NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-11-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

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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. We generated 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. of memory. That's on the Ted Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Trump and Elon Musk appeared together at the Oval Office today, defending and highlighting their continuing efforts to enact sweeping change to the federal government and limit spending.

As NPR's Elena Moore reports, Musk is leading the White House government or Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, focused on cutting government spending. Musk said Trump had a mandate from the public to do this work. The people voted for major government reform and that's what people are going to get. They're going to get what they voted for. Trump declared that the DOGE effort has already found billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse.

When asked about some of the legal challenges the administration is facing over the effort, Trump said he would comply with court rulings and then appeal. After taking questions, Trump signed an executive order further breaking down how government agencies will work with DOJ to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Elena Moore, NPR News, Washington. Meanwhile, lawmakers, labor advocates and federal workers rallied outside the U.S. Capitol today, the gathering to protest what they say are efforts by the Trump administration to politicize the civil service. NPR's Andrea Shue reports.

Federal employees have been hit with a lot in the several weeks since President Trump was sworn in. The administration has put people on leave, shuttered offices, halted a lot of work, and encouraged more than two million workers to resign. Gay Henson is an employee of the Tennessee Valley Authority and secretary treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. It's not well thought out. It's not well planned.

They should do a study or something and then figure out what needs to be cut and do it in a respectful way. This is just very disrespectful to American workers who have given their lives to the service of the country. President Trump has said he got elected to make the government smaller and more efficient and that's what he's doing. Andrea Hsu, NPR News.

Georgia Democrats in Congress are sounding the alarm about the impacts of Trump administration orders to slash funding and staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of the administration's plan to improve government efficiency from WABE in Atlanta, Jess Madore is more. The CDC has more than 10,000 employees at its Atlanta headquarters. Democratic US Senator John Ossoff says

Trump's workforce reductions and cuts to research-related funding would gut the public health agency. I insist that the Trump administration reductions, and cuts to research-related funding would gut the public health agency. I insist that the Trump administration cease these unprecedented, partisan political attacks on the CDC and let the scientists, doctors, and epidemiologists at Georgia's CDC do their jobs to defend the nation. In separate cases, federal judges have blocked administration plans to offer deferred resignations

to government workers and cut National Institutes of Health research-related funding. For now, for NPR News, I'm Jess Madore in Atlanta. A mixed close on Wall Street today. The Dow is up 123 points. The Nasdaq closed down 70 points. You're listening to NPR. In order to fit it all in, this weekend's 50th anniversary celebration for Saturday Night Live will air on Sunday. That's when the three hours required for the cavalcade

of appearances and guests from past shows was available on NBC. As an L50, the anniversary celebration will include appearances by alums, including Tina Fey and Eddie Murphy, along with past hosts like Dave Chappelle and Steve Martin. Musical guests will include appearances by alums, including Tina Fey and Eddie Murphy, along with past hosts like Dave Chappelle and Steve Martin. Musical guests will include Paul McCartney, Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, and a host of others. Corruption around the globe continues at alarmingly high levels. That's according to a non-governmental watchdog group, Transparency International's annual index found 47 out of 180 countries surveyed had their highest corruption scores since the global ranking began more than a decade ago. MPR's Kerry Kahn reports.

Transparency International ranks countries on the scale from zero, indicating high levels of corruption, to 100, indicating a very clean record. It uses data from the World Bank and risk and consulting companies to compile the data. The group says more than a quarter of countries surveyed saw increases in corruption, including the United States and France, as well as authoritarian countries like Russia and Venezuela. In the Americas, it pointed to high levels of corruption hurting efforts to combat climate change. Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela had some of the lowest rankings in the survey, while Brazil saw an increase in corruption cases, many involving the wildlife trafficking trade.

Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Crypto futures prices hit a two-week high, made concerns about supply and Middle East tensions. Oil rose a dollar a barrel to $73.32 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News.