NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-30-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

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It's a new year, and according to Pew, 79% of resolutions are about one thing, health. But there are so many fads around how to keep ourselves healthy. On It's Been A Minute, I'm helping you understand why some of today's biggest wellness trends are, well, trending. Like why is there protein in everything? Join me as we uncover what's healthy and what's not on the It's Been A Minute podcast from NPR. Live from NPR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Officials say there are likely no survivors after an American Airlines passenger jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. last night as the plane was about to land. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River. Both have been found. The plane was found upside down and in three parts. 64 people were on the plane. Three soldiers were on the helicopter. 28 bodies so far have been recovered. Jackson Sineberg from member station WAMU has more. Crews from DC Fire and EMS, the Coast Guard, Maryland State Police and

more, waded into the Potomac's eight-foot-deep frigid waters throughout the night. Their initial mission to search for and rescue potential survivors became one of recovering bodies and wreckage. Officials say the plane broke into three sections. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia recalled their arrival to the scene. And while I did not see the collision, I'd never seen this many red lights streaming towards the airport and across the river in Maryland about this time. My phone started blowing up and I realized that this accident had taken place.

The American Airlines passenger jet was en route from Wichita, Kansas, heading to DC. Among the passengers were members of the U.S. figure skating community who were attending a skating camp. For NPR News, I'm Jackson Sinnenberg. 3 of President Trump's key cabinet nominees will be on Capitol Hill for Senate confirmation hearings including Cash Patel, Trump's nominee to head the FBI. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley. Mr. Patel, I know you know this, but it's your job to restore the public trust and return the FBI

to its core mission of fighting crime. It's an agency Patel has been critical of in the past, telling a podcast that if he was in charge, he would close the FBI headquarters and turn it into a museum to the deep state. Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be back for a second day, and Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence nominee, will also be on the Hill today. Stocks opened higher this morning as the Commerce Department reports somewhat slower economic growth in the final months of the year. And Pierre Scott Horsley reports.

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in October, November and December, a modest slowdown from the previous quarter. The growth was largely fueled by robust consumer spending on both goods and services. Business investment was down during the quarter. Economic growth in Europe has been much weaker. The European Central Bank lowered its benchmark interest rate today in an effort to jumpstart economic activity. Here in the US, the Federal Reserve is holding interest rates steady. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday the Central Bank is in no hurry to cut interest rates further until it sees more progress on inflation or else signs of weakness in the job market.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR. It was days ago that Chinese startup DeepSeek rather shocked the tech industry with its artificial intelligence model developed far cheaper than those produced by companies such as OpenAI. Now as NPR's John Ruiz reports, a second company in China says it's done much the same. The Chinese tech giant Alibaba says it's launched an upgrade to its AI model, and the new version performs better than cutting-edge AIs including OpenAI's ChatGPT 4 and Meta's Lama. The news comes on the heels of a stock market meltdown after DeepSeq unveiled an advanced AI model that it claims was made cheaply and with fewer and lower performance microchips

than others. Many in the industry were surprised by DeepSeq, believing that companies in China were further behind the leading American AI firms. Alibaba's cloud computing unit says its new model comprehensively outperformed DeepSeq's V3 large language model and the others. NPR has not verified the claim. John Ruch, NPR has not verified the claim. John Ruech, NPR News. A mountain in New Zealand has been recognized as a legal person with all the rights and

responsibilities of a human being. Mount Taranaki, now known as Taranaki Maunga, is considered an ancestor of the Maori indigenous people. The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain's theft from the Maori people after New Zealand was colonized. The pristine snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand's North Island, and it's a popular spot for tourists, hiking, and also snow sports. I'm Janene Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The indicator for Plano Money is diving into the world of batteries. into NPR News from Washington.