NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-09-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

NPR News: 02-09-2025 2AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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, I'm Dale Willman.

While the federal judges put on hold, at least for now, efforts by the Trump administration to shut down the US Agency for International Development, the agency's employees remain unsettled as NPR's Fatma Tamiz tells us. They're shocked at the dizzying speed in which things have unraveled and they say the way that they are being treated by the administration has also been shocking. Many people have lost access to their government accounts and emails. The ones staffed overseas have been ordered back to the U.S. in 30 days. They say they feel completely abandoned by their government.

Many are in conflict zones. They're concerned about their personal security. They're told to come back, but they don't have homes in the U.S. or jobs or insurance. Trump has accused the agency of corruption and fraud, but his administration has offered no evidence to support those claims. Last week, President Trump ordered massive amounts of water diverted from two dams in California's agricultural heartland. He falsely claimed it would be sent to Los Angeles to help battle wildfires.

But as Joshua Yeager of Ember Station KVPR reports, some farmers are defending Trump's action. Many farmers in the Central Valley say they're standing behind Trump anyway. I don't think valley growers feel that this was in any way done as an intentional, you know, attack on valley agriculture. Trisha Stever-Blattler runs the Tulare County Farm Bureau,

which represents more than a thousand growers in this area. In general, farmers are supportive of what President Trump is trying to do in relaxing some of the really draconian environmental laws in California. But any challenge to the way water is regulated in the state has an uncertain future. California sued over similar efforts during Trump's first term. For NPR News, I'm Joshua Yeager in Bakersfield, California. More than three decades after declaring their independence from the Soviet Union, the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have ended their reliance on Russia's energy grid. They disconnected from the systems on Saturday and are switching over to a European

power supply. NPR's Charles Maines has more. Though the Baltic countries' decision to switch to European power had long been in the works, the push to sever electrical ties with Russia sped up significantly in the wake of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Baltic government officials have framed cutting the cord as a matter of national security, arguing any remaining connection to Russian energy left their nations open to blackmail or sabotage. The move comes amid a spate of mysterious attacks on fiber optic, gas, and power cables in the

Baltic Sea over which Russia and the West have traded blame. Charles Maynes, NPR News. Officials in Alaska say the bodies of all 10 people who were on board a Cessna Citation that crashed on an ice flow off the coast have now been recovered. Crews are now working to remove the wreckage before a major storm brings high winds and snow to the region. An investigation has begun to try and determine why the plane went down in the icy Bering Sea. You're listening to NPR News.

In Ohio, residents confronted a group of neo-Nazis on Friday. They were dressed in black and waving swastika flags on an overpass north of the town of Cincinnati. At least one of the demonstrators was reportedly seen holding a long gun. Charlene Evans was among those who were counter protesting. In this neighborhood, we do stand for something. This here turf is golden soil and it won't be tarnished with things like that. Pastor Julian Cook meanwhile led a prayer session. People are afraid, they're scared, they're angry. Police were eventually

called to the scene. In 2008, someone tweeted, Superb owl party tonight. And from that, an internet typo took flight. Since then, the typo has given people a space for those who scavenge the web for hashtags, memes, and owl pictures. And Piers Amy Held explains all of this. In case it flew over your head, Superb owl is Super Bowl with a misplaced space. Maybe a perfectly placed space for owl lovers. The subreddit SuperbOwl was hatched now with nearly half a million members. It's active year round and really soars around Super Bowl time.

And it's not just internet fluff. Owls are threatened by habitat loss and climate change. The SuperbOwl meme experts say has driven people to learn more about the birds of prey and their incredible features like night vision and full head rotation. This weekend, enthusiasts can even attend superb owl parties scheduled outside game time for those who give a hoot about football too. Amy Held, NPR News. And this is NPR News. And this is NPR News. Technologist Pau Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories.

How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.