NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-07-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. NPR has learned President Trump is expected to sign an executive order today on retirement plans, including 401ks. The order will lay out ways for investors to insert, quote, alternative assets into the financial instruments. These could include real estate and digital assets such as cryptocurrency. Stocks opened higher this morning as a new round of higher tariffs takes effect on goods from big U.S. trading partners. NPR Scott Horsley-R. reports, the Dow Jones Industrial average rose about 160 points in early trading. Goods from Europe, Japan, and South Korea now face import taxes of 15%. Tariffs on goods from many other countries are even higher. The move pushes the average tariff on imported products north of 18% compared to less than 3% at the beginning of this year. In a social media post overnight, President Trump boasted that the tariffs will raise billions of dollars for the federal government.

Economists warned the import taxes will also lead to higher prices. and slower economic growth. The Bank of England cut its benchmark interest rate today in an effort to prop up the UK's sagging economy. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to take similar action here in the U.S. next month. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. Texas State Democratic lawmakers remain out of their state.

They're trying to block any action on a Republican plan to redraw congressional districts in Texas. The GOP goal is to possibly send five more Republicans to the U.S. Congress helping secure Republican control on Capitol Hill. President Trump says the FBI might have to help locate the Texas Democrats and bring them back. But Texas Democratic Congressman Mark Vizi says that is inappropriate. It's not anything for the FBI to be involved in.

It would be absolutely crazy for the FBI to be involved in that. It would be an abuse of their authority. But U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas says the FBI has responded to his request. Cordon says the FBI will locate the Texas State Democrats and investigate what he says are offenses. The Chancellor of UCLA says the Trump administration has frozen nearly $600 million in federal research money. NPR's Corey Turner explains. Last week, the Justice Department announced UCLA had violated federal civil rights laws, saying the school had acted with, quote, deliberate indifference in creating a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students.

But it wasn't clear until this update from the school's chancellor that UCLA has had $584 million in research funding frozen. In a statement, James B. Milliken, president of the University of California, says the system has agreed to engage in dialogue with the administration, but that, quote, these cuts do nothing to address anti-Semitism. Anne Milliken says they ignore the extensive work the university has done to combat anti-Semitism. Corey Turner, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Fire officials in California say the Gifford Fire is growing. It is now scorched 150 square miles. It is only 15% contained.

There are evacuation orders now in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Officials say at least three people have been hurt in the fire. A new study finds that the deadly wildfires that devastated Los Angeles, Los Angeles last January were likely responsible for the deaths of more than 400 people. NPR's Alejandro Burunda reports that is far more than the official count. The wildfires ripped through parts of the city and doused the region in toxic smoke and ash for weeks. Andrew Stokes is a biostatistician at Boston University. He and his colleagues looked at the reported deaths across the weeks after the fire

and compared that number to the number of deaths expected without the disaster. We found that wildfires contributed to at least 440. deaths during the acute period of the LA wildfires compared to approximately 31 official deaths that were recorded over the same period. The finding suggested a substantial undercount of wildfire-related mortality in Los Angeles. Climate worsened disasters, including wildfires, are taking a bigger toll on Americans than is commonly recognized. Alejandro Burunda, NPR News.

United Airlines is clearing a backlog of flights today. The passenger airline had what it called a technology issue yesterday. More than 1,000 United flights were delayed across the country. United Airlines says the tech glitch has been fixed. This morning, the tracking site, Flightaware.com, says fewer than 10% of United flights are delayed or canceled. This is NPR.