NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-27-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

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This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air, and I just talked to Pamela Anderson about her big career comeback after years in the tabloids and not being taken seriously. She's entered a new era on stage and screen. Suzanne Summers had a great line. She said, you can't play a dumb blonde and be a dumb blonde. Find this interview with Pamela Anderson wherever you listen to fresh air. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. In Florida, Republican lawmakers sent a surprising rebuke to their Republican governor today. NPR's Greg Allen reports. Republican leaders quickly adjourned a special legislative session. Governor

Rondi Santa's call to consider his proposals on combating illegal immigration. In Tallahassee, Florida's Republican House Speaker Daniel Perez called this special session a political stunt. Perez said Republican legislators support President Trump's efforts to control the borders, but that DeSantis' approach is, in his words, too bureaucratic. We do not need to duplicate the functions of U.S. immigration and customs and create a mini-me version of ICE.

Governor DeSantis issued the call for the special session before the inauguration, saying Florida needed to get a head start on helping Trump with his pledge for mass deportations. After adjourning, Republican leaders convened their own special session. One GOP proposal gives responsibility for immigration enforcement to the state's Agriculture Commissioner. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami. Humanitarian and civic projects in Ukraine supported by the US Agency for International Development are in limbo after the Trump administration suspended their funding.

NPR's Joanne Kikis reports from Kyiv that US support for Ukraine's schools, hospitals, and energy grid is now uncertain. USAID supports several projects in Ukraine including school reconstruction, the provision of medical services, and the repair of the energy system, which has been badly damaged by Russian attacks. NPR spoke to two employees from USAID projects who confirmed that they were told about the stop work order by the State Department. The employees asked NPR not to name them because they are not authorized to speak to the press. Speaking to reporters this week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Trump administration's stop work

order does not affect military funding but declined to comment on the status of humanitarian assistance. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, Kyiv. Palestinian residents celebrate their return to North Gaza under a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. But many are finding just remnants of their homes. NPR producer Anas Babah takes us inside Gaza City. Every single person took the belongings. They disassembled the tents.

You can see that they took every single thing that they were living and the essential for living for the past 1.6 year of displacement and they were hoping that they're returning to Gaza. But it seems it's not going to be happening today or maybe after. Hamas said it's going to be next Saturday, the handling and the handed sorry for the fifth prisoner but Israel is truly insisting that they want it today or there is not gonna be any retirement to Gaza. NPR producer Anas Baba in Gaza City. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 200 points. This is NPR News. Amid a flurry of executive orders President Trump signed in his first days This is NPR News.

Amid a flurry of executive orders, President Trump's sign in his first days in office was a measure pausing the distribution of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. For member station KUNC, Alex Hager reports that's left some Colorado River water users waiting to hear if they will get the millions of dollars they had been expecting. During its final days in the White House, the Biden administration issued a list of drought response projects that would share a pool of about $388 million. Steve Wolf manages the Southwestern Water Conservation District in Colorado and says

water policies like this should be seen as bipartisan. We hope after the review during this pause, the administration and the federal agencies come to that conclusion and this money does move out onto the ground. The funds are mainly targeted at restoring wildlife habitat alongside rivers and streams and to respond to drought. Projects awarded under the Inflation Reduction Act are spread across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Triballand. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Fort Collins, Colorado. People across New England began the work week with an unexpected jolt from a small earthquake

mid-morning, but some people might have mistaken for a semi passing by or an accident perhaps turned out to be a magnitude 3.8 quake that caused homes and businesses to shake. The US Geological Survey says the small temblor was centered near the coast of Maine. The people as far away as Pennsylvania say they felt it. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Dow is up 171 points. The NASDAQ is down 700 points. This is NPR. On NPR.