NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-02-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

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Matt Wilson spent years doing rounds at children's hospitals in New York City. I had a clip-on tie. I wore Heelys, size 11. Matt was a medical clown. The whole of a medical clown is to reintroduce the sense of play and joy and hope and light into a space that doesn't normally inhabit. Ideas about navigating uncertainty. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Canada responded promptly to President Trump's 25 percent tariffs on Canadian products.

NPR's Jackie Northam has more. During a televised address, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear Canada does not want a trade war with its neighbour and largest trading partner. If President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us. Trudeau said Canada would retaliate by imposing a 25% levy on more than $100 billion of U.S. products, including clothing, lumber, beer and bourbon. They will raise costs for you including food at the grocery stores and gas at the pump. Roughly 60% of the oil the US imports comes from Canada and officials in Ottawa have warned Canada could limit

those oil exports if the trade war between the two allies persists. Jackie Northam, NPR News. Mexico also promised retaliatory tariffs against the US for a 25 percent tariff on its goods. China says it will take counter measures against a 10 percent tariff announced yesterday. Federal investigations continue into two deadly plane crashes last week. A passenger jet and a military helicopter crashed in Washington Wednesday night, killing 67 people. Friday, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven people, including

one person on the ground. Vice President J.D. Vance says the air traffic control system should be updated. The software point is really important, though, because we know if you look at these old antiquated air traffic control systems, it really does look like a video game that's 30 years old. We've got better software. We need a federal government that's more responsive to the technology that's out there. And I really do think that with President Trump's leadership, we're going to have those

near misses and those almost terrible tragedies. Those are going to come down, which means our aviation system is going to be much safer. He was interviewed on Fox. The administration's efforts to cut the federal workforce are causing confusion and panic. NPR's Franco Urdonias reports. The White House's Office of Personnel Management has told government workers that if they quit by February 6,

they would still get paid through September 30. Trump told reporters that his goal is to carry out a long-time Republican plan to reduce the size of the government. Everybody's replaceable and we'll get very good people to replace them if it turns out to be more than we thought. It could be a lot, it could be a little, we don't know, but we'd love to have them leave. The White House bypassed Congress, which is supposed to approve such an offer. Combine that with moves to shut down diversity programs and the USAID website going dark has set off a panic among federal workers who are uncertain about the future

of their jobs. Franco Ordonez, NPR News. This is NPR News in Washington. Health authorities in Sudan say rebels attacked an open market yesterday, killing at least 54 people. The charitable group Doctors Without Borders described the scene as utter carnage. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war began in 2023. Millions have been forced to leave their homes. Last week, the rebels, known as the the Rapid Support Forces killed 70 people in an attack on the only functional hospital in a city in the western region of Darfur.

Russia and Ukraine are trading blame for a deadly missile strike last night that killed at least four people at a boarding school in a sliver of Russian territory occupied by Ukrainian forces. NPR's Charles Maines has details. The attack took place in the city of Suja in Russia's Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces since last summer. The rest is disputed. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a Russian aerial bomb struck the

boarding school as it housed dozens of Russian civilians preparing to evacuate. Ukraine's military said its troops pulled more than 80 people out from the rubble. Russia's defense ministry in turn accused Kyiv of carrying out a targeted missile strike on the building. The Kursk region has been the scene of recent heavy fighting as Russia tries to dislodge the Ukrainian forces, whose hold over the territory is seen as a potential bargaining chip for Kyiv in any future peace talks. Charles Maynes, NPR News.

It's February 2nd, Groundhog Day, when crowds gather at Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania for the appearance of Paxitani Phil. His associates say that he did see his shadow this morning, which according to tradition, means another six weeks of winter. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington. It's a new year, and according to Pew, 79% of resolutions are about one thing, health. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.