NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-09-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

NPR News: 02-09-2025 6PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Ira Glass with This American Life, each week on our show. We choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme. All right, I'm just going to stop right there. You're listening to an NPR podcast, chances are you know our show. So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately. Some big epic emotional stories, some weird funny stuff too. Download us. This is American Life. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. President Trump says tomorrow he will announce 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including those from Canada and Mexico. He also reaffirmed that he would announce reciprocal tariffs later this week.

Those are import duties on products from countries that have levied tariffs on U.S. goods. Meanwhile, China's new tariffs on U.S. goods, including 10 percent on crude oil, farm equipment, and some farm vehicles, and 15 percent on liquefied natural gas and coal, are set to go into effect tomorrow. It's China's retribution for Trump imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been told that their Washington headquarters is closed for the week and to work remotely. As NPR's Laura Wamsley reports, the move is the latest indication that the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle the independent agency. CFPB staff were told of the closure in an email obtained by NPR.

No reason was given for the building's closure. Representatives of Elon Musk's Government Efficiency Team were seen at the headquarters on Friday, according to the CFPB union. Musk's team has been granted access to key systems, stirring concerns about the fate of vast amounts of sensitive information maintained by the Bureau. Over the weekend, Russell Vogt took over as acting director at the agency agency and issued a directive for staff to cease virtually all of its work. Vogt posted on X that he will not ask for the agency's next round of funding from the Federal Reserve. CFPB staff warned that without the agency doing its job, American families

are left exposed to fraud and financial abuse. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News, Washington. President Trump says he's talked with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, about negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. He made the comment in an interview with the New York Post, but a Kremlin spokesperson said they would neither confirm nor deny the report. More than 30 years 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. In a complex weekend maneuver, the three small nations disconnected their electrical systems from Russia to join a European alternative. And Pierce Charles Maynes reports. The Baltic countries' decision to switch from Russian to European power had long been planned but took on new urgency in the wake of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Government officials said cutting the cord with Moscow was now a matter of national security, arguing any connection to Russian energy left their nations open to blackmail or sabotage.

The move comes amid a spate of mysterious attacks on regional infrastructure that have further raised tensions with Moscow. In a ceremony in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, European dignitaries hailed the successful power switch as ushering in a new era of freedom, with locals later given chunks of souvenir wire from the now dead Russian transmission lines. Charles Maynes, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. In Alaska, crews are working to recover the wreckage of a plane crash in listening to NPR News from Washington. In Alaska, crews are working to recover the wreckage of a plane crash in western Alaska

that killed all 10 people on board. The small commuter plane, which went down in the icy Bering Sea, officials say a Black Hawk helicopter will be used to move the aircraft, now that all of the bodies have been removed. But the aircraft is sitting on sea ice, and that's drifting at about five miles a day. The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet to Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon and was found the next day after an extensive search. There's still no word on the cause of the crash. It's Super Bowl Sunday and the Kansas City Chiefs are facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles. For the Chiefs, it's also an opportunity to make history. Steve Futterman has more.

The Chiefs are trying to become the first team ever to win three straight Super Bowls. On eight previous occasions, a team has won two in a row, but each time could not win the third. And those two in a row teams were led by some pretty big name quarterbacks, Joe Montana, John Elway, even Tom Brady could not win a third straight. Kansas City's quarterback, Patrick Mahomes hopes they'll be the first. I think you always wanna leave a legacy

and kind of make your imprint on history, but more than anything, you just wanna accomplish a goal that you have with your teammates. The Eagles hope they can be that roadblock. Philadelphia has won the Super Bowl only once in 2018. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman at the Super Bowl in New Orleans. And I'm Janene Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.

Donald Trump is starting his second term as president. to NPR News from Washington.