NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-13-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

NPR News: 02-13-2025 9AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts, perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington on Korova Coleman, the Senate is expected to vote this morning on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. And Pierce Selena Simmons-Duffin has more. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of President Trump's most controversial cabinet nominations

because he's built his personal fortune and reputation, sowing doubts about the safety of vaccines. As health secretary, he will oversee federal vaccine policy. Kennedy faced opposition from the political right because of his past support for abortion rights and from the left because of his decades of espousing conspiracy theories about vaccines

and also about HIV and Lyme disease and more. Democratic senators railed against his nomination for hours on the Senate floor yesterday, but he's expected to have enough votes to win confirmation today. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington. President Trump says he talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes yesterday. Trump says he is seeking to end the war in Ukraine. And he says he's going to meet Putin probably in Saudi Arabia. But he didn't say when.

Trump also talked yesterday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is at a NATO defense minister's meeting in Brussels today where he praised Trump. There's one man in the world capable of convening the parties together to bring peace, and that's President Donald Trump, which he demonstrated yesterday in speaking to both Vladimir Putin and Zelensky and bringing about, we believe, a durable, lasting peace on the continent. The war started when Russia invaded Ukraine. There's alarm in Europe that President Trump could try to settle it on Russia's

terms. Ukrainian President Zelensky is warning no peace talks can happen without Ukrainian participation. European leaders are also demanding a seat at any negotiations. Relatives of three deported Venezuelan migrants who are being held at Guantanamo Bay are suing the Trump administration. And Pierre Sergio Martinez Beltran reports the families are demanding that the government let the detainees have access to lawyers.

The lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs say the Trump administration is thwarting access to counsel for immigrants in detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They also say the government is holding the immigrants incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world. The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families and four immigrant rights groups, says it wants to ensure immigrants can meet with lawyers.

The Trump administration has said it's sending to Guantanamo the worst criminals. They are in maximum security there. However, some of those being sent to the barracks facility reportedly include migrants who do not have criminal records. Sergio Martinez Beltran, NPR News, Austin. You're listening to NPR News. Authorities in Germany say at least 28 people have been hurt after a man drove into a crowd You're listening to NPR News. Authorities in Germany say at least 28 people have been hurt after a man drove into a crowd of people. They were attending a protest march for a trade union.

Officials say the driver is an asylum seeker from Afghanistan. They believe this was an attack. An atmospheric river is bringing a lot of rain to Southern California today. Officials are worried it will fall heavily on areas burned to the ground by recent wildfires that could trigger dangerous mudslides. Sea turtles can migrate thousands of miles to lay eggs on the beaches where they hatched themselves. Just how they manage this feat of navigation has been a mystery. NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports a new study in the journal Nature suggests

the turtles can learn the magnetic signatures of their beaches. Sea turtles can sense the Earth's magnetic field, and scientists suspect that they make magnetic maps in their brains to navigate. But to use such a map, turtles would need to be able to learn the unique magnetic signature of a specific place, something scientists have struggled to demonstrate. To show this, a research team exposed turtles to two magnetic fields mimicking specific locations, but only fed them in one. Then, researchers exposed the turtles to each magnetic field without food. Captive sea turtles perform a dance when they get food and the researchers found that turtles danced more often in response to the magnetic field where they were fed. This shows that the turtles had indeed

learned that specific magnetic spot on the map. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. And I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News from Washington. At the Super Bowl halftime show, Kendrick Lamar indeed performed his smash diss track NPR News from Washington.