NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-13-2025 8AM 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 Korova Coleman. President Trump welcomes India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House today. The two leaders are expected to discuss the effects of tariffs on both nations.

NPR's Amkar Khandekar has more. India's Narendra Modi is one of the first foreign leaders to meet with Trump since he returned to the White House, which Indian officials hope is a sign of India's importance to Washington. Modi enjoyed a close relationship with the president during his first term. Trump has complained about high Indian tariffs, and analysts say he would want India to balance their $50 billion trade surplus by purchasing arms and investing in the U.S. The Indian government appears to seek more avenues for legal migration to the U.S.

Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, Mumbai. President Trump has been talking this morning about tariffs. Writing online, he says, quote, today is the big one, reciprocal tariffs. He's long fumed about other nations that put taxes on American goods exported to their nations. Trump claims this will make things more fair. Any retaliatory tariffs would come on top of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports that Trump declared this week.

Meanwhile, Mexico says it is not yet ready to slap retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. and Piers Eder-Peralta reports Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is trying a diplomatic route first. Sheinbaum says instead of beginning a trade war by announcing retaliatory measures, she wants U.S. and Mexican officials to talk.

Indeed, she said Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente is set to speak to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The Mexican government is betting the increased tariffs on aluminum and steel announced by President Trump will never take effect. The government has called them unjust, in part because Mexico runs a trade deficit with the U.S. Shane Baum says Mexico is ready to talk and negotiate. We're ready for coordination and collaboration, she said, but without interference or subordination.

Ada Peralta in Pia News, Mexico City. President Trump's choice to be education secretary will be questioned today in her Senate confirmation hearing. Linda McMahon is best known for leading world wrestling entertainment for decades. She has scant experience in education. Nevertheless, NPO's Janaki Mehta says Trump wants her to dismantle the federal education agency. First of all, the elimination of the department would require an act of Congress.

But McMahons confirmed her first order of business will probably be to slim the department down further. In fact, on Tuesday, President Trump said he hopes she will work herself out of a job. And Piers Janaki-Metha reporting. The full Senate is set to hold a confirmation vote today on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Health and Human Services Secretary. He has already passed a Senate test vote. Senate Democrats have strongly opposed Kennedy. They cite his years of work against vaccines.

You're listening to NPR News. President Trump says Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to Munich today. That's where Trump says Rubio will work to set up a meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine. That comes after Trump talked with Russian President Putin yesterday for an hour and a half. Trump also spoke by phone to Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky. Trump administration officials say it's unrealistic for Ukraine to retrieve all the land Russia has taken by invasion. The US Justice Department is suing New York's governor and state attorney general. This is over a state law that

makes it easier for immigrants without legal status to obtain a New York driver's license, NPR's Brian Mann explains. Just days after her Senate confirmation, Attorney General Pamela Bondi made the announcement as the lawsuit was being filed in federal court in Albany, New York. New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens.

It stops, it stops today. The DOJ lawsuit targets New York's Governor Kathy Hochul, State Attorney General Letitia James, and Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Mark Schroeder over a state law passed in 2019 that allowed migrants to obtain a driver's license using foreign documents. In a statement, Governor Hochul called the suit smoke and mirrors and said the law has already been, quote, upheld by the courts time and again. Brian Mann in PR News, New York.

Forecasters say frigid weather is blanketing the central U.S. Wind chills are below zero in the Texas Panhandle. A powerful line of storms is pulling through the south, pouring heavy rain and triggering flood watches and warnings. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News.