NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-13-2025 4AM 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 Shae Stevens. Critics of Elon Musk say the billionaire may have helped one of his own companies when he shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, CFPB was working on regulations for digital wallets as Musk's

X-platform prepared to release its own electronic payment software. It's called X Money. Musk announced last month that the service has partnered with Visa. The plan is to launch a peer-to-peer money transfer service similar to Venmo or Apple Pay. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began taking steps late last year to regulate digital wallets. Former CFPB head Richard Cordray says abolishing the agency would benefit X and Musk.

He is now engaged in businesses or looking to engage in payment businesses that would be regulated by the CFPB. At the same time, he's trying to tear down the CFPB just puts in sharp relief the conflicts of interest here. Musk in the White House did not return requests for comment. President Trump says Musk will be removed from any government work that could help any one of his six businesses. Bobbi Allen in PR News.

The U.S. Senate is set to vote today on whether to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Democrats gave speeches on the Senate floor until early this morning, hoping to convince their Republican colleagues to reject the nomination. Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as head of national intelligence yesterday, hours after her Senate confirmation, at a White House ceremony Gabbard promised to focus on what she called a mandate from voters. To refocus our intelligence community by empowering the great patriots who have chosen to serve

our country in this way and focus on ensuring the safety, security and freedom of the American people. Gembert says public trust in U.S. national intelligence has eroded because she says the agencies have been politicized and used as weapons. Last month was officially the warmest January ever. That's according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But what's worrying scientists is what was not expected, and Piers Alejandro Barrunda explains.

Piers Alejandro Barrunda Both 2023 and 2024 shattered global temperature records, primarily because of human-caused climate change. But climate scientists had expected that unusual heat to fade slightly this winter because of a natural climate cycle. That expected cool-off didn't happen. Instead, the planet was warmer than ever in January. Radley Horton is a climate scientist at Columbia University. There's a lot of concern that we may have underestimated just how hot the surface of the

ocean can get or the lower atmosphere at these current levels of greenhouse gases. Scientists around the world are trying to figure out whether the ongoing heat means something fundamental has changed in Earth's climate. Alejandra Burundat, NPR News. This is NPR. The city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland are suing the company Glock Inc. for making pistols they say can be modified to operate like semi-automatic guns. The lawsuit accuses Glock of facilitating the proliferation of illegal weapons.

Baltimore police say they recovered more than 100 modified guns in 2023 and last year. Wildlife rehabilitators are changing protocols amid ongoing efforts to monitor H5 avian influenza across the U.S. From member station KBIA, Anna Spital has more from Columbia, Missouri. At the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, injured birds of prey are brought in by teams of transporters and rehabilitated at the on-site Raptor Hospital. But director of rehabilitation Kira Klebe says avian influenza means more birds coming into the hospital have been dying.

Nationwide for raptor species, there have really only been a handful of survivors at facilities anywhere, which is really sad to see. Klebe says raptors can contract the virus by eating infected prey and recommends calling state agencies to report any dead birds. She also says the sanctuary no longer recommends directly touching injured birds, but instead contacting wildlife rescues who can safely assist injured wildlife. For NPR News, I'm Anna Spital in Columbia, Missouri. And Honda and Nissan have ended their merger talks.

The Japanese automakers announced in December that they were planning to set up a joint holding company. In a statement today, both say they will continue collaborating on electric vehicles, but did not indicate why the merger talks failed. This is NPR. Planet Money is there. From California's most expensive fires ever. That was my home home. Yeah. I grew up there. It's ashes. To the potentially largest deportation in U.S. history.

They're going to come to the businesses. They're going to come to the restaurants. They're going to come here. Planet Money. We go to the places at the center of the story. The Planet Money podcast from NPR.