NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-30-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

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On NPR's Wild Card podcast, comedian Michelle Butoh says she's glad she ignored the people who told her to lose weight. I'm just going to show you what it looks like to love my body, my double chin, my extra rolls, okay? My buckets of thighs. Sauce on the side, you can't afford it. I'm Rachel Martin. Michelle Butoh is on the Wild Card podcast, the show where cards control the conversation.

Shea Stevens Live from MPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. A surge and rescue mission continues in the Potomac River, where a passenger plane and an Army helicopter landed after colliding in midair last night near Washington's Reagan National Airport. Authorities have not disclosed any information on the 67 people confirmed on both aircraft. The military helicopter was a Black Hawk UH-60 out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The ill-fated passenger plane was a PSA Airlines Flight 5342 operated by American Airlines.

It flew out of Wichita, Kansas, where officials have assembled a support team at Eisenhower National Airport to receive families of those on board. Rose Condlin of member station KMUW reports. Sixty passengers and four crew members were on board the American Airlines flight. It left Wichita around 5.30 Central Time and collided with a helicopter near Reagan National Airport. At a media briefing, Wichita Mayor Lily Wu said she had not yet been given any information about casualties.

I do know that American Airlines continues to tell us that the rescue efforts are ongoing and as a council again our thoughts, our prayers are with everyone. City officials say families seeking more information about the crash should contact American Airlines. For NPR News, I'm Rose Conlin in Wichita. A proposed commission to shrink federal bureaucracy and slash government spending has a new home within government. NPR's Stephen Fowler has more on the Department of Government Efficiency. An executive order from President Trump places DoGE within a little-known office that used

to be called the United States Digital Service. Historically, the USDS has been an elite digital strike team that partners with federal agencies to improve the usability of tech and websites. The DOGE initiative was initially pitched as an outside review of federal spending, workforce and IT infrastructure, but its new mandate is more efficient, directing the new USDS to do a software modernization initiative and create Doge teams in each federal agency. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. underwent three hours of questioning during his first confirmation

hearing to become Health and Human Services Secretary. Kennedy says that President Trump has given him a mandate to change U.S. health policy. As NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin reports, he walked back his past anti-vaccine comments saying his own kids have been inoculated. Democrats on the committee really hammered him on the way he has profited from his anti-vaccine work from lawsuits against drug makers, for example, books, speeches. His disclosures that became public this week shows he has made millions of dollars in this activity and

he's just been also very influential in the anti-vaccine movement. NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin reporting. You're listening to NPR. The Senate Intelligence Committee holds a hearing later today on the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to become director of national intelligence. The military veteran and former Hawaii congresswoman has expressed opposition to U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas. Gabbard has also called for the pardoning of former national security contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents on global surveillance programs

in 2013. The Federal Reserve Board held interest rates steady on Wednesday. NPR's Scott Horsley reports that with inflation still elevated, the central bank is likely to be cautious about cutting rates. Scott H interest rates three times since September, Fed policymakers voted unanimously to leave their benchmark rate unchanged. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell declined to comment on President Trump's demand for lower interest rates. Powell says it's still uncertain how Trump's own policies might affect the economic outlook. We don't know what will happen with tariffs, with immigration, with fiscal policy and with regulatory policy.

We're going to be watching carefully and as we always do. Powell says the Fed will likely keep interest rates at their current level until there's more progress on inflation or signs of weakness in the job market. Scott Horsley in Pear News, Washington. Some of the biggest names in music are set to gather at two venues in Inglewood, California, Thursday evening for fire aid. Proceeds from the event are to be used to raise relief funds for victims of the catastrophic fires in the Los Angeles area and for efforts to rebuild their communities. This is NPR News. Technologist Paul Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories.

How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered, regenerated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.