NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-10-2025 11PM EST

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

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Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts. Perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. plus dot npr dot org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. President Trump has signed another round of executive orders. One of them pauses a 1977 law that bans bribery of foreign officials. Details from NPR's Deepa Sivaram.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bars businesses from paying bribes to overseas officials and has been a key part of the U.S.'s efforts to combat global corruption. When the law took effect in the late 1970s, more than 400 corporations had admitted making questionable or illegal payments, with corporate funds going to foreign government officials, politicians, and political parties. But Trump said the law makes it hard for businesses to make deals without fear of being investigated. It sounds good on paper, but in practicality it's a disaster. The executive order instructs the attorney general to pause and review the bribery law

and prepare new guidelines for enforcement. Deepa Sivaram, NPR News, The White House. A third federal judge has blocked President Trump's effort to repeal birthright citizenship for some Americans. As NPR's Jimena Bustillo reports, Trump's action is intended to deter migration. The judge heard arguments over the Trump administration's effort to reinterpret the 14th Amendment

to limit which U.S.-born children get automatic citizenship. The judge raised questions over what might happen to the children of migrants without permanent status, if they were to hypothetically be born while the courts decide the rule of law. US government lawyers said the Supreme Court could eventually restore citizenship to those who might lose it,

if it rules against the government. But lawyers on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union said family stuck in limbo would suffer irreparable harm. The judge ultimately said he was not persuaded by the government's position. Ximena Bustillo and PR News, Washington. The U.S. is imposing new 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The move is designed to prevent China and Russia from circumventing U.S. tariffs by sending their steel to Mexico and Canada. A group of investors led by billionaire Elon Musk is offering to buy chat GPT maker OpenAI

for nearly $98 billion. But NPR's Bobby Allen reports that there's a problem. OpenAI says it's not for sale. Musk sending an unsolicited bid to take over OpenAI comes as Musk's lawsuit against the company unfolds. The billionaire-turned-White House insider has long said OpenAI betrayed its original mission as a nonprofit research lab and instead prioritized profits and growth. It's a criticism shared by others in Silicon Valley, not just Musk, who was an early OpenAI funder. Tech critics on the left also argue OpenAI has deviated from its founding principles. But Musk's lawyers publicizing an offer to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion

prompted a swift rebuttal from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman wrote on X, No, thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.7 billion if you want. That reply, of course, is not serious. Bobby Allen reporting. This is NPR. A spokesman for Hamas says the group is postponing the next scheduled release of Israeli hostages captured in October 2023. More hostages were supposed to be set free this weekend in exchange for Palestinian prisoners

and detainees under a six-week ceasefire agreement. Both Israel and Hamas are accusing each other of violating that deal. A jury in upstate New York is hearing evidence in the trial of a man charged with stabbing novelist Salman Rushdie. 27-year-old Hadi Mader of Fairview, New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges. Rushdie was attacked while speaking at the Shatakwa Institution in Mayville, New York in August 2022. Researchers are trying to understand how a man expected to develop Alzheimer's in middle

age has remained mentally sound in his mid-70s. NPR's John Hamilton has more on a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. John Hamilton The man has a rare gene mutation that caused family members to develop Alzheimer's in their 30s and 40s. Yet he still shows no sign of the disease at 75. Jorge Giebre of Washington University in St. Louis is part of a team that's been studying the man, along with two earlier cases of people who defied their genetic destiny. It's so important, right, because he's telling us that something is going on that

is protecting these people. Gibre says the man's brain has high levels of proteins found in people exposed to high temperatures and other forms of stress. He says these proteins may help protect the brain from Alzheimer's. John Hamilton, NPR News. U.S. futures are higher. This is NPR News. At the Super Bowl halftime show,

Kendrick Lamar indeed performed his smash diss track, Not Like Us, and brought out Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams, and SZA. We're recapping the Super Bowl, including why we saw so many celebrities in commercials this year. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.