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Windsor Johnston
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The U.S. supreme Court is allowing President Trump to move ahead with his plans to dismantle the Department of Education and lay off near 1,400 people. The Trump administration had asked the justices to block a lower court ruling that directed the department to reinstate employees who were fired. In a post on social media tonight, Trump called the ruling a, quote, major victory. Search and rescue efforts across Central Texas are being hampered by additional rain more than a week after catastrophic flooding devastated the region. Governor Greg Abbott says officials have been working to find temporary shelter for people who lost their homes. The state working with local officials to address those needs. There's also infrastructure around those people that make living where they are or accessing their home either difficult or impossible. The death toll has risen to at least 131. While President Trump threatens Mexico with new 30% tariffs, a new tax on Mexican tomatoes has now gone into effect. NPR's Ada Peralta reports. The U.S. is imposing an almost 21% tax on the fruit.
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Ada Peralta
This new tax is going to have wide ranging repercussions on both sides of the border. Mexico exports about 90% of its tomatoes to the United States, and by some estimates, some 70% of tomatoes eaten in the United States come from Mexico. Economists say the new tariