NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-31-2025 7AM EST
Episode Date: January 31, 2025NPR News: 01-31-2025 7AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
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.