Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
Integrity, good engine, good control.
“We show the same, it goes great up here.”
Astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission have been circling Earth for the last day, but now they've blasted their main engine for six minutes, leaving Earth's orbit in the pivotal move that puts their Orion capsule on the way to the moon.
It's the first time any human has been on the trajectory in more than a half a century,
and it includes risks, like cosmic radiation beyond the protection of Earth's magnetic field. The trip to the moon will take roughly four days. FEMA lost hundreds of workers in February, and PR's Rebecca Herschel reports new data shows a trend of job cuts at the agency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, lost 356 workers in February,
according to the Federal Government's Office of Personal Management. While FEMA has lost more than 2,500 employees since last September. Trump administration officials have repeatedly called for FEMA to be drastically cut,
“and moved to eliminate FEMA jobs, including in offices that directly help survivors”
of hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, at his Senate confirmation hearing, new DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin argued that cuts can make FEMA more efficient. Rebecca Herschel and PR News. Today is the anniversary of what President Trump called Liberation Day,
when he ordered double digit tariffs on just about every country in the world. He promised those tariffs would usher in a new golden age of stronger factories, lower prices in a smaller trade deficit, but U.S. factories lost 89,000 jobs. Inflation is higher, and the trade deficit actually widened last year. The Supreme Court struck down Trump's use of an emergency-powered,
levy tariffs, businesses are looking for about $166 billion in refunds.
The Pentagon and other defendants are appealing a preliminary injunction against
“blacklisting the AI company Anthropic, and PR's John Ruach reports on the dispute”
over how the military can use AI. Anthropic says it does not want its AI used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of Americans. The Pentagon says it's up to the military to decide how to use the technology, not the company. It labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk, and President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using its products.
A federal judge in San Francisco last week ordered a preliminary injunction against the moves. She said the measures do not appear directed at the government's stated national security interests, and instead looked like punishment. The Pentagon and other defendants argued in court that Anthropic's actions rendered it untrustworthy. John Ruach and PR News.
Defense Secretary Pete Hague-Seth is asked the top uniformed member of the army. Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George to step down and immediately retire. That's according to an official not authorized to speak publicly. It's unclear who will replace George. Stocks overcame early losses today to close mixed.
This is NPR News. The Trump administration has scaled back its plans to dismantle the consumer financial protection bureau, but the reduction will still be steep under the new plan the beer's head count will be reduced from 1,700 to 550 instead of 200. The plan faces opposition from the CFPB's employee union and likely requires a federal judge's approval.
Midwives are suing over George's laws governing their practice. They say the laws keep them from seeing patients and exacerbate gaps in maternity care. Just made or of member station W.A.B.E. has more. Georgia has some of the nation's most restrictive midwifery laws according to the American College of Nurse Midwives. Restrictions Atlanta birth center director Tamara Tate says are unnecessary,
including a mandate that certified nurse midwives work under a doctor's supervision. We could employ more midwives and serve more families. Instead, Georgia is choosing to leave skills and committed workforce on the sidelines. Georgia has just three freestanding birth centers statewide. The lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court, the state attorney general hasn't commented on it.
For NPR News, I'm just made or in Atlanta. Dutch authorities have recovered a priceless ancient golden helmet from Romania. A stolen last year from a museum in the Netherlands, prosecutors unveiled the 25-hundred-year-old COTSO-FUNNESSED helmet during a press conference in the eastern Dutch city of Austin. The helmet considered a cultural icon of Romania was on loan to the Drenz Museum when it was nacked more than a year ago.
This is NPR News. Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, with conflict unfolding in so many places.
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