EU Leaders On Ukraine, Auto Tariffs Paused, USDA Workers Return
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Europe aims to increase defense spending after the U.S. withholds military aid from Ukraine. What would it take for Europeans to defend themselves against Russia? I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.

The auto industry gets a reprieve. President Trump pauses new tariffs on cars made in Canada and Mexico. U.S. automakers lobbied hard because their car parts cross both borders. What they said was, look, if you put a 25% tariff on us, you're helping everybody but us, so come on. But the relief lasts only a month, so what happens next?

And nearly 6,000 fired Department of Agriculture workers are back, at least for now. A federal board says their firings were likely illegal, but the fight over government jobs is not over. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. Support for NPR and the following message come from Betterment, the automated investing and savings app. CEO Sarah Levy shares how Betterment utilizes tech tools powered by human advice.

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European Union leaders are gathering for an emergency summit to coordinate support for Ukraine. They're aiming to protect against Russia and do it with less help from the United States. The U.S., to be clear, remains part of the NATO alliance with troops based in Germany. But in recent days, the U.S. paused military supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, bidding to force a peace with Russia. Terry Schultz is in Brussels covering the meeting. Terry, what's the mood like there?

Good morning. Well, you can really feel the worry here in a way I haven't seen since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started three years ago. And interestingly, that isn't because Moscow is doing anything differently. It's been relentlessly attacking Ukraine since the beginning of the war. The difference is this rapid deterioration of relations between the Trump administration and Ukraine, the spat between the presidents in the Oval Office last week, and as you mentioned, the subsequent suspension of military assistance and now intelligence sharing, which is essential to Ukraine on the battlefield.

So there was an urgent meeting in Paris. There was an urgent meeting in London, now one in Brussels. So outside of it being all urgent, what are European leaders actually going to do about this?

Well, today I expect leaders to move forward. Now, whether they can reach the required unanimity yet is unclear, but there's a new package of proposals on how they can come up with 800 billion euros. That's more than 860 billion dollars in defense spending. That would be partly in loans backed up by the EU for buying new weapons and partly by setting aside EU penalties on having too much debt so that governments can now drastically increase their military spending. OK, so are European citizens on board with that?

Well, yeah, going into more debt isn't popular, but I spoke with former Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollengren about this, and she said that politicians and officials just need to help their people understand that U.S. unpredictability means it's urgent now to mobilize all the tools they have available to scale up both their domestic defense and support for Ukraine. If you boil it down, I think it comes down to turning the European economy into a war economy. These are difficult choices, and you have to explain them to people, but it has to be done.

Now, earlier suggestions to declare a war economy in Europe didn't get traction because many leaders felt it was too drastic and would unnecessarily scare people. So you can see how things have changed. Yeah, it certainly sounds like Europeans have kind of moved into this worst case scenario thinking, you know, when it comes to regarding U.S. support.

Well, they're at least seriously considering those scenarios, including researcher Giuseppe Spadafora with the EU Institute of Security Studies. He told me that even the fear of the U.S. disengaging could destabilize the transatlantic relationship further. The U.S. could use the threat of abandonment as a tool to obtain a lot of concessions in areas that weaken Europe. It could force Europeans to compromise on a lot of other areas, such as trade concessions, changing technology standards.

and curtailing certain rights. So Spadafora says Europeans' concern about this possibility may end up leading them to make policy decisions in favor of the Trump administration. So if the U.S. does indeed step back, as people are worried about, I mean, are there individual European leaders looking to maybe step up?

Well, French President Emmanuel Macron has really tried to be that leader. And as the head of one of two nuclear powers in Europe, he has a lot of weight in defense issues. So in an evening address, he said he'll call together European army chiefs to discuss a potential peacekeeping force and says he's even considering extending the French nuclear deterrent over the rest of Europe. The future of Europe does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow, he said.

So EU leaders hope to decide some things about their future here in Brussels today. All right. That's Terry Schultz in Brussels. Terry, thanks. You're welcome. Thank you.

As 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico take hold, President Trump has announced another one-month reprieve. The president's latest sudden shift is only for carmakers. They are a huge source of cross-border business. It is common for parts to cross the border several times as American-made cars are assembled. U.S. automakers warned the tariffs would raise the price of their cars by thousands of dollars. NPR's Kamila Domenosky covers the auto industry. Kamila, so where did this pause come from? Well,

Well, it is no secret. The Detroit automakers, so that's Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, they have been lobbying for this for months. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick went on Fox News yesterday, and he said that the big three spoke to the White House. They made their pitch. And what they said was, look, we're domestic American automakers. And if you put a 25 percent tariff on us and you don't put it on the Germans and you don't put it on the Koreans and you don't put it on the Japanese, you're helping everybody but us. So come on.

Specifically, what the big three had asked for was that these tariffs not apply to either cars or parts for cars that meet the strict requirements for the USMCA. That's the trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico that Trump negotiated in his first term to replace the previous agreement known as NAFTA. So most cars made in North America meet these requirements, but not all of those.

So it's a reprieve for most vehicles made in Canada, Mexico or the U.S. by any automaker, but it would particularly help the U.S. automakers. OK, but Trump says that these tariffs are coming back in April for every car, for all cars. So how much does a 30-day pause even help?

