NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-11-2025 5AM 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 Dave Mattingly. President Trump says he's placing new tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum. NPR's Deepa Shivaram says the proclamations are aimed at countries including China and Russia. 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 U. S. 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 Shivaram NPR News, The White House. The head of the European Commission says the tariffs being implemented by the president on steel and aluminum won't go unanswered. Ursula Von der Leyen says the European Union's 27-nation

bloc will act to safeguard its economic interests. The Trump administration says deportation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela have resumed. NPR's Carrie Khan says the first such flights left Texas yesterday. Two Venezuelan Conviasa Airlines planes left Fort Bliss, Texas with migrants on board, according to Venezuela's communications ministry. The White House announced the resumption of deportation flights on social media with the line Make America safe again. Venezuela's leader, Nicolás Maduro, had been refusing to accept deportees

after relations between the U.S. and his government broke over his increasingly authoritarian rule. Flights were briefly reinstated under the Biden administration, but halted again last year after the U.S. reimposed sanctions following presidential elections widely seen as stolen by Maduro. Trump adviser Richard Grinnell recently traveled to Venezuela securing the deal and returning with six Americans detained by the Maduro government. Carrie Cahn, NPR News.

The Justice Department is advising federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Last September, Adams was indicted on five federal charges including bribery, fraud, and accepting foreign campaign contributions. The mayor has denied any wrongdoing. The case against Adams was one of several federal investigations into the Democratic mayor and his administration. His police commissioner, school's chancellor, and other members of his team resigned last year. President Trump is pardoning

former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Democrat was convicted in 2011 on several political corruption charges. They included trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama. This is NPR News. The chairman of the Federal Reserve will be on Capitol Hill today. Jerome Powell is scheduled to testify to a Senate committee, with economists and Wall

Street investors believing it's less likely the Fed will cut interest rates this year. In December, the Fed signaled two rate cuts were likely in 2025. However, the Labor Department reported last week unemployment in the U.S. declined slightly in January as hiring slowed during the month. A group of investors led by billionaire Elon Musk is offering to buy chat GPT maker OpenAI for nearly $98 billion. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, it's an unsolicited offer. 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 prioritize 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 in PR News. One person was killed and several injured yesterday when a private jet landing at the airport in Scottsdale veered off a one-way and hit a parked plane. The arriving jet is owned by Motley Crue singer Vince Neil. I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington.