NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-09-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

NPR News: 02-09-2025 7AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Technologist Paul 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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Following yesterday's hostages for prisoners' swamp, attention is turning to talks on a second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is sending a delegation to Qatar. The talks are being held in Doha,

with President Trump's remarks about displacing Palestinians and turning Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East, raising tensions. Arab states have rejected Trump's comments and are planning to hold an emergency summit meeting in Egypt later this month. Following a crackdown by the Trump administration, the National Institutes of Health says the agency is capping an important type of funding for medical research at universities, medical schools, research hospitals, and other scientific institutions. Here's NPR's Rob Stein. The NIH says the agency is limiting funding for indirect costs to 15 percent of current

and future grants. That's far below what many institutions have been getting to maintain buildings and equipment and pay support staff and other overhead expenses. The NIH says the new policy is more in line with what private foundations pay. The decision, which marks a major change in how the NIH funds medical research, is being condemned by many researchers. They say the cap will cripple scientific research. The new policy goes into effect Monday. Rob Stein, NPR News. President Trump has announced the creation

of a new White House Faith Office. NPR's Jason DeRose reports that the head of the office is a well-known evangelical Trump supporter. Trump has named televangelist Paula White to lead the new faith office. White has been one of the president's religious advisors for more than two decades and served in several capacities during the first Trump administration, including as a special advisor to his Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

She's been the pastor of two Florida megachurches and heads Paula White Ministries, which produces her television show Paula White Today, in-person conferences, and online Bible studies. She's a conservative evangelical who supports the Trump administration's immigration policies. It's not yet clear what the new faith office will do. Jason DeRose, NPR News. Jason DeRose Yeah, winter storm. The blanketed parts of the country from the Midwest to the Northeast had road crews in prep mode this weekend. Rick Fontana is emergency management director in New Haven, Connecticut, where crews have been using magnesium chloride to treat roads instead of salt.

When you put those lines on the street and the snow hits it and before you know it, it turns to water and it doesn't snow cover the street. The snow is expected to taper off in the northeast this morning. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are in Alaska this weekend to try to work out why that small commuter plane crashed into the sea off Nome on Thursday. All 10 people on board were killed and authorities say their bodies have been recovered. Crews worked this weekend to retrieve the wreckage. And you're listening to NPR News. The man known as Namibia's founding father has died. Sam Njoma was 95. The president's office says Njoma died this weekend and that the foundations of the country

have been shaken. Njoma was a guerrilla leader who spent decades in exile before becoming Namibia's first democratically elected president after it won independence from apartheid South Africa. Ndodjoma was revered in Namibia, but also criticized over his treatment of media coverage and his opposition to homosexuality. The Trump administration has paused the rollout of the federal government's program to build EV chargers on highways. NPR's Kamila Dominovski reports that billions of dollars are at stake, but the program is not dead yet. The Federal Highway Administration says it will honor

existing contracts to build chargers, but it's freezing new activity while it reviews the program. Nick Nigro of the research group Atlas Public Policy says the impact of this pause depends how long it lasts. It really has to be as short as possible if we're going to minimize the cost of building this infrastructure. The charger funding was established by Congress and the bipartisan infrastructure law. So far only a few dozen federally funded chargers are open, but about a thousand are in progress. This freeze does not affect chargers being built without federal funds. Camila Dominochki, NPR News. Today is Super Bowl Sunday.

The Kansas City Chiefs are playing the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans. Tonight, it's a rematch of the game from two years ago when the Chiefs got by the Eagles 38 to 35 in Glendale, Arizona. I'm Triale Snyder. This is NPR News. If you love NPR News.