NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-02-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

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President Trump is back in Washington, pursuing major policy changes on his own terms. We know from the past that means challenging precedent, busting norms, and pushing against the status quo. NPR is covering it all with Trump's Terms, a podcast where we curate stories about the 47th president with a focus on how he is upending the way Washington works. Listen to Trump's Terms from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China is getting an immediate reaction. Canada and Mexico are

planning retaliatory tariffs and China says it will file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization. Beijing is urging the Trump administration to quote rectify its erroneous reproach after the administration announced new 10% tariffs on Chinese imports. The Trump administration says it wants Beijing to do more to cut the supply of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. St. Pierce John Ruech reports. China's foreign ministry says it's strongly dissatisfied with the new tariffs and resolutely opposes them. It says Beijing will take necessary countermeasures to, quote, firmly safeguard China's legitimate

rights and interests. It stopped short of saying what those measures would be. Experts say many of the precursor chemicals for fentanyl flow from China to Mexico, where they're combined in underground labs to make the drug. Beijing says it's taken steps to stop trade in those chemicals as part of what it calls extensive anti-drug cooperation with the United States. The foreign ministry says the new unilateral tariffs violate World Trade Organization rules

and they will inevitably undermine future cooperation against drugs. John Ruhich, NPR News, Beijing. Canada says it will match President Trump's 25 percent tariff on Canadian products, taxing a range of U.S. imports, including orange juice from Trump's home state of Florida. Mexico says the tariffs are a flagrant violation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. President Trump ordered airstrikes against ISIS operatives in Somalia on Saturday and Piers-Depas-Shivaram has more.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett said in a statement that the Pentagon's initial assessment is that no civilians were harmed in the strikes and that the strikes send a quote clear signal that the U.S. is ready to find and eliminate terrorists who threaten the U.S. and its allies. Hegsett says the strike was coordinated with the Somali government. On his platform, Truth Social, President Trump said he ordered the military airstrikes on a quote senior ISIS attack planner who he didn't name and quote, other terrorists. He also criticized former president Biden

for not acting quickly enough to target this ISIS leader. Though the Biden White House did conduct other airstrikes in Somalia targeting both Al Qaeda and ISIS. Deepa Shivram, NPR News. The army has released the name of the third crew member of the Blackhawk helicopter that slammed into an American Airlines flight in Washington, D.C. Here's NPR's Tom Bowman.

Captain Rebecca Lobach was 28 and from Durham, North Carolina. She died along with fellow pilot Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Eaves and crew member Staff Sergeant Ryan O'Hara. She was a distinguished military graduate from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, commissioned in 2019 as an active-duty aviation officer. Lohbach hoped to fly her Blackhawk at some point in a combat deployment and dreamed of one day becoming a doctor. Tom Bowman, NPR News.

Sixty-seven people were killed in the accident. This is NPR. The Panama Canal is on Secretary of State Marco Rubio's agenda today. He's to meet with Panama's president as part of his five day tour of Latin America. President Trump has said he wants to regain control of the canal, alleging Chinese influence.

The estate of one of Superman's original creators is suing DC Comics and its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery as NPR's Chloe Veltman reports that Lawsuit seeks to block the use of the character on screen in several overseas markets. The new Superman movie starring David Corrensweat is scheduled to drop in July. But its release in key markets such as the UK, Australia, Ireland and Canada is now in jeopardy owing to a lawsuit filed Friday in the Southern District of New York by the family of Superman graphic artist Joseph Schuster.

The complaint claims the rights to the Superman story under copyright law in those countries automatically terminated 25 years after Schuster's death. He died in 1992. The graphic artist dreamed up the Superman character in 1934 alongside writer Jerry Siegel. The pair were working for Detective Comics, a predecessor to DC Comics at the time. In an email to NPR, a Warner Bros spokesperson says, quote, we fundamentally disagree with the merits of the lawsuit and will vigorously defend our rights. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. A big crowd is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania this morning.

It's Groundhog Day. And at around sunrise later this hour, the country's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, will emerge to predict either an early spring or six more weeks of winter. I'm Gile Snyder. This is NPR News. Want to know what it's like to play behind the tiny desk? If you've got the talent, we've got the desk. weeks of winter. I'm Trial Snyder. This is NPR News.