NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-12-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

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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 Jack Spear. Essentially upending U.S. support of Ukraine in its war against Russia's invasion, President Trump today said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin negotiations

toward ending the conflict. Trump's saying he and Putin will work together very close to the end of the war and will eventually meet in person. I'll be dealing with President Putin largely on the phone and we ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he'll come here and I'll go there and we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time we'll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we get something done. Trump said he's also spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

White House officials however declined to say whether Ukraine would be party to the negotiations, indicating a deal might be made by Washington and Moscow to try to end the fighting. The Trump administration's funding freezes disrupting environmental projects across the U.S. and Paris Michael Copley reports there's concerned communities we left on their own to manage the growing threats from climate change. The administration paused funding Congress had approved for removing lead pipes, cleaning up contaminated land, and installing solar panels in low-income neighborhoods. Grant recipients say some projects might not recover. Trump's promised to slash federal spending.

Zahra Ahmed says disrupting government-backed projects looks like a way of trying to shake people's trust in federal aid. Ahmed works at Carbon Direct, which helps businesses and governments cut carbon emissions. I think people are going to be a lot more reluctant to do business with the federal government. An administration official didn't respond to a request for comment. Trump has said he was elected to go after waste and fraud in federal spending. A federal judge has said the freeze is likely unconstitutional.

Michael Copley, NPR News. The U.S US housing market could experience a more than $1.4 trillion loss in value. That's according to research from First Street Analytics, which specializes in climate risk financial modeling. More from MPR's Julie Simon. Home ownership has often been seen as a key part of the American dream. The hope for many was that a home could grow value and at the very least store value. Now, more wildfires, flood events, and heat events—made more likely because of humans burning fossil fuels—have led insurance providers to increase premiums or withdraw from certain areas. Homes with more expensive insurance or no insurance could

lose value. The analysis finds that by 2055, 84% of all census tracts may experience some form of negative property value impacts from climate risk. Julia Simon, NPR News. Well, President Trump has called on the interest rate setting Federal Reserve to lower rates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell says that's not going to lead to any change in course by the body. Powell saying members of the central bank will quote, keep our heads down, do our work, and make our decisions based on what's

happening with the economy. Powell made his remarks during testimony for the House Financial Services Committee. On Wall Street today, the Dow was down 225 points. This is NPR. Perhaps one of President Trump's most controversial nominees has cleared the Senate confirmation process despite some questions about her experience and judgment on the part of some Republicans,

lawmakers mostly along party lines confirming Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Gabbard's previous sympathetic comments about Russia and a meeting with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have raised concerns with some lawmakers. Gabbard is a military vet and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and has no formal intelligence experience and has never run a government agency. A new study is finding a long-term habit of eating yogurt may protect against certain types of aggressive colon cancer. Here's NPR's Marie Godoy.

In this study, researchers at Mass General Brigham in Boston looked at data from more than 150,000 people who were followed for at least three decades. They found that people who ate two or more servings of yogurt per week had lower rates of proximal colon cancer. That's a type of colon cancer that can be particularly aggressive and have worse survival outcomes. The findings are in line with prior studies that have linked yogurt intake to a lower risk of colorectal cancer.

Study co-author Dr. Tomotaka Ugae says, the good bacteria in yogurt appear to be helping to keep the gut microbiome healthy, thus protecting against colorectal cancer. My kind of message is that if you like yogurt, go for it. The findings appear in the journal Gut Microbes. Maria Godoy, NPR News. Crude old futures prices gave up some of their recent gains,

oiled down nearly $2 a barrel to $71.37 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from Wwise, the app for doing things in other currencies. Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut. With WISE, you can convert between up to 40 currencies at the mid-market exchange rate. Visit WISE.com. T&Cs apply.