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

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

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The indicator from Planet Money is diving into the world of batteries. Not the kind you buy at the grocery store. We're talking really big batteries. The kind that can power thousands of homes. This technology came seemingly out of nowhere. We're digging deep into the battery industry in three back-to-back episodes. Listen to the indicator from Planet Money podcast on NPR. on NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The National Transportation Safety Board says it's recovered the black box from the military helicopter that collided with a passenger plane in Washington, D.C. this week. NTSB board member Todd Inman says the device will help authorities in their ongoing investigation

into the deadly crash. I can tell you from a visual inspection, we saw no exterior damage that would indicate that it was compromised at this time. So we have a high level of confidence that we will be able to have a full extraction from that as well. Navy barges are on their way to the crash site to assist in the retrieval of the plane's fuselage. There are two debris sites, one where the helicopter went down and the other where the

American Airlines plane crashed. There were 64 people on the jet, three on the Black Hawk, 41 bodies have been recovered so far. The Trump administration is ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to purge its websites of information and data on a broad array of topics. NPR's Will Stone reports they range from adolescent health to HIV. Web pages related to LGBTQ health were taken down at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HHS Office for Civil Rights, and the National Institutes of Health.

The changes are examples of a broader push by the Trump administration on gender issues under an executive order. But many pages that did not seem related to gender have also been taken down. An interactive tool from the CDC with surveillance data on HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB has gone offline. The Infectious Diseases Society of America said the deletions create a dangerous information gap and could hamper the response to disease outbreaks. The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

Will Stone, NPR News. NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory say they're set to launch a new telescope into space called SPHERE-X. R.A. Daniel reports the mission will examine the origin and structure of the universe and search for components of life in the Milky Way. The telescope looks like a giant funnel and weighs less than a grand piano. Housed inside is an instrument that will map the entire celestial sky in infrared in just six months. Spheerex will answer a set of fundamental questions about the cosmos. Why does our universe look the way it does?

How did galaxies form and evolve? And it will peer inside dust clouds between stars in search of essential molecules of life. James Fanson is project manager. I expect the unexpected to come out of the data for this mission as well. SphearX is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a Falcon 9 rocket. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. On Wall Street, the Dow was down 337 points.

This is NPR. 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. President Biden had sought to expand discrimination protections to include gender identity

and sexual orientation. Costco is raising pay for most of its employees to above $30 an hour for many workers. This pay raise comes as the company's unionized workers are threatening to go on strike at midnight. NPR's Alina Seljuk reports time is running out to renegotiate their collective bargaining contract. About 8% of Costco store workers are represented by the Teamsters Union.

That's about 18,000 people in six states. The union demands better pay and benefits, pointing to Costco's record financial gains. And now the chain has announced a pay increase for non-union workers. According to an internal memo the CEO sent to staff seen by NPR. Starting in March, most store workers would get a raise of a dollar per hour for a minimum above $30 an hour. Entry-level pay will go up 50 cents for a minimum of $20 an hour. The raise is similar to one Costco gave last year. Costco teamsters argue it's only happening thanks to union pressure and that the company

is still shorting its workers. Alina Seluk, NPR News. Recapping stocks on Wall Street, the Dow was down 337 points. The Nasdaq fell 54. This is NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things and other currencies, sending This is NPR News.