NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-04-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

NPR News: 09-04-2025 6PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. President Trump's nominee to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve says he doesn't plan to leave his position as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors if he gets the job. At his Senate Banking confirmation hearing, Stephen Myron says there's precedent for his decision. I have received advice from counsel that what is required is an unpaid leave of absence from the Council of Economic Advisors. and so considering the term for which I'm being nominated is a little bit more than four months. That is what I will be taking. But Democratic Senator Jack Reed, a member of the committee, slammed the idea. You're going to be an employee in the president of the United States on Lee.

So he can call you up in his capacity as president said, here, I want you to do this, this and this. Well, I guess I have to do it since I'm an employee to the president. That is absolutely ridiculous. Trump nominated Myron last month to finish out the term of former Fed governor, Adriana Coogler's 14-year term, which ends in January. Two former top officials at the National Institutes of Health have filed a whistleblower complaint, charging the Trump administration retaliated against them for resisting attempts to undermine vaccines and other scientific research. M.P.R.'s Rob Stein has more.

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 Fordy 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. Silicon Valley's top executives will be heading to the White House tonight for a dinner with the president. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, it comes as the Trump administration pursues multiple antitrust cases against big tech. Menas Mark Zuckerberg, apples, Tim Cook, and Google's Sundar Pichai are set to join President Trump. It's a photo op the industry wants, regulation-wary tech leaders playing nice with the Trump administration. In federal courts around the country, the administration's tone is far more. more combative. Trump's federal agencies are pressing on with cases against meta, Apple, Google, and Amazon seeking to rein in big tech's market power. Some analysts have asked, what exactly

is the tech industry getting by cozying up to the Trump administration? One person who won't be asked that is billionaire Elon Musk, the former White House advisor who was not invited to the dinner. Bobby Allen and PR News. Wall Street hire by the closing bell, the Dow up 350 points, NASDAQ up 209, that's up 1%. The SB 500 up 53. You're listening to NPR News. There's a flood of new music on this week's Billboard charts. And here, Stephen Thompson brings us some of the highlights. This week, four new albums crack the Billboard Top 10 for the first time,

led by the K-pop boy band Stray Kids at number one. Three very different albums round out this week's top 10 debuts, rapper Big X the Plug has a country album There's a new record by the hard rock band Deftones And though you don't usually hear her immediately after Deftones The singer Leve scores her first ever top ten album Stephen Thompson Stephen Thompson, NPR News

Legendary fashion designer, Giorgio Armani, has died. No cause of death was given, but he had been sick for some time and canceled his appearance at Milan's Men's Fashion Week in June. That was the first time he missed one of his catwalk events. Armani founded his company in 1975, and three years later, he designed the outfit Diane Keaton wore to the Oscars in 1978 when she won best actress for her role in Annie Hall. But his breakout, that came in 1980 when he designed the suits actor Richard gear war in American Gigolo. After that, his company expanded into a global empire selling everything from hautechure to streetwear to eyeglasses, shoes, and housewares. He was 91 years old. This is NPR.