NPR News Now - NPR News: 07-24-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The quest for information about Jeffrey Epstein is increasingly focusing on the late financier's close associate, Elaine Maxwell, the only person serving time in prison in connection with the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein. Members of Congress want her subpoenaed. The DOJ also wants answers. NPR's Domenico Montanaro reports on the politics surrounding GOP and democratic pressure on the Trump White House to release everything

the government has on Epstein, all amplified by a Wall Street Journal story. The story says that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, who told the president his name was in the files multiple times, said they felt that those files contained quote unverified hearsay. That might help explain how Trump has talked about this for more than a year. Here he was last week in the Oval Office when asked about whether he wants Bondi to release all of the files. Whatever is credible, she can release it. If a document is credible, if a document is credible, she can release it. I think it's good. NPR's Emeca Montanaro filed that story.

Columbia University will pay more than $200 million to the federal government to resolve multiple federal investigations. The settlement will restore access to billions of dollars in federal funding that includes unfreezing grants and opening opportunities for future research. Here's NPR's Alyssa Natwani. The university's acting president Claire Shipman released some

of the details of the agreement in a statement which stems from allegations by the Trump administration that the school fostered anti-Semitism on campus. Shipman said the settlement would address concerns about admissions and hiring though though she didn't provide details. And future disputes will go to an independent monitor and arbitrator, functioning as neutral third parties. She did make it very clear in her statement that Columbia will retain control over its academic and operational decisions. On Truth Social, President Trump thanked Columbia for quote, agreeing to do what is right.

He went on to say that settlements with other higher education institutions are upcoming. Alyson Adwerney and PR News. Investors are processing two very different reports from big tech companies, says Tesla's stock plummets and Google soars. And Piers Maria Aspin with more. Tesla's rocky year is getting worse. Elon Musk's electric car maker says its quarterly profits dropped 16% as sales continue to fall. It was Tesla's first earnings report since Musk left his controversial role

in the federal government. But Google is having a much better year. Parent Company Alphabet reported profit and revenue that beat analysts' expectations. Now it's planning to spend an additional $10 billion this year on capital expenditures including AI. That's NPR's Maria Aspin reporting. The Dow is down 171 points. The S&P is gained 14. The NASDAQ is up 44. It's NPR news. The maker of purisense is recalling more than 850,000 of its home fragrance diffusers. The magnets inside the detachable covers might detach and pose a danger to children if they swallow the magnets, according to a warning from the company. Six straight weeks.

That's how long the decline in unemployment claims has been running. A Labor Department report out covering the week ending July 19th shows 4,000 fewer people put in for jobless assistance in that time. That pulled down the overall figure to 217,000. A new study finds people around the world burn roughly the same amount of calories each day regardless of how active they are. NPR's Maria Godoy reports the findings offer strong evidence a diet and not a lack of exercise drives obesity. In the study an international team of researchers looked at detailed data on how many calories thousands of people around the world burned each day. Some came from places with high obesity rates, others from populations where obesity is rare. Here's Herman Poncer of Duke

University, a senior author of the study. Surprisingly, the total calories burned per day is really similar across these populations, even though the lifestyle and the activity levels are really different. Poncer says this means if office workers who sit all day aren't burning fewer calories than say nomads in Tanzania where obesity is rare, then it has to be differences in our diets that's driving weight gain. Maria Godoy, NPR News. This is NPR.

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