NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-04-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

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Our long national nightmare is over. Beyonce has finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year. How and why did it take so long for Beyonce to win the top prize at Music's Biggest Night? We're talking about her big wins and breaking down the Grammys for Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Rhone, and Sabrina Carpenter. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. The newly created Government Accountability Office, or DOJ, is causing chaos and confusion at federal agencies. DOJ is being run by billionaire Elon Musk, whose actions are raising some legal questions.

NPR's Shannon Bond has more. White House Secretary Caroline Levitt said, Elon Musk is what's known as a, quote, special government employee. That's a temporary appointment to perform limited services. She said she does not have details about Musk's security clearance. And we don't know about the status of others working at Doge, like whether or not they're government employees, what clearances they may have. What we do know is that some of these folks are young engineers who have come in from

Silicon Valley. So, for example, an email sent early Monday morning to USAID staff about the building being closed in Washington today had the name of a former Twitter employee on it. His LinkedIn page describes him as a special advisor to the director at the Office of Personnel Management, which is essentially the federal government's HR department, but he now also has a USAID email address. NPR's Shannon Bond. The United States Agency for International Development has a new deputy chief. He's Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

More from NPR's Bob Matanis. In a letter to congressional leaders, Rubio said he was authorizing Peter Morocco, the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, to perform the duties of the deputy administrator of USAID. Rubio said Morocco would begin the process of reviewing and reorganizing the agency's activities to quote maximize efficiency. Earlier today Rubio accused the agency and its programs of being too independent from national interests and unwilling to cooperate with the review process. A senior official with USAID spoke to NPR in the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to represent the agency.

They said people within USAID were willing to work with the administration on reforms, but that the process had been less reform and more of a hatchet job. Fatma Tanis, NPR News. The Trump administration has made deals with Canada and Mexico holding off his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs. President Trump says his aim is to stem the flow of the drug fentanyl into the U.S. But NPR's Brian Mann reports that many of the White House's claims about fentanyl were either false or exaggerated.

President Trump says drug deaths claim up to 300,000 lives in the U.S. every year. And White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt on Friday said tariffs are directly linked to fentanyl from Canada, China and Mexico that caused tens of millions of American deaths. Both numbers are hugely inflated. Fentanyl deaths occur in the tens of thousands, and fatal overdoses were dropping fast before these trade wars were announced. Also, law enforcement experts agree Canada plays no meaningful role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis. More than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the U.S. southern border last year,

only 50 pounds at the Canadian border. Brian Mann, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. The U.S. Senate has confirmed oil and gas executive Chris Wright to become the next energy secretary. Wright of Denver-based Liberty Energy has been a vocal critic of government efforts to curb climate change. He's promised to boost production of fossil fuels, but climatologists and environmental

groups blame for planet-warming greenhouse gases. Recent fires in Los Angeles County left thousands of farm workers laboring in unhealthy air pollution. As NPR's Nate Perez reports, they have limited protections. Smoke from the Hughes Fire in late January quickly spread to Ventura County, where thousands of farm workers picked strawberries, citrus, and other produce. Nonprofits scrambled to get around 21,000 N95 respirators to people in the fields. Elizabeth Strader with the United Farmworkers says, workers are concerned about their health, but have no choice but to work.

There are long-term effects. We know that it damages the heart. We know that it damages their lungs. Employers in California are legally required to provide N95 respirators to workers when the air quality index reaches 150. Oregon and Washington are the only other states that also have this requirement. Nate Perez, NPR News. On Wall Street stocks closed lower Monday with the Dow Jones industrial average losing 122 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 235 points and the S&P 500 fell 45. U.S. futures are higher in after-hours trading. On Asia Pacific markets, shares are mostly higher but down a fraction in Shanghai. This is NPR News.

Technologist Powell Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. This is NPR News.