NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-09-2025 9PM EST

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

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J.D. Donald Trump is starting his second term as president. What will his administration do and what policies will it promote? On the NPR Politics Podcast, we'll break down what the new administration does and explain why it matters. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast every day. J.D. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. President Trump told reporters traveling with him on board Air Force One that tomorrow he'll be announcing a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports coming to the United States. And Piers Azmahalled has more. The president said these steel and aluminum tariffs will apply to everybody, even neighboring Canada and Mexico.

Trump also said he'll be announcing reciprocal tariffs on other items. That would apply to countries that impose duties on U.S. goods. Very simply, if they charge us, we charge them. He said he plans to roll out details at a news conference later this week. But if they are charging us 130 percent and we're charging them nothing, it's not going to stay that way. Trump also told reporters that no foreign company should have a majority stake in U.S. steel. But he did encourage Japan's Nippon Steel to make an investment

in the revered American company. Asma Khalid, NPR News. Meanwhile, China says it will implement additional tariffs on U.S. goods tomorrow in retaliation for Trump imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese good. Chinese new duties includes 10 percent on crude oil and farm equipment and 15 percent on liquefied natural gas and coal from the US. Africana groups are rejecting President Trump's offer of being given refugee status in the US. Kate Bartlett reports the groups say they'd rather stay put in South

Africa. Thanks, but no thanks. That was the response of Kelly Creel, who heads Afrikaner rights group Afroforum. We have to say categorically, we don't want to move elsewhere. Creel made the remarks at a hastily organized press conference after Trump signed an executive order cutting funding to South Africa and offering Afrikaners asylum. Afrikaners are descendants of Dutch and other European colonists.

Afrikaner groups have long lobbied Washington for support, saying South African laws discriminate against them and that they are being persecuted as a white minority. For NPR News, I'm Kate Butler in Johannesburg. A large swath of the northern U.S. woke up to snow and ice this morning. As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, a major winter storm swept through the region this weekend, and more winter weather is coming. The storm passed through the upper Midwest, the Great Lakes region, and then the Northeast. Eight inches of snow fell in areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin,

and Michigan. Parts of northern New York, Vermont, and Maine saw as much as a foot. Boston and New York City both had several inches of snow too, and in Philadelphia, overnight freezing rain left streets and sidewalks slippery Sunday morning. Though the storm was tapering off on Sunday, forecasters say more winter weather is on the way early this week for parts of the central U.S. and East Coast. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Novelist Tom Robbins has died at the age of 92. The acclaimed author was best known for books such as Jitterbug Perfume and even Cowgirls

Get the Blues. As Tom Vitale reports, Robbins died at his home in Washington State this weekend. Tom Robbins was known for novels filled with colorful language, eccentric characters, and bizarre situations that helped define him as a counterculture writer starting in the early 1970s. But Robbins told NPR in 2014, he thought that label pigeonholed his writing unfairly. I wouldn't have missed, say, the 60s for a billion dollars,

but neither I nor my life's work can be defined by counterculture sensibilities. What could define the work of Tom Robbins, he said, was the way he used language brilliantly, playfully, and precisely in best-selling novels that must have been both a joy and a challenge for the people who translated them into Russian, Spanish, and more than a dozen other languages. For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York. New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered a temporary closure of live poultry markets after bird

flu was found in the outer boroughs of New York City. Her order on Friday directed the markets to close through February 14th as the facilities undergo complete disinfection process. The order calls for markets that haven't tested positive for bird flu to sell all inventory and shut down for five days after the cleaning process. Meanwhile, the Wildlife Conservation Society says three ducks died at the Queens Zoo because of bird flu. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington. 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 US tour. To learn more, visit npr.org slash tiny desk contest.