NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-31-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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Want to know what it's like to play behind the tiny desk if you've got the talent we've got the desk Unsigned artists enter the 2025 tiny desk contest for an opportunity to play your own tiny desk concert our nationwide Starsearch starts now and the winner will play their own tiny desk concert and a US tour to learn more visit NPR org slash tiny desk contest Live from NPR.org slash tiny desk contest. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Federal aviation investigators say they've recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the American Airlines regional jet that crashed midair over the Potomac River

near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. this week. The helicopter pilot was told to go behind the plane, but that didn't happen. And Piers Tom Bowman has more. The Blackhawk was heading south along the Potomac in the direction of National Airport and like the plane was in touch with the tower. Now there's a flight corridor for helicopters and the maximum height is 200 feet. But sources I talked with said Piers Blackhawk was flying higher, maybe more than 100 feet higher at the time of the crash. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would only say there was some sort of an elevation issue.

The investigation, of course, will determine whether the helicopter was in the corridor and at the right altitude. And Piers, Tom Bowman, a total of 67 people were on board both aircraft and more than two dozen bodies have been recovered so far. Canada is bracing for the possibility that the Trump administration will impose stiff tariffs on its exports to the US tomorrow. Ampere's Jackie Northam reports the Canadian government says it will 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 Reid 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 US daily, which could drive up the cost of gas at stations across the US. Jackie Northam, NPR News. An appeals court has knocked down a long-standing federal law banning handgun sales to people under 21 and Piers Martin Costey reports. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and

Mississippi, has ruled that a 1968 federal age restriction is unconstitutional. The law barred people under 21 years of age from buying handguns from federally licensed dealers. But the constitutionality of that kind of gun control became less certain after a 2022 Supreme Court decision known as a Bruin, which says such laws must be consistent with American history and tradition. That's the basis of this ruling in the Fifth Circuit, which cites the 1792 Militia Act, which requires 18-year-olds to bear arms. It's not clear yet how this decision will affect gun sales nationally, and gun control groups say they

hope it will be overturned. NPR's news. The National Science Foundation has halted funding for existing research grants as NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports the move comes amid efforts to comply with President Trump's executive orders. Hundreds of scientists who receive direct funding from NSF for their livelihoods are unable to get paid right now, and the research funds that go to institutions and universities are in limbo.

NSF is congressionally mandated to consider how its grants will boost underrepresented groups' participation in science. That mandate is at odds with Trump's executive orders aiming to terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the government. The National Science Foundation has an annual budget of around $9 billion to fund research grants. Payments of those grants have been paused since Tuesday as the agency reviews their grant making and the projects they fund.

Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. 1,000 endangered sea turtles have been rescued in Florida. Officials with the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says the endangered reptiles were suffering because of a rare winter storm in the area that sent water temperatures plunging. The turtles' flippers were paralyzed and they couldn't come up for air, but the wind and currents carried their bodies ashore and they were rescued. Officials say it was among Florida's biggest cold water turtle rescues in the last 15 years. World financial markets Asian markets were higher by the close the Nikkei and the Hang Sang both up about 1 tenth of a percent. US futures

contracts are trading higher this morning Dow futures up about 3 tenths of a percent. I'm Janene Herbst NPR News in Washington.