NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-13-2025 1PM 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, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump hosts India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in Washington. NPR's Aswaghallid reports trade and immigration are expected to be on the agenda. President Trump has had a warm relationship with India's leader, but he's also accused

India of being a, quote, big abuser of trade. Lisa Curtis served in the first Trump administration working on issues relating to India. Trump's priorities are seeing India's high tariffs lowered on US goods. That's a number one priority for him. Trump has pledged to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that charge duties on US imports. Other issues between the countries include immigration, technology, and defense. The U.S. relationship with India has seen strong bipartisan support

in recent years, especially as a counter to China's influence in the region. Asma Khalid, NPR News. Danielle Pletka Brooke Rollins will be the country's next secretary of agriculture. President Trump's candidate has been confirmed to oversee the department as the administration imposes higher tariffs that analysts say will affect U.S. businesses and consumers. Shares in the farm equipment maker, Deere & Company, are down more than 1.5% after it warned

of slowing sales in North America. U.S. farmers get more than 20% of their income from exports and they're often a high-profile target in any trade war. Elon Musk, President Trump's appointment on the government cost-cutting entity known as DOGE, is comparing federal agencies to weeds. There's roughly 450 federal agencies of one kind or another. That's more agencies, that's almost an average of two agencies per year since the formation of the United States.

So I mean, how many agencies do you really need to run a country? About 99? Not 450, that's for sure. Speaking by video to the annual World Government Summit in the United Arab Emirates, Musk says the U.S. needs to entirely delete many agencies. An intense storm known as an atmospheric river is bearing down on California today. It's bringing valuable rain, but also increases the risk of mudslides and floods. Here's NPR's Alejandra Barunda.

Atmospheric rivers are exactly what they sound like. Giant ribbons of water vapor flowing through the sky like a river. If you look at them from a satellite, they actually look a little bit like a river, where they're sort of long and narrow and they meander. That's atmospheric scientist Christine Shields from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She says atmospheric rivers are a normal part of California weather and can deliver a lot of valuable water to the region. But they often include short and intense bursts of heavy rainfall that can lead to flooding.

And in the burned areas around Los Angeles, potential debris flows and mudslides. often include short and intense bursts of heavy rainfall. That can lead to flooding. And in the burned areas around Los Angeles, potential debris flows and mudslides. That's why experts say it's important to keep close track of emergency alerts. Alejandra Burunda, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed by the Senate

to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The vote was 52 to 48. Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican majority leader and a polio survivor, joined Democratic senators to vote against Kennedy. Honda and Nissan are scrapping their more than $50 billion proposed merger. Had a deal gone through, the Japanese companies would have created one of the world's largest auto groups. Talks broke down over differences on the structure of the new company. Thousands of artists from around the world have signed

an open letter asking auction house Christie's to cancel an upcoming sale of art made using artificial intelligence. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports Christie's augmented intelligence sale is being billed as the first of its kind at a major auction house. The letter asks Christie's not to go ahead with the auction, which features pieces by such prominent art world figures as Refik Anadol and Holly Herndon, on the grounds that much of it was created using AI models known to be trained on unlicensed, copyrighted work. These models and the companies behind them exploit human artists using their work without

permission or payment to build commercial AI products that compete with them, the letter states. In an email to NPR, Christie's did not address the letter's main issue, but said AI is being used to enhance the featured artist's bodies of work. Augmented intelligence is scheduled to open for bidding online and at Christie's New York on February 20th. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. US stocks are trading higher. The Nasdaq is up 146 points. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.