NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-30-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: January 30, 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 in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Search and rescue efforts continued this morning in the Potomac River after a commercial airline collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, D.C. last night.

NPR's Joel Rose reports there's no word yet on fatalities. The collision happened as an American Airlines regional jet was attempting to land just before nine p.m. local time. Footage from a webcam in the vicinity shows a small aircraft colliding with the passenger jet at a low altitude, followed by a bright explosion. The American Airlines said there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the jet. The Army said the Black Hawk helicopter had three soldiers on board. The accident comes after a troubling series of near collisions around runways across the country in recent years. It could be the most

significant disaster in U.S. airspace in at least 15 years. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. The plane was carrying 64 people, including members of the U.S. figure skating community returning from a camp in Kansas. The Black Hawk had three people on board. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be back on Capitol Hill today for the second day of confirmation hearings before a Senate panel. He's President Trump's nominee to be the head of Health and Human Services.

Yesterday's hearing was contentious as Democrats grilled him on his stance over vaccines. He's advocated against vaccine mandates and questioned the safety of them. And that's the main reason his critics say he should not be in charge of HHS. And here's Selena Simmons-Duffin has more. 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. And here's Selena Simmons Duffin reporting. Kennedy pushed back on vaccines though, saying he's not anti-vaccine and that his kids are vaccinated. The former Democrat turned independent, was a one-time presidential candidate. This State Department issued a waiver this week for the Trump Administration's pause on U.S. foreign assistance that allows aid groups receiving U.S. funding to resume

humanitarian assistance. And Piers Fatma-Tanis has more. The waiver came from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and it says that life-saving humanitarian assistance includes essential medicines, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance. This comes days after the State Department issued a stop work order on existing programs, including the distribution of medication for HIV AIDS. It's part of an executive order by President Trump that pauses all U.S. foreign aid. But aid groups say they are still waiting for further guidance on how the waiver will apply and which programs will be allowed to continue their work.

Pat Metanis, NPR News. This is NPR News. Former Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. Those are crimes his lawyer says earned him the nickname Goldbar Bob. In the courtroom, the Democrat tearfully addressed the judge, calling himself chastened and said he lost everything he cared about except his family. But outside the courthouse, a defiant Menendez alleged aligned himself with President Trump, saying Trump was right to attack the judicial system. Menendez says it's political and it's corrupted to the core. In response to a deadly terrorism attack on

New Year's Day, the city of New Orleans is implementing extra security around the French Quarter ahead of next month's Super Bowl. And here's Debbie Elliott has more. The plan is to establish an enhanced security zone around Bourbon Street with Louisiana State Police operating checkpoints to enter. Governor Jeff Landry says only small bags will be allowed and are subject to search. To prevent and deter the introduction of any destructive explosive materials in the French Quarter, coolers and ice chests will be prohibited. The man who drove a truck into a New Year's crowd on Bourbon Street had earlier placed

explosive devices around the French quarter packed in coolers. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. Rural financial markets, Asian markets were higher by the close than Ikea in Japan, up about two-tenths of a percent. U.S. futures contracts are trading higher at this hour. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington. Usher, Yo-Yo Ma, Boy Genius, Shaka Khan, Billie Eilish, Weird Al, one thing all these big in Washington.