NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-13-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

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Donald Trump is back in the White House and making a lot of moves very quickly. Keep track of everything going on in Washington with the NPR Politics Podcast. Every day we break down the latest news and explain why it matters to you. The NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump's pick to lead the FBI, Cash Patel has moved a step closer to becoming the Bureau's new director. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports the Senate Judiciary Committee

voted along party lines today to advance Patel's nomination to the full Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12 to 10 to move Patel's nomination forward. Committee Republicans were united behind Patel. They say he will root out what they claim is political bias against Republicans at the FBI, which is a historically conservative institution. Democrats, meanwhile, were in lockstep in opposition. They say Patel is a Trump loyalist and they note that he has previously threatened to go after Trump's perceived political enemies. They worry that Patel, if confirmed, will use the vast powers of the FBI

to make good on those threats. The panel's vote to advance Patel's nomination paves the way for a confirmation vote as soon as next week in the full Senate, where Republicans hold the majority. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. The European Union's chief diplomat is criticizing President Trump's phone call yesterday with

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kaya Kalos says Europe must be at the negotiating table for any agreement on the future of Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded nearly three years ago. We shouldn't take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started because it plays to Russia's court and it is what they want. Why are we giving them everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started? It's appeasement. It has never worked. Yesterday at the NATO summit, President Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

set a return to Ukraine's borders before 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea is unrealistic. Ukraine has opposed any plan that involves ceding additional territory to Putin's forces. In Brussels, Hexeth also ruled out Ukraine membership in NATO. There could be a limit to how many eggs you're allowed to buy depending on where you shop. Since 2022, a nationwide bird flu outbreak has led to tens of millions of birds being euthanized, including egg-laying chickens. NPR's Ayanna Archie reports a supply shortage has driven up prices and is prompting more major retailers to cap how many egg cartons they sell to each shopper. At Trader Joe's, customers can only buy one or two dozen a day.

The limit is in effect at all locations so that the company can, quote, ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them. Kroger said it has not implemented a limit nationally, but some of its divisions have capped purchases to no more than two dozen a day for each customer. It hasn't yet specified which divisions are enforcing the restrictions. Food economics experts say stores don't like

the appearance of empty shelves, so retailers might ration their supplies to avoid the alternative, which would be hiking egg prices even more so fewer people buy them. Ayanna Archie, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR. Brooke Rollins has been confirmed as the country's next Secretary of Agriculture. President Trump's candidate confirmed today to oversee the department as the Trump administration imposes higher

tariffs that many analysts say will affect U.S. businesses and consumers. The Los Angeles area is projected to get the brunt of an atmospheric river storm, heavy rainfall for a region that's been grappling with long periods of dry weather, but rain also carries the threat of mud and debris flows in areas severely burned by last month's wildfires. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, is asking for help in paying out customer claims from last month's Southern California fires. Danielle Venton of member station KQED reports state regulators have approved the insurer's request. One billion collected from private insurance companies in California will help the Fair

Plan continue to pay claims. Insurance companies will be able to pass on half those costs to their policyholders. The Fair Plan is a not-for-profit insurer offering coverage to those who can't get it through normal insurance companies. That means it takes the riskiest homes, and its liabilities have swelled as traditional insurers have pulled back from California. Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute. This has been warned for many years.

Nobody should be surprised that this happened. It's unfortunate. Similar fees have been charged in California following bad hurricanes. If split evenly among California households, fees would be about $60 each. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Venten. The Dow is up 248 points. This is NPR News. There's been a lot of attention on loneliness lately.

16% of Americans report feeling lonely all or most of the time. The former Surgeon General even declared a loneliness epidemic. On It's Been a Minute, we're launching a new series called All the Lonely People, diving deep into how loneliness shows up in our lives and how our culture shapes it. That's on the It's Been a Minute podcast on NPR.