NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-29-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump has just signed his first legislation into law since he returned to office. The Lakin-Riley Act, named for the Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by Jose Antonio Ibarra while she was jogging. Ibarra is now serving life without parole. President Trump blamed Riley's death on the Biden administration because Ibarra was in the U.S. illegally and had a criminal arrest record.

To her friends and classmates, she was a light of warmth and kindness in every single room. To her parents and family, She was everything in the world. The new law issues several mandates, including one requiring federal officials to detain any migrants without legal status if they're arrested or charged with crimes. Critics argue the new law violates due process. However, 46 Democrats in the House

and 12 Democrats in the Senate supported the measure. The White House confirms it's rescinding a memo that called for a pause on trillions of dollars of federal loans and grants. As NPR's Windsor Johnston reports, that memo released by the Office of Management and Budget triggered nationwide panic and confusion at agencies and organizations that rely on government funding. The president's order was met by numerous lawsuits that prompted a federal court to put it on hold. Josh Chaffetz, a law professor at Georgetown University, says the administration isn't

backing down when it comes to eliminating what it calls wasteful government spending. They rescinded this OMB memo, but the people at all of the agencies still sort of know what the White House wants from them. And so to the extent that they act sort of in a manner consistently with that memo, even in the absence of that memo, this could just be fracturing the debate over this. The White House says efforts to end the egregious waste of federal funding will continue, adding that the order has been rescinded to end any confusion created by the court ruling. Windsor-Johnston, NPR News, Washington.

The Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates where they are for now. NPR's Scott Horsley reports a central bank is still trying to curb sticky inflation. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold their benchmark interest rates steady between four and a quarter and four and a half percent. That benchmark is often a guide for other short-term borrowing rates on things like car loans and credit card debt. The Fed had lowered interest rates at its last three policy meetings by a total of a full percentage point, but with inflation still running slightly above the central bank's

target and with the job market holding up fairly well, the Fed feels little pressure to cut rates further right now. President Trump has said he wants to see lower interest rates, but the president's call for steep tariffs on imports and widespread deportations could work against that by putting more upward pressure on prices. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. The Nasdaq is down 120 points, or roughly half a percent. The S&P is also down half a percent.

It's NPR News. The Vatican has published guidelines on the ethics of using artificial intelligence. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports on the wide-ranging text directive. The guidance issued by the Vatican expands on comments made by Pope Francis about artificial intelligence. In matters of war, it warns against using AI automated weapons, saying no machine should ever be allowed to decide to take a human life.

On healthcare, the Vatican says, AI can be a tool to enhance diagnosis and treatment, but it shouldn't be allowed to replace the relationship between doctor and patient. The Vatican calls for AI to be used to complement human intelligence and not try to replace it and warns of the danger of over relying on AI for communication. And the Vatican says humans must be wary of quote, the presumption of substituting God for an artifact of human making. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. Frontier Airlines is making another bid to buy Spirit Airlines. However, Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy protection last November,

says Frontier's cash and stock offer of $2.1 billion is too low. Three years ago, Frontier's offer was closer to $3 billion. Spirit rejected that one too in favor of JetBlue Airways' counteroffer. However, a federal judge blocked that deal last year as well. The Dow has fallen 144 points it's at 44,706 the S&P is down 35 points or roughly half a percent and the Nasdaq is down 143 points or roughly three-quarters of a percent it's NPR.