NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-04-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

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The indicator from Planet Money is diving into the world of batteries. Not the kind you buy at the grocery store. We're talking really big batteries. The kind that can power thousands of homes. This technology came seemingly out of nowhere. We're digging deep into the battery industry in three back-to-back episodes. Listen to The Indicator from Planet Money podcast on NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. The Trump administration's tariffs on goods from China are taking effect, and Beijing's finance ministry says it will retaliate beginning next Monday.

China's State Council says an extra 10 percent tax will be added to goods, including crude oil and agricultural machinery. Imports of coal and liquefied natural gas will be hit with a 15% tariff. From Beijing, the BBC's Laura Becker reports that negotiations may be the next step. So far we have had statements from the Commerce Ministry and the Foreign Ministry. Now what they've said is they will take China's case to the World Trade Organization and they have urged Washington to enter into talks with China, to meet China halfway. Now that might be a signal there that Beijing is open to negotiations with Washington at this time. We've seen other

signals that Donald Trump too is open to talks with President Xi. Not only did he say they had a very good phone call before their inauguration, there was also that invitation that came to President Xi to attend the inauguration. The BBC's Laura Becker in Beijing. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says El Salvador will accept deportees from the United States. Rubio says that includes migrants of all nationalities who will be detained. He has agreed to accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is

a criminal from any nationality, be they MS-13 or Tren Daragua, and house them in his jails. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele says his nation will charge a low fee for accepting convicted criminals arriving from the U.S. A federal judge in Washington has issued a temporary restraining order against a Trump administration effort to freeze funding for federal grants and other programs. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, the court had put a temporary stay on a funding memo issued and then rescinded by the Office of Management and Budget last week.

The order from federal judge Lauren Ali Khan says that the administration is blocked from implementing the memo or quote, reinstating under a different name. It also directs the OMB, which is part of the executive branch, to provide the court with a status report on its compliance by Friday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest federal court order. But after rescinding the OMB memo last week, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt stressed that it would not deter the administration from doing its work.

Alaina Moore, NPR News, Washington. A coalition of groups is suing the Treasury Department for disclosing personal information to DOJ, a government accountability office that's being led by billionaire Elon Musk. Two federal employee unions and an advocacy group claim that the move is a violation that puts Social Security numbers, names and other sensitive information on millions of Americans at risk. This is NPR News. Aid is born into Gaza two weeks after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took hold.

Aid groups say the supplies offer some relief for civilians in the territory, but that it's still an uphill battle. Distribution of the aid is being complicated by damaged infrastructure, Israeli inspections, and the threat of unexploded bombs. Humans are constantly coming up with ideas about what may be going on in other people's heads. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce reports, a new study suggests that the same thing

is being done by apes. Luke Townrow is a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. He did a recent study that involved sitting face-to-face with bonobos that watched as another person hid a treat under one of three cups. Townrow would give the ape the treat, but only if he, Townrow, knew where it was. Sometimes Townrow got to see the treat being hidden, but other times his view was blocked. So the idea here is that if bonobos could recognize when I did and didn't know something, they would tailor their communication so they would point more

often and more quickly when I did not know where the food was hidden compared to when I did. And that's exactly what we found. When he didn't know, they helped him out by pointing. The results appear in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Nell Greenfield-Boice, NPR News. A violin will become the most expensive musical instrument ever sold when it goes up for auction on Friday at Sotheby's in New York. The violin was made in 1714 by Italian craftsman Antonio Stradivari. This is NPR News.

Our long national nightmare is over. This is NPR News.