NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-07-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

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Are you the greatest musician the world has never heard? Unsigned artists, now's your opportunity to play the Tiny Desk. Enter the 2025 Tiny Desk Contest, our nationwide search for the next undiscovered star. The winner will play a Tiny Desk concert and a U.S. tour. To learn more, visit npr.org. tiny desk contest. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. The U.S. Labor Department's report on hiring in January is due out this morning. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, forecasters expect to see somewhat smaller job gains than the month before.

The U.S. job market ended last year on a high note. An initial tally showed employers added more than a quarter million jobs in December as the unemployment rate inched down to 4.1 percent. We'll find out this morning if those solid job gains held up once more complete information was gathered and if that strong hiring momentum continued into January. Most forecasters expect today's report will show a somewhat slower pace of hiring as the new year got underway. Today's report will also incorporate new population estimates, taking account of higher immigration in recent years than had previously been expected.

Scott Horslake, NPR News, Washington. A federal judge in Boston is set to hear arguments today on a request to block President Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship. A federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction against the move Wednesday, and a U.S. district court judge in Seattle imposed a nationwide injunction Thursday, citing the Fourteenth Amendment. Employees at NASA have been instructed to remove pronouns from their electronic communications. As NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports, the move is in the space agency's latest efforts to

limit certain kinds of content. The email seen by NPR says that all pronouns will be stripped from NASA's internal directories and email systems in order to comply with several recent executive orders signed by President Trump. It says users' pronouns will be, quote, automatically removed from the system this week. It also directs NASA employees, contractors, and grantees to follow a standard format for all email signatures. NASA did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.

In January, NASA's acting administrator Janet Petro instructed employees to end all programs directed at diversity, equity, and inclusion, saying that they, quote, divided Americans. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. The Boy Scouts of America is retiring the 115-year-old organization's name as it reexamines the communities it serves. CEO and President Roger Crone says it's now called Scouting America. What the name change does is it really allows us to kind of rebrand and reset. Having been in bankruptcy, 115-year-old organization, it's kind of nice to have some things that

are new and fresh and different and really speak to the organization that we are today and that we want to be in the future. Crone says Galley America still has mostly male members, although girls were welcomed since 2018. The Boers Gals emerged from bankruptcy in 2023, allowing it to continue operating while paying out claims to thousands of sex abuse survivors. This is NPR News. President Trump has signed an executive order to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court, whose jurisdiction is not recognized by the United States. Trump cites what he calls the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions.

The move comes on the heels of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to the White House. The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu last visit to the White House, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu last year over alleged war crimes. In Utah, the legislature has voted to outlaw collective bargaining for public employees, including teachers, police, and firefighters. Governor Spencer Cox has not indicated whether he will sign the measure. France has delivered fighter jets to Ukraine, according to its defense ministry. NPR's Eleanor Beersley reports that Ukrainian pilots who will fly the jets were trained

in France. Eleanor Beersley, NPR Defense Minister, Ukraine Defense Minister Sebastien LeCournou confirmed the jets have arrived and will help defend Ukraine's skies. He did not say how many had been delivered. The single-engine, multi-role Mirage 2000 lightweight fighter jets are a popular export and currently in use by nine other nations. France announced the delivery as talk of a negotiated end to the nearly three-year war swirls. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the arrival of the jets.

Earlier this week, Zelensky said he is ready to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading on Wall Street. On Asia Pacific, market shares are mostly higher of 1 percent in Hong Kong and in Shanghai. This is NPR News. It's a new year. And according to Pew, 79 percent of resolutions are about one thing, This is NPR News.