NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-02-2025 9PM EST

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

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Technologist Paul Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. President Trump says he realizes that U.S. consumers could be hurt by the steep tariffs he announced yesterday on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China. We may have short-term, some little pain, and people understand that but long term the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world we have deficits

with almost every country not every country but almost speaking there as he arrived back at the White House tonight from his home in Florida all three countries have vowed to retaliate those tariffs are set to a take effect on Tuesday and US business groups aren't happy and they're pushing back, as NPR's Scott Horsley reports. Scott Horsley, NPR News, News 8. President Trump says he's ordering the tariffs in an effort to curb the flow of illegal drugs and immigration.

But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says while Trump is right to focus on those problems, tariffs are not the answer. The chamber says taxing imports will only upend supply chains and raise prices for American families. Trump has ordered a 25 percent tax on most goods coming from Mexico and Canada, but he called for a smaller 10 percent tax on Canadian crude oil, in an apparent effort to limit any spike in gasoline prices. The tariff on Chinese imports is also set at 10 percent. All the taxes are set to take effect on Tuesday, leaving a short window for a possible reprieve.

Canada and Mexico have promised to respond to tariffs with taxes of their own on U.S. exports. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. News of the tariffs and retaliation has sent U.S. stock futures sharply lower. Dow futures are down 1.1 percent. NASDAQ futures are down 2.2 percent. Secretary of State Marco Rubio kicked off his first trip as Trump's top diplomat with a stop in Panama and he visited the canal, which Trump

wants back. And Piers Michelle Kellerman has more. Secretary Rubio did not answer any questions as he toured the Miraflores Lock at the Panama Canal he met earlier in the day with Panama's president and according to a written statement told him that Trump thinks the status quo is unacceptable. The U.S. has been raising concerns about China's influence and argues that violates a treaty on neutrality. Panama's president Jose Raul Molino told reporters that his country has been auditing Chinese businesses, but he says Panama's sovereignty over the canal is not up for discussion.

Trade and migration will dominate much of Rubio's trip, which continues in El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, Panama City. After a nearly week-long freeze, the National Science Foundation says it will resume paying researchers who had received grants. That left hundreds of people unable to access their funds allocated for salaries and research since last Tuesday when the agency froze payments as they reviewed how their grants complied with President Trump's new executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This is NPR. A new analysis shows U.S. death row populations are declining to historic lows. But as George Hale from member station WFIU reports, it's not because more people are being executed. The death penalty policy project reviewed 50 years of data and found that U.S. 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 as stark include Florida and Alabama, which allow non-unanimous juries to impose death sentences. For NPR News, I'm George Hale in Bloomington, Indiana. The Super Bowl takes place in New Orleans in one week, and security will be tight after

a New Year's Day attack when a man drove a truck through crowds on Bourbon Street, killing 14. The state's governor says people don't have to show the inside of their bags at security checkpoints near the stadium, but if they don't, they won't be allowed in. Asian markets are trading sharply lower at this hour. The Nikkei in Japan down 2.1 percent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down 1.8 percent. I'm Janene Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The indicator for plenty of money is diving into the world of batteries. listening to NPR News from Washington.