NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-06-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

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Hey, it's Robin Hilton from NPR Music. Many years ago, I helped start the Tiny Desk Concert Series. Right now, NPR is looking for the next great undiscovered musician to perform behind the famous desk. Think you've got what it takes? Submit a video of you playing an original song to the Tiny Desk Contest by February 10th. Find out more and see the official rules at npr.org slash tiny desk contest. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm

Janene Herbst. President Trump has signed an executive order aimed at revoking funding for educational institutions that allow transgender women to compete in female sports programs. As NPR's Ayanna Archie reports, the issue was a major talking point during Trump's campaign. The president said he would, quote, rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities. He also said he would take actions against those schools to enforce Title IX, which bars

sex-based discrimination in programs that get money from the federal government. He has argued that transgender women athletes have unfair advantages over cisgender women athletes. Opponents of the ban say there aren't many trans athletes to begin with. In recent days, Trump also signed orders seeking to ban transgender people from the military and cut federal funds for K-12 schools promoting gender ideology. Ayanna Archie, NPR News. In Washington, D.C. Protesters yesterday gathered in front of the USAID headquarters, angry over President

Trump's decision to furlough nearly all of its employees around the world. Trump adviser Elon Musk calls the agency a ball of worms. But Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen says dismantling USAID harms the national interests of the U.S. Elon Musk's effort to dismantle the Agency for International Development is a gift to China, it's a gift to Russia, it's a gift to our adversaries around the world. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends the administration's actions saying USAID officials in Washington weren't helping. Our preference would have been to do this in a more orderly fashion from the top down but we had no cooperation and in fact

in subordination and so it required us to work from the bottom up. Rubio has been named acting director. Migrants sent this week from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are being held in a military prison that has housed Al-Qaeda members. And Piers Sasha Pfeiffer has more. The Department of Homeland Security says the 10 migrants sent to Guantanamo so far belong to a Venezuelan organized crime group called Tren de Aragua.

The White House designated the group a foreign terrorist organization last month. The government calls the migrants high-threat illegal aliens and says they're being housed in a previously vacant part of the prison. It says they are not being held alongside the suspected foreign terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo, including alleged 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Defense Department says the migrants will eventually be sent to other countries and it's erecting tent camps to prepare for the arrival of more migrants. Sasha Pfeiffer, NPR News.

U.S. futures contracts are trading higher this morning. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Federal health officials have found a variant of bird flu circulating in dairy cows that hasn't been seen before in those animals. The Agriculture Department's announcement is based on samples collected from cattle in Nevada. And Piers Wilstone has more. This variant of H5N1 bird flu has been circulating in wild birds. Finding

it now in dairy cattle indicates the virus has spilled over yet again from wild birds into cattle. It's not clear how long it's been circulating there, but it opens up new and concerning questions. Michael Warby at the University of Arizona says the variant may be different enough from the previous one that pre-existing immunity in cattle will not be protective. And this variant is the same one that led to severe disease in a Canadian teenager and a death in Louisiana. We don't know if this new variant, if for every person who gets infected with this one,

maybe more will land in the hospital. Warby says it will take time for scientists to figure all of this out. Will Stone, NPR News. Nearly three and a half years after leaving the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will shut off electric grid connections to neighboring Russia and Belarus. It takes place this weekend. The countries will switch to European grids instead.

The Kremlin says it's taken steps to ensure a smooth disconnection on its side. Work on the change started after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, shattering Moscow's European Union ties. US futures contracts are trading higher. Dow futures are up about two-tenths of a percent. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington.