NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-31-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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Noura Rahm Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noura Rahm. Federal investigators have retrieved the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from the American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday night south of Washington, D.C. Sixty-seven people died. NPR's Frank Langford reports. Frank Langford The so-called black boxes will allow investigators to hear the final conversations in the cockpit before the two aircraft collide over the Potomac River.

They'll also provide crucial data, including the altitude of the plane leading up to and at the time of the collision. Officials tell NPR that the Black Hawk was supposed to be flying no higher than 200 feet, while sources say it was flying at least 100 feet higher. Meanwhile, members of the crew of the American Airlines jet have been identified. They include First Officer Sam Lilly, a second generation pilot who was engaged to be married. Frank Langford, NPR News.

The governors of Georgia and Mississippi have identified two of the Black Hawk helicopter pilots who died Wednesday. A US military official says the Army will not release the name of the third pilot at the request of her family. President Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. faced a second day of questions yesterday at his Senate confirmation hearing, again focusing on his views on vaccines and race.

NPR's Will Stone has more. Senator Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat from Maryland, confronted Kennedy on his past claims, which are recorded, that black people should have a different vaccine schedule than white people. So what different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received? Kennedy did not directly answer her question.

He did seem to cite research from the Mayo Clinic that was also brought up in a movie produced by the anti-vaccine advocacy group Kennedy founded, which pushed the debunked claim between autism and vaccines. The author of the study at Mayo told NPR previously their research did show a more robust immune response in African Americans, but did not find evidence of increased side effects and that any claim of increased vulnerability is not supported by the science. Will Stone, NPR News. President Trump has said he'll impose steep tariffs as early as tomorrow

on imports from Canada and Mexico if those two countries don't do more to stop illegal drugs and unauthorized migrants from entering the U.S. NPR's Scott Horsley reports this could result in higher prices including the cost of gasoline. Especially in the Midwest, oil refineries there are heavily dependent on crude oil from Canada. Those refineries are optimized for the kind of heavy sour crude that Canada produces, which is different than the light sweet oil that we produce a lot of in this country. So it's not an easy switch to make.

President Trump says he wants to see lower oil and gasoline prices in this country. He's counting on that to help cut other prices, but a trade war with Canada would likely have the opposite effect. NPR's Scott Horsley reporting. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is up seven points, the S&P up 38. This is NPR News. Hamas says that tomorrow will release another three hostages held in Gaza, including an American Israeli man. In exchange, Israel released more than 100 Palestinians being detained in Israel. A mountain in New Zealand has been granted legal rights similar to a person.

It's part of a government settlement compensating indigenous Maori people for harms caused by British colonization. Christina Kukala has more. Under a new law passed on Thursday, Taranaki Maunga, formerly Mount Egmont on New Zealand's North Island, has been given the legal rights, powers, duties and responsibilities of a person. Local indigenous Maori communities regard the dormant volcano as an ancestor, and together with the government will manage the mountain's natural resources. The new status is also intended to help protect the popular tourist spot and surrounding peaks and land.

New Zealand has already granted legal personhood to a river and native forest land on the North Island. For NPR News, I'm Christina Kukola in Melbourne, Australia. Two astronauts who have been stuck in space months longer than they planned took a spacewalk yesterday. Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore left the International Space Station to perform maintenance. The two were brought to the space station by Boeing's Starliner capsule in June on what was supposed to be a week-long mission.

But because of various problems with the Boeing Starliner, NASA decided to bring it back empty. SpaceX is now scheduled to bring them home, but not until late March at the earliest. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.