Yeah, I mean, look, it's time for companies to figure out some logistics, maybe stockpile a few parts, but it is not nearly enough time to, for instance, move an auto plant to the U.S. to avoid tariffs. I spoke to Angela Gamalski, a trade lawyer who works with the auto industry. One of the clients that I've been working with is weighing that exact question. How do we reshore? And their best estimate is looking at two years.

years. Meanwhile, this is a policy that was in place for only one day for these vehicles and has been pushed back twice. And even for the rest of the Mexico and Canada tariffs, which are still in place for all these other goods, there is just so much uncertainty about how long they're going to be in. So what does this mean then for the people who sell cars and the people that want to be car buyers?

Yeah. So a one-day tariff, obviously not much. There's still those smaller number of vehicles that are hit by this tariff. And if they come back and stick to all of them, they will make cars even pricier. And, of course, Trump is promising many more tariffs to come. So these particular tariffs on Canada and Mexico, if they stayed in place a while, we would be looking at new cars going up in price almost certainly by thousands of dollars. Car parts get more expensive. Used cars, repairs, insurance get more expensive through ripple effects.

The UAW, the Auto Workers Union, did put out a statement this week acknowledging the pain caused by tariffs, but also saying the working class felt the pain of NAFTA. And tariffs are a way to bring jobs to the U.S. by making it more expensive to manufacture overseas. The White House has said that's the ultimate goal. It's also said the goal is to stop fentanyl at the border. One's long term, one's immediate. It's really confusing and it's hard for companies to make plans, including plans to move factories. Camila Dominovsky covers cars for NPR. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you.

Nearly 6,000 fired employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be heading back to work today. An independent federal board ordered them reinstated for 45 days while its investigation into the firings continues. NPR's Andrea Hsu has been following all of this. So, Andrea, how do these workers at USDA get their jobs back?

Yeah, well, in short, the system set up to hear federal employee complaints about things that happened to them on the job worked. You know, tens of thousands of probationary employees have been fired since last month. These are people typically in their first or second year on the job. And some of them filed complaints with the Office of Special Counsel. That's the watchdog agency set up to investigate such complaints.

And their investigation into the USDA found a pattern. You know, nearly 6,000 people got basically the same letter telling them that they were being fired because of their performance. All 6,000 people had performance problems? No, I mean, A, in fact, many of them had excellent performance reviews. Investigators found the agency didn't even look at their performance, which is a lot of people.

which is a requirement if you're going to fire workers during the probationary period in the federal government. Instead, the special counsel said the firings appear to be part of an attempt to shrink the government, which administrations can do, but they have to go through a bunch of procedures, including giving people 60 days notice, which the USDA did not do.

Now, the Merit Systems Protection Board reviewed the findings so far, and the board chair concluded, yes, these firings probably were unlawful. And she ordered the USDA to bring back their probationary workers for 45 days so the investigation can continue. But then last night, there was yet another twist in this case. The special counsel Hampton Dellinger, who was leading the investigation, was removed from his position for the second time.

President Trump first tried to fire him about a month ago. A U.S. district judge reinstated him, but now an appeals court has removed him once again while it considers the arguments in his case. So then what happens with the investigation? I mean, what about all the workers at the other agencies who were fired? Yeah, it's not entirely clear. We know that Dellinger had evidence that what happened at USDA had happened at other agencies. In fact, yesterday he issued a statement urging all agencies to go ahead and reinstate their probationary employees voluntarily and not wait for an order.

Now, his removal doesn't change the board's order to USDA to give those nearly 6,000 workers their jobs back. But of course, it's one agency and it's a temporary stay. Okay, now how are USDA workers reacting to the news that they're reinstated?

Well, they're not exactly celebrating. I spoke with Michelle Kirchner, an entomologist who was helping alfalfa growers manage pests when she was fired last month. And here's what she said. I'm feeling kind of yanked around a little bit. I mean, it's good. I'm glad that like something is coming out that what happened wasn't.

correct and was potentially illegal. But she says it's impossible to have any confidence in what's going to happen in the long term. The Trump administration has made clear it wants to dramatically shrink the federal government. So she thinks maybe they'll all be brought back only to be fired again. You mentioned the Trump administration. What is the Trump administration saying about all this? Well, they maintain that they've done nothing illegal. They've made this case in federal court where there's a lawsuit over probationary firings and there's another hearing next week.

And meanwhile, the administration is moving forward with much deeper cuts to federal agencies that will affect career employees, longtime employees. So a lot more uncertainty is ahead. All right. That's NPR's Andrea Hsu. Andrea, thanks. You're welcome.

President Trump is expected to sign executive action directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the very agency that she just started leading as of this past Monday. The order could come as soon as today. It's been in the works for weeks, but actually shutting down the department would require congressional approval. And that might be tricky as lawmakers, including some Republicans, are not going to be able to do that.

have expressed concerns about what would happen to federal education funding. Now, for now, the agency's 4,200 employees face a lot of uncertainty. To get more updates on this story, follow us online or tune in to your local NPR station or find us on the NPR app.

And that's a first for Thursday, March 6th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. For your next listen, consider Consider This from NPR News. Up first gives you three big stories of the day. And Consider This dives into a single news story and what it means to you. Learn about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes. And you can listen now on the NPR app or wherever.

You get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rylan Barton, Kira Platoni, Padma Rama, Alice Wolfley, and Mohamed Elbardici. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow. This message comes from NPR sponsor, SADVA. Founder and CEO Ron Rudson shares the story of how he got started creating SADVA.

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