is then released from tiny pores and leaves far above, fueling more rain. That process is especially important in the

Amazon during the dry season. And the new study published in the journal Nature Communications finds that deforestation, mostly for agriculture, is directly responsible for 75 percent of rainfall decreases during the drier season. Drier vegetation means more wildfires. The researchers warn which kill trees and exacerbate the problem. Nate Rot, NPR News. There are new wildfires burning in California. Some were triggered yesterday during dry lightning storms.

A couple of them have already triggered evacuations. That includes that the historic town of Chinese camp. That is a historic mining settlement where thousands of Chinese immigrants lived during the gold rush. There are reports some buildings there burned. This is NPR.