NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-02-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

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Noor Rahm Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Rahm. President Trump says stiff tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada will start Tuesday in order to secure the U.S. border. America's northern neighbor says it wants to find a tariff-free solution. NPR's Luke Garrett reports. Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hilleman met with Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Friday.

Hilleman tells ABC News that Canada is actively working to tighten the U.S. Kirsten Hillman met with Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Friday. Hillman tells ABC News that Canada is actively working to tighten the U.S. northern border, answering Trump's justification for the tariffs. We're hopeful that they don't come into effect on Tuesday. We're ready to continue to talk to the Trump administration about that. But Hillman says Canada will respond in kind if U.S. tariffs are imposed. So on our side, we will be implementing 25 percent tariffs on U.S. products. On Sunday morning, President Trump defended his tariff on Canada, saying the country should become the 51st state to avoid import levies. In a separate post, Trump said, quote, Will there be some pain?

Yes, maybe and maybe not. But we will make America great again. Luke Garrett and PR not, but we will make America great again. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Mexico also promised retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. for a 25% tariff on its goods. China says it will take countermeasures against a 10% tariff announced yesterday. Syria's interim president is visiting Saudi Arabia. He's seeking help to rebuild a country ravaged by more than a decade of war. NPR's Greg Myrie reports from Damascus.

Interim president Ahmed al-Sharif flew to Saudi Arabia, a country that could provide the financial assistance that Syria desperately needs. The new Syrian leader has hosted several foreign delegations here in Damascus, but he has not previously traveled abroad since leading the rebel group that toppled the country's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad back in December. Shiraz is trying to win support from Arab and Western governments. Many isolated Syria while Assad was in power. The new Syrian government says the sanctions imposed on the Assad regime should now be

lifted. The war and those sanctions have impoverished the vast majority of Syrians. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Damascus. Philadelphia officials now say at least 22 people were injured when a medical transport plane crashed Friday night. The death toll is still seven, all six people on board and one person on the ground. City Manager and Director Adam Thiel urges the public be patient as the investigation continues. We have not yet recovered everything we need to recover from the scene, all the different materials that we need to recover.

So it is possible, all that to say it is possible, there are still people who are affected by this event, affected by that crash that we don't know about. The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the crash, as well as last Wednesday's crash in Washington that killed 67 people. This is NPR News. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington this week and is to meet with President Trump at the White House. It's Trump's first meeting with a foreign leader since he returned to office.

Before leaving Israel, Netanyahu said he'll discuss what he described as Israel's victory over Hamas, a six-week ceasefire in Gaza appears to be holding. A new analysis shows U.S. death row populations are declining to be holding. A new analysis shows US death row populations are declining to historic lows. But this isn't because more people are being executed. George Hale from member station WFIU reports. The Death Penalty Policy Project reviewed 50 years of data and found that US death rows shrank more last year

than in any other period in decades. Two mass clemency decisions in 2024, including former President Biden's decision to commute most federal death sentences to life in prison, contributed. But project director Robert Dunham says many more prisoners are coming off death rows after courts overturned their death sentences.

That is the main driver in the decline in capital punishment. As a result, Dunham says, new death sentences are no longer replenishing death row populations, even as executions, too, are happening less often. The few places where the decline isn't quite at start include Florida and Alabama, which allow non-unanimous juries to impose death sentences. For NPR News, I'm George Hale in Bloomington, Indiana. The Grammy Awards take place tonight in Los Angeles.

Beyoncé has 11 nominations for her latest album, Cowboy Carter. During her career, she's collected 32 Grammys and 99 nominations. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News.