NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-28-2025 5AM EST

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly. The government of Mexico says it's received more than 4,000 migrants from the U.S. since President Trump returned to the White House last week. Nina Kravinsky with Member Station KJZZ reports. It wasn't immediately clear if those 4,000 people are all deportees or if some are migrants who were turned away at the border. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had said last year that she hoped to reach an agreement with then-President-elect Trump to only take Mexican citizens.

Sheinbaum pointed out that Mexico has, in the past, accepted non-Mexican migrants. That can happen in cases where strained diplomatic relations between the third country and the U.S. make it hard to repatriate those people directly back to their country of origin. For NPR News, I'm Nina Kravinsky in Hermosillo, Mexico. The president has signed four executive orders involving the U.S. military. One calls for the Pentagon to deploy a next-generation missile defense shield to defend the U.S. military. One calls for the Pentagon to deploy a next-generation missile defense shield to defend the U.S. from aerial attacks. It calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit a plan

for the system within 60 days. Another order signed by Trump allows the military to reinstate service members who were discharged for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. They would return to work to their former rank with back pay and benefits. President Trump says he plans to meet with the leaders of Israel and India in the near future. NPR's Azmah Khaled reports on Trump's remarks while traveling aboard Air Force One. Trump

said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to the United States to meet very soon. This trip could come at a critical moment amidst the fragile ceasefire hostage deal. Trump also doubled down on his prior comments that Palestinians ought to move out of Gaza. You know, when you look at the Gaza Strip, it's been hell for so many years. He said he'd like to get people living in areas that are quote safer and maybe more comfortable Trump also said he'll be meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon likely in February The two men have had a close relationship though Trump is pushing India on trade and immigration

Asma Khalid NPR news President Trump's pick to lead the Treasury Department has been confirmed by the Senate. Billionaire investor Scott Besson was approved by a vote of 68 to 29. He's expected to lead the push for Congress to extend and possibly expand the tax cuts that were approved during Trump's first term in office. Tomorrow Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is due on Capitol Hill. There are two congressional primaries today in Florida to fill the House seats given up

by Republicans Mike Walz and Matt Gaetz. Walz now serves as President Trump's National Security Advisor. This is NPR News. Word that a Chinese startup has produced an artificial intelligence model operating at a fraction of the cost of those from companies such as OpenAI and Google sent tech stocks on Wall Street sharply lower yesterday. The NASDAQ lost 612 points or more than 3 percent, as NPR's Maria Aspin reports. The Chinese startup DeepSeek was little known before last week when it released its free

AI assistant. Now its app is the most popular download on the U.S. Apple Store. AI experts say that DeepSeek performs almost as well as ChatGPT and other established AI models, and the company says it's much cheaper technology. That's worrying investors who are concerned about how much the tech industry has been spending on artificial intelligence. Meta, Microsoft, Google, and other big tech companies have been pouring billions into AI and promising their investors that it will pay off eventually.

DeepSeek is making them wonder whether all this spending was necessary in the first place. Maria Aspin, NPR News, New York. Attorneys general in 19 states, led by Texas and Iowa, are calling on membership warehouse Costco to drop its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. The attorneys general, all Republicans, cite concerns about potential legal liabilities and discrimination. They're asking the company to notify them within 30 days whether it plans to repeal the policies.

One of Trump's executive orders issued last week directs government agencies to eliminate DEI. I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington.