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This message comes from Snap Judgment. Their new series, A Tiny Plot, follows a group of homeless people in Oakland as they fight to create their own encampment run by their own rules. It's a bold experiment in freedom and community. Listen to Snap Judgment wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Herbst. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a Senate hearing today that the country's major medical and scientific groups can't be trusted. Senator Salina Simmons-Duffin reports he's clashed with these groups for years as an anti-vaccine activist. Since being sworn in as the country's top health official, Secretary Kennedy has canceled

millions of dollars for vaccine research, had his own CDC director fired, and limited the FDA approval for the latest COVID-19 booster. In the Senate Finance Committee hearing, Kennedy explained his theory for why groups, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, have been critical of these moves. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics is gravely conflicted. They get their biggest contributors of the four largest vaccine makers. The AAP said that was false and misleading, that less than 4% of their revenue comes from industry, and that pediatricians support vaccines because they are safe and they work to protect children's health. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington. President Trump plans to sign an executive

of order tomorrow, renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. That would return the department to what it was called for much of its history until it was renamed in the wake of World War II. The White House says the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth could use the title, Secretary of War. The White House says it's lowering tariffs on Japanese automobiles as well as removing tariffs on Japanese aircraft exports. And Pierre's Danielle Kurtzleben has more. The White House now says that tariffs on Japanese cars will be reduced from 27.5% to 15%. In addition, several tariffs Trump had imposed, like those on steel and aluminum, will no longer apply to some Japanese aircraft.

The executive order also says Japan is giving the U.S. greater market access for some of its exports, and that Japan has promised to invest more than $550 billion in the U.S. However, there has been no binding agreement between the two countries, meaning details are still unknown. President Trump has announced several trade framework agreements with other countries, but none are finalized. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News, the White House. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. is designating two Ecuadorian gangs blamed for much of the violence that has flared since the pandemic started as foreign terrorist organizations. And he says the U.S. is moving to boost cooperation with Ecuador. This time, we're not just going to hunt for drug dealers with a little fastboats and say, let's try to arrest them.

No, the president has said he wants to wage war on these groups because they've been waging war on us for 30 years and no one has responded. But there's no need to do that in many cases with the friendly governments because the friendly governments are going to help us. They may do it themselves. Rubio will meet with Ecuadorian leaders this week.

U.S. futures contracts are trading higher at last check. You're listening to NPR News. Solar flares may be more than six times hotter than scientists previously thought. NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boise reports a new analysis says they could be over 100 million degrees Fahrenheit. Solar flares are bright bursts of light on the sun that happen when magnetic energy gets released and dumped into ions and electrons. Alexander Russell is with the University of St. Andrews. He says in the past, telescopes have measured the temperature of just the electrons.

And we've kind of just assumed, well, the ion temperature would be the same as the electron temperature. But new research suggests that ions get heated up a lot more strongly. And when that's taken into account, their calculations in astrophysical journal letters show that solar flares could be as hot as 180 million degrees Fahrenheit. Better understanding of solar flares and related phenomena could help protect satellites and even astronauts from harmful particles and radiation. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. An 18th century painting that's been missing for some 80 years,

has finally been recovered. The portrait of a lady belonged to a prominent Jewish art collector before it was stolen by Nazis in World War II. But it was spotted in a recent real estate listing of a property for sale in Argentina. Dutch journalists made the discovery as they investigated a high-ranking official from Germany's Third Reich, who fled to Argentina after World War II. Wall Street higher by the closing bell, the Dow up 350 points, NASDAQ, up 209. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

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