NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-04-2025 7AM 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 Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. China is announcing a series of retaliatory measures it's taking to hit back against U.S.-imposed tariffs on goods from Beijing.

Starting next Monday, the Chinese government says it will implement tariffs of 10 to 15 percent on various imports from the U.S., including crude oil. On Monday, President Trump announced an 11th-hour reprieve for 25 percent tariffs that were set to take effect today for Mexican and Canadian imports. NPR's Jackie Northam reports after speaking with the leaders from both countries, Trump agreed to an extension. This is only a month-long reprieve, and I think it's fair to say that there is a trust deficit between Canada and the U.S. and the U.S. and Mexico for that matter.

Canada faced a serious threat of recession if Trump's tariffs went ahead. You know, there's a fear that it's not over, at least for now. The threat of a trade war goes beyond North America as the U.S. and China launch these tit-for- tat tariffs on each other. NPR's Jackie Northam reporting, the White House says the tariffs are needed to pressure the three nations to do more to curb the manufacture and export of fentanyl and to crack down on migrants entering the U.S. illegally. Two federal government employee unions and the Alliance for Retired Americans

are suing the government efficiency cost cutting team led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. NPR's Bobby Allen reports the sue claims Musk is illegally accessing the personal information of government workers and taxpayers. Doge is analyzing payment systems at the Treasury Department. Elon Musk calls some of Treasury's trillions of dollars in annual payments criminal, though on what basis is not clear. Now a lawsuit is asking a court to block Doge's Treasury access, saying Social Security and disability benefits, tax returns, and the private information of federal government employees are at risk.

Lawyer Noam Eisen is representing the plaintiffs. We filed a lawsuit to say, hands off. You can't have my data. You can't have my spouse's data. You can't have my kids' data. That information is too precious. President Trump has said Musk's work has required the explicit approval of the White House. Bobby Allen, NPR News.

Sources tell NPR that President Trump is preparing to take executive action to make major cuts at the U.S. Department of Education. NPR's Corey Turner reports. Multiple sources have told me, folks who are not allowed to speak publicly, the Trump administration is eager to close the department. And so in the near term,

it plans to use this executive action to try to move quickly to cut programs and staff that were not created by Congress. So they're not protected by law. The idea being these will be the programs that are the easiest to cut, essentially the low-hanging fruit. NPR's Cori Turner. This is NPR. The National Transportation Safety Board says the area where a medical transport plane crashed in northeast Philadelphia is expansive. The small jet went down shortly after takeoff in a very populated neighborhood on Friday

night. Seven people were killed in the crash and two dozen others were injured. Debris from the crash exploded into a fireball, igniting several homes and businesses on fire. A judge in Georgia is dismissing one of two charges against a former prosecutor accused of interfering with the investigation into the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports Arbery was the black jogger

chased and killed by three white men in 2020, but no arrests were made until months later after video of the crime came out. Ruling from the bench, senior judge John Turner said there was quote, not one scintilla of evidence supporting an obstruction charge against former Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson. She still faces a felony charge

of violating her oath of office. Prosecutors with the Georgia State Attorney General's office say Johnson sought to shield Arbery's killers from arrest. One of them had previously worked as an investigator in her office. The judge's directed verdict came after prosecutors rested their case, having presented no testimony that Johnson tried to influence police. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.

On Wall Street, our futures are trading lower at this hour. This is NPR News.