NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-31-2025 5PM EST

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Recovery operations are continuing along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., two days after a deadly collision between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter. Sixty-seven people were killed. Emergency teams have recovered the remains of 41 people so far. The American Airlines plane was approaching the runway at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night when it collided with a Black Hawk helicopter. Federal authorities have restricted helicopter flights near the airport.

And as NPR's Joel Rose reports, the investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing. The Federal Aviation Administration will limit helicopter flights on routes along the Potomac River between the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the Memorial Bridge, two of the major spans that serve the region and over the airport itself. The FAA says helicopter traffic near the airport will be restricted but not completely suspended. There are exemptions for medical emergency flights, active law enforcement and air defense, or presidential support missions that must operate in the restricted area. The restrictions come as investigators continue to pour over an area of the

Potomac River where the two aircraft went down. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. Just months before Wednesday's deadly crash, lawmakers had warned that air traffic over the D.C. area was getting dangerously congested. Senator Chris Van Hollen is a Democrat from Maryland. We, of course, have to wait for the final conclusions of the NTSB investigation to determine the cause of this collision. It was clearly avoidable. We'll have to get to the facts.

Van Hollen was one of four senators who voted against last year's FAA reauthorization bill that added new daily round trips to the airport schedule. Canada and Mexico are bracing for the possibility that the Trump administration will impose stiff tariffs on its exports to the U.S. on Saturday. NPR's Jackie Northam reports the Canadian government says it's prepared to retaliate.

Within days after retaking office, President Trump said he would slap 25 percent tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless the two neighbors curb the flow of drugs and migrants crossing illegally. Roughly two and a half billion dollars worth of goods cross the U.S.-Canada border each day. Shachi Curl is with a Vancouver-based Angus-Reed Institute, which polled more than 2,000 Canadians about the possible tariffs. They're angry. There is a sense of wanting to fight back. There's a lot of support for things such as retaliatory tariffs. The Canadian government has threatened its own tariffs on Florida orange juice and Kentucky

bourbon and is weighing whether to tax four million barrels of oil it sends to the U.S. daily, which could drive up the cost of gas at stations across the U.S. Jackie Northam, NPR News. at stations across the U.S. Jackie Northam, NPR News. The Department of Education has announced that it will be enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex in schools and on college campuses. The White House says it's restoring rules that were implemented during the first Trump administration. This is NPR. India's tiger conservation program is reporting some success doubling the population of the endangered species in a decade. Omkar Khandekar reports India is now home to more than 3,600 tigers, about three-quarters of the world population.

India has worked to protect its tigers from poachers, reduce human-wildlife conflict, and increase the living standards of people living near tiger habitats. Around 60 million people live in such habitats, of which 70 are killed in attacks every year. But a new study in the journal Science suggests that humans can coexist with tigers, and it is their attitudes towards the animals that matters. As tigers' native habitat shrinks, the successes of India's conservation program could offer lessons to other countries where the animals are still found in the wild, including Indonesia,

China and Russia. Omkara Khandekar, NPR News, Mumbai. Health officials say they're closely monitoring cases of avian flu in the United States, a disease that has spread wide throughout birds. Avian flu has caused outbreaks in poultry and dairy cows over the last several months. This is NPR News from Washington.