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

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

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We Came to the Forest, a new investigative podcast, exposes the hidden truths behind a nighttime shootout in Atlanta that left one activist dead and countless lives forever changed. Binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest ad free on Wondery Plus. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Trump administration says it has begun sending flights of migrants from the U.S. to a holding facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer reports, some immigration lawyers question the legality of that move. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt says the flights contain migrants who are

being deported because, in her words, quote, President Trump is not messing around and he is no longer going to allow the United States to become a dumping ground for illegals from all over the world. End quote. The Trump administration says it wants to create space at Guantanamo for 30,000 deported migrants, although it will face numerous financial, political, and logistical hurdles to that plan. Some immigration experts say even sending the migrants to Guantanamo is illegal, but the White House is moving forward despite potential litigation to come.

Sasha Pfeiffer, NPR News. The Republican-led Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for Health and Human Services Secretary. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican and a physician, endorsed Kennedy even though he expressed concerns last week about the nominee's history of denouncing vaccines. If Mr. Kennedy has confirmed, I will use my authority as chairman of the Senate committee with oversight of HHS to rebuff any attempt to remove the public's access to life-saving vaccines without ironclad, causational, scientific evidence that can be accepted and defended before the mainstream scientific community and before Congress. Cassidy said he struggled with his decision, but Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking

member of the Finance Committee, declared his opposition from the start. Do senators want their legacy to include disregarding basic health science and instead elevate conspiracy theorists? Making Robert Kennedy secretary of health and human services in my view colleagues would be a grave threat to the health of the American people. Kennedy's confirmation now rests with the full U.S US Senate. The Trump administration has added some fine print to the deferred resignation offer to federal employees. NPR's Andrea Shue has the latest. The latest emails were sent to federal workers from human resource officers at their agencies. They spell out in new detail what employees are agreeing to if they take the deal to resign now and keep their pay through September 30th. At one agency, employees are

informed that pay and benefits through September are subject to the availability of appropriations. It's an apparent nod to the fact that agencies are only funded through mid-March. Employees are being told they can use the agreements to, quote, memorialize the deal. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. At last check on Wall Street, the NASDAQ Composite Index was up more than 200 points or more than 1 percent. This is NPR News. The Chinese government's threatening tariffs on select U.S. goods. It has launched an antitrust investigation into Google as well. China's actions are part of a broader tit-for-tat response after Washington's 10 percent tariff

on Beijing took effect this morning. The White House says Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping were expected to discuss the matter today. The New Jersey man charged with attacking author Salman Rushdie with a knife in 2022 is on trial in New York. Jury selection is underway in Hadi Muttar's case. The defendant's charged with assaulting and trying to murder Rushdie as the author took the stage at an event. Muttar also faces separate federal terrorism related charges in the case. The number of people in the U.S. who use cannabis doubled over the last decade according to a survey by Gallup. But NPR found it's still difficult for many to find marijuana that's legally sourced with proper consumer protections.

Here's NPR's Brian Mann. For a lot of people in the U.S., using cannabis feels as normal as drinking a glass of wine or beer. But a dozen years after states started legalizing recreational cannabis, regulatory oversight is still a confusing patchwork. The drug is still illegal federally and it's often difficult for consumers to distinguish between legal weed and cannabis produced by illegal growers and criminal gangs. Bo Hilmer studies marijuana markets for the Rand

Corporation. When you move from prohibition to legalization, you know, it takes time to significantly reduce the size of the illegal market. Cannabis experts say they expect legal weed will eventually push out black market products. Brian Mann, NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington. Our long national nightmare is over. Beyoncé has finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year. How and why did it take so long for Beyoncé 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 Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.