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

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

NPR News: 02-11-2025 10AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. Jordan's King Abdullah will visit the White House this morning.

His meeting with President Trump is highly anticipated. Trump has demanded that Jordan and Egypt accept all Palestinians now living in Gaza, a suggestion both countries have rejected. Yesterday Trump insisted that all hostages held in Gaza be returned to Israel by Saturday. Otherwise he said, quote, all hell is going to break out. Hamas has delayed this weekend's release of three hostages as stipulated in the ceasefire deal, and PR's Kat Lonsdorf reports.

Trump made the comments in the Oval Office while speaking to reporters, but didn't specify what that threat meant or how it would work. He called for the ceasefire to be canceled by noon Saturday if all hostages were not released by Hamas, but also said that Israel could, quote, override it. The fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which the U.S., including members from Trump's administration, helped broker, calls for Israeli hostages to be released over the

course of several weeks in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees each time. Hamas had said it will delay the release of more hostages, quote, until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement. Israel has said it has placed its troops in Gaza on heightened alert. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. An independent research arm that is based in the U.S. Education Department has essentially been shut down. The Trump administration is cutting off the Institute of Education Sciences, or IES.

And Piers Janaki-Metha says the cuts threatened vital programs like this one, used in classrooms to help children learn. There's some high-quality digital tools that are already being used in classrooms in many states to measure how kids can make up ground in math. It's part of a study that IES was conducting and now that that contract is canceled, the study is going to be cut short and the tools could soon be pulled from classrooms. And PRS Janaki Mehta reporting. Stocks opened lower this morning as U.S. trading partners

are promising to retaliate for President Trump's new tariffs. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 100 points in early trading. The European Union says the President's new 25 percent taxes on imported steel and aluminum will not go unanswered. EU leader Ursula von der Leyen says the trading bloc will push back with tariffs of its own on U.S. exports in order to protect European workers, businesses and consumers. The trade battle is a rerun of the one fought the last time Trump imposed tariffs on steel

and aluminum imports. Economists say those measures wound up costing U.S. manufacturing jobs. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is testifying before a Senate committee today. Powell has signaled the central bank is in no hurry to make further cuts to interest rates. Inflation remains somewhat higher than the Fed would like, while the unemployment rate is still very low. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. On Wall Street, the Dow is now down about 87 points. The Nasdaq is down 43. This is NPR. Pope Francis has rebuked the Trump administration's plans to conduct mass deportations of migrants who are in the United States illegally.

The pontiff sent a letter to U.S. bishops. In it, Francis writes that forcibly removing people based on their documented status strips them of inherent dignity. And the pope says this quote will end badly. The letter also disagrees with Vice President Vance's theological view of deportation. Vance is a Roman Catholic. President Trump has signed an executive order on plastic straws. As NPR's Jacob Venston tells us, it rolls back a plan by former President Joe Biden

to cut down plastic pollution. Trump says we're going, quote, back to plastic. On Truth Social, he complained about paper straws that disgustingly dissolve in your mouth. He says the government will no longer buy paper straws or provide them in federal buildings. Activist Jackie Nunez is founder of the Last Plastic Straw campaign. She says Trump isn't the first to hate on biodegradable paper straws, but she welcomes the renewed spotlight on single-use plastics.

You know, we use plastic straws. We're literally drinking in plastic particles and chemicals. Biden's policy would have phased out the purchasing of single-use plastics by the federal government starting in 2027. Jacob Fenston, NPR News. A powerful winter storm is headed for the central and eastern U.S. The National Weather Service says winter storm warnings and advisories spread from Colorado to Delaware. Some areas will get a lot of snow in the coming days, others are going to get significant ice accumulation. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.