NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-04-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

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Hey, everybody, it's Ian and Mike, the hosts of How to Do Everything. That's the show where we take your questions and find overqualified experts to answer them. Alex asked us to write his out-of-office email message. But we don't know how to write, so we called up U.S. Poet Laureate Adilimon. Is this National Public Radio? Sort of. Technically, yes. Season two just dropped.

Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s encountering bipartisan pushback from the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon over his vaccine skepticism and availability of COVID vaccines. One of the most combative exchanges was between him and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. You just changed the classification of the COVID vaccine. I'm not taking them away from people, Senator. It takes it away if you can't get it from your pharmacists. Well, most Americans are going to be able to get it from their pharmacy.

pharmacy for free. Most Americans will be able to get it from their pharmacy free. The question is everyone who wants that that was your promise. I never promised that I was going to recommend products with which there is no indication. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who was crucial in Kennedy's confirmation, also challenged Kennedy over his decision to cancel contracts related to COVID vaccines and high-profile departures from the CDC. Two former top officials at the National Institutes of Health have filed a whistleblower complaint, charging the administration retaliated against them for resisting attempts to undermine vaccines and other scientific research. Here's NPR's Rob Stein. The former director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Jean Marazzo,

filed the complaint along with the former director of the NIH's Fowardy International Center, Dr. Kathleen New Zeal. In the filing with the Independent Office of Special Counsel, the pair charged the Trump administration illegally retaliated against them for pushing back against the cancellation of critical research, politicizing scientific studies, and taking hostile moves against vaccines. In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon defended the administration's actions. Rob Stein, NPR News. Campbell says new tariffs are accounting for a growing share of its costs, expecting to offset them in part by raising prices. NPR's Alina Selyuk reports the food giant is particularly affected by President Trump's tariffs on the steel and aluminum needed to make cans for soups. Campbell says tariffs are expected to account for about 4% of its cost of goods sold over the next fiscal year. That's hundreds of millions of dollars and costs.

The company says it faces tariffs on various products. One is Reyes pasta sauce, which relies on imports from Italy. And the big one is steel used for soup cans. President Trump has added a new 50% tariff on steel. And Campbell's executives say there's simply not a way to source the needed amount of steel in the United States. So they have to import this key raw material. The company expects to cover these new costs in part by negotiating with suppliers, improving productivity, finding other cost savings, but also, quote, surgical and responsible price increases.

Alina Selyu, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban say hundreds more bodies have been recovered from mountain village homes in eastern Afghanistan, pushing the earthquake death toll past 2,200. Most are in Kunar province. A magnitude 6.0 tumbler struck Sunday. First responders and aid workers are reporting remote villages have been cut off by landslides that were caused by the quake.

They say the rough terrain is hindering relief efforts. Local authorities deployed helicopters and airdropped Army commandos to try to help survivors. The Baltimore Museum of Art has announced it will host Amy Sherald's retrospective American Sublime exhibit. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports, Cheryl recently canceled the show's run at the Smithsonian. Amy Sherald's boldly colored portraits of African's. American Americans have graced magazine covers. She's best known for her painting of Michelle Obama that was commissioned by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, and that's where her retrospective was set to open on September 19th. But Cheryl canceled it after she was told

her portrait of a transgender woman might need to be removed. Now American Sublime will run for five months at the Baltimore Museum of Art beginning November 2nd. President Trump has aggressively tried to reshape cultural institutions to his liking. In a recent social media post, claimed, quote, museums throughout Washington, but all over the country, are essentially the last remaining segment of Woke. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News, Washington. U.S. stocks are trading higher this hour. The Dow is up more than 200 points. It's NPR. On how to do everything, we take your questions and find phenomenal experts to answer them. Because we love you. Elizabeth asked us, how do I exercise while I'm in my car?

And because we love Elizabeth, we rang up our favorite body. Builder turned actor, turned governor, turned actor. Hello, Arnold. Hello. We're here to talk to you today from NPR. Very nice. Season two just dropped, listed to How to Do Everything from NPR.