NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-07-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

NPR News: 08-07-2025 4PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump has signed an executive order that could open the door for 401K retirement plans to include alternative investments like real estate and even digital assets. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports Trump and his family have a growing business interest in cryptocurrency. The executive order instructs cabinet officials and financial regulators to determine the next steps to change regulations. The new types of assets, including private equity and cryptocurrency, are considered riskier than traditional 401K investments than stocks and bonds. Trump's family has a growing financial interest in cryptocurrency in particular. They started a digital assets business, World Liberty Financial last year, and Trump's social media company also announced earlier this year they were raising billions to purchase Bitcoin. The price of Bitcoin jumped after news of the executive order broke. Danielle Kurtzleben and PR News.

While the Trump administration looks to reshape. retirement savings, it's also taking a tougher stance on trade. A new round of tariffs kicked in today on major U.S. trading partners. NPR Scott Horsley reports that could mean higher prices on everyday items, including coffee. For the last four months, the U.S. has been charging a 10% tax on most of what we import. As of today, that's going to 15% on goods from Europe, Japan, South Korea. Even higher tax rates are taking effect on goods from countries like the Philippines, Switzerland, and South Africa. The tax on many Canadian goods jumped to 35% last week, and the president just imposed a 50% tax on goods from Brazil, which is the world's number one

coffee producer. That's NPR's Scott Horsley reporting. Forecasters, expect up to 18 storms could form during this year's Atlantic hurricane season. NPR's Rebecca Hersher reports that's a little higher than normal. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through the of November, but most storms usually form during the second half known as peak hurricane season. There have been four named storms so far this year. Forecasters expect at least nine more, of which at least five are expected to be full-blown hurricanes as opposed to tropical storms, which have less intense winds, but can still cause catastrophic flooding, even in places that are far from the coast. Last year, Hurricane Helene devastated swathes of the southeast, including

areas hundreds of miles from where the storm made landfall. Hersher, NPR News. A federal judge in Miami has temporarily halted construction at an immigration center in the Florida Everglades, while environmental groups challenge the project. They argue the facility, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, was built without public input or environmental review. The Trump administration says federal law doesn't apply since the state owns and operates the site. This is NPR News in Washington. A majority of adults across the country say they're concerned about the cost of food. Many young people feel that cooking is a lost or inaccessible skill.

But as NPR's Anastasia Seleucus reports, a new generation of home cooks is teaching audiences on social media how to make cheap and easy recipes. Online, Matthew Bounds, goes by your barefoot neighbor. Every day in August, we're cooking an easy shortcut recipe for Back to School's With over 4 million followers, he's become famous for affordable, accessible meals like a chicken casserole with cream of celery soup and dehydrated gravy mix. His followers swap recipe tips, but they also have built a community that gives back in real life. When Bounds led a food drive for the Knox Pride Food Pantry in Tennessee, 15,000 packages of food

arrived. And Bounds has become a best-selling cookbook author. His latest is called Keep It Simple, y'all. Anastasi A Silucus and Pierre News, New York. A new online safety tool is being rolled out to spot possible predators in one of the Internet's most popular playgrounds for kids. The company behind Roblox says it's using artificial intelligence to detect predatory language in chat rooms. It's called Sentinel, and it's designed to flag early signs of grooming and other threats. The move comes as Roblox faces criticism and lawsuits over whether it's doing enough to protect young users. I'm Windsor-Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.