NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-10-2025 9PM EST

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

NPR News: 02-10-2025 9PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 U.S. tour. To learn more, visit npr.org.tinydeskcontest. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Donald Trump signed new proclamations today placing tariffs on steel and aluminum. NPR's Deepa Sivaram reports the moves have the potential to bolster domestic steel and

aluminum makers, but could also raise costs for businesses and consumers. The proclamations reimpose a 25% tariff on steel imports on all countries. It ends a Biden-era exclusion for certain favored nations. Trump also raised aluminum tariffs from 10 to 25%. The proclamations create new requirements for steel and aluminum in North America. The goal is to prevent countries like China and Russia from sending their steel to Mexico and Canada where it then gets relabeled before being sent to the US in order to avoid tariffs. In his first term Trump also put tariffs on steel and aluminum which caused global backlash. The

president claims that those tariffs saved the steel and aluminum industries. Deepa Sivaram, NPR News, The White House. After they were notified over the weekend to work from home, employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau say they're worried they could suffer the same fate as other federal agencies. President Trump's budget chief sent an email to CFPB workers, informing them the agency's D.C. headquarters is closed. It's the latest turn in a tumultuous few days at the Bureau,

where staff have been told by new acting director Russellt to cease essentially all the Bureau's work. Vogt also posted on social media he's not requesting the Bureau's next round of funding from the Federal Reserve. A federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily blocked a new Trump administration policy that would cap how much the National Institutes of Health pays for indirect costs of medical research. Here's NPR's Rob Stein. Attorneys general representing 22 states had asked the judge to block the new policy, arguing that it's illegal. The NIH announced late Friday that the agency was capping the rate at which the agency would

pay for indirect costs at 15 percent. That's far less than the NIH had been paying and would result in the loss of billions of dollars to universities, medical schools, research hospitals and other institutions. Indirect costs include building maintenance, electricity bills and other overhead expenses. A judge has now issued a temporary restraining order putting the cap on hold pending a hearing later this month. Rob Stein in PR News. It's an offer that was reportedly quickly rejected a $97.4 billion dollar offer from Elon Musk and a group of

investors to buy the artificial intelligence company OpenAI the parent of chat GPT. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and a post on Musk's social media platform X saying quote no thank you but we'll buy Twitter Twitter for 9.74 billion if you want. A not so subtle jab at the billionaire who purchased Twitter renamed X for $44 billion in 2022. Musk has his own AI startup company called X.AI. Stocks gained ground on Wall Street today that dial up 167 points. This is NPR.

President Trump has announced today he plans to pardon former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich. That's according to a person familiar with his plans, not authorized to speak publicly. Trump commuted the former governor's 14-year corruption sentence during his first term. Trump was expected to sign the pardon today. Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on charges that included seeking to sell an appointment to then-President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. Janie Vance is stepping into the world stage this week as US Vice President at a high-stakes AI summit in Paris, more from NPR's owner Beardsley.

French President Emmanuel Macron is holding the summit in Paris, along with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. France and India want to show there is more than just the US and China when it comes to artificial intelligence. The summit has drawn world leaders, top tech executives and policymakers to discuss AI's impact on global security, economics and governance. Macron called on attendees to choose Europe for their business, announcing 109 billion euros of investments in AI for his country. The technology uses an enormous amount of energy and France is attractive because of

its non-carbon nuclear power. Vice President Vance is set to speak to attendees on Tuesday. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. Arizona says it's adding a new species of bat to the night creatures visiting the state. The recent confirmation of the return of the Mexican long-nosed bat in part confirmed with the help of residents there. In the past, a bat would have had to be captured, but researchers tested the bird feeders of hummingbird feeders for saliva of the bats.

The Mexican long-nosed bat has been listed as endangered. This is NPR. 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, regenerated 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.