NPR News: 03-25-2026 7PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration says air travelers are experiencing the highest airport wait times ever under her agency. Han-Win McNeil told a House Committee that workers going without pay during the partial government shutdown could lead to airport closures. NPR's Meg Anderson reports. McNeil said some TSA officers are sleeping in their cars and selling their blood and plasma to get by. Now, multiple major airports are experiencing days where 40 to 50 percent of their staff are calling out because they simply cannot afford to report to work. But Democrats and Republicans still seem unable to come to an agreement. Democrats say GOP proposals to fund DHS don't do enough to rain in ice tactics, especially after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. And Republicans continue to blame Democrats for the partial shutdown. They said the funding impasse raises national security concerns and warned of the strain

1:01upcoming events like the FIFA World Cup might cause. Meg Anderson and NPR News. Yesterday, a jury in New Mexico ordered social media company Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect young users from child predators on Instagram and Facebook. And today, California jury found that Meta and Google were to blame for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a small child. NPR's Bobby Allen explains there's more to come in the resolution of these landmark cases. This was just the story of one woman and her struggles and how social media led to a lot of those mental health struggles like depression and anxiety and body image issues. But really, this case is tied to thousands of others that have been consolidated into one case that are sort of waiting to see the outcome of this one. This is what's known as a bell weather. It's a test case. Now we're going to move to see how all of those thousands of cases will settle. NPR's Bobby Allen reporting that Justice Department has reached a financial agreement to settle

2:01a lawsuit filed by former Trump advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador in 2016, but was later pardoned by President Trump. NPR's Ryan Lucas has more. Michael Flynn briefly served as national security adviser in Trump's first term. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to lie into the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference. But Flynn later changed his tune and claimed he was innocent and tried to withdraw his guilty plea. Ultimately, President Trump pardoned him in late 2020. Three years later, Flynn sued the government alleging the criminal case against him was wrongful and malicious. Flynn was seeking $50 million. In the Biden administration, the Justice Department had sought to dismiss the case. Now court papers say that Trump DOJ has reached a financial settlement, but does not specify the amount. Ryan Lucas and PR News. This is NPR News from Washington. The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans,

3:06the gravest crime against humanity and calling for reparations. The resolution also calls for the restitution of cultural items to their countries of origin. That includes artworks, monuments, museum pieces, documents, and national archives. Argentina, Israel, and the U.S. voted against the resolution. A group of Jewish faculty members at Harvard are criticizing the Trump administration's latest charges of anti-Semitism against the university, from member station G.B.H. in Boston, Kirk Karepeza reports. More than 100 Jewish professors have signed an open letter condemning the Trump administration's actions against their university. The letter says the administration is weaponizing anti-Semitism as a way to target Harvard and other schools. Professor Steven Lewitsky teaches government and helps organize the letter. He says the group opposes what he calls a broader authoritarian project. Jews thrive in a democratic environment with free independent universities, freedom of expression, and broad protection of civil liberties, and this administration's behavior is threatening

4:10those things. Professors are demanding the Justice Department drop its lawsuit. For NPR News, I'm Kirk Karepeza in Boston. First Lady Melania Trump shared the spotlight with a robot today. The humanoid named Figure 3 accompanied her as she arrived at the White House East Room for the second day of a summit discussing ways to empower children through technology. The robot thanked her for the invitation to the White House. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. According to this podcast, sponsor free on Amazon Music with a Prime Membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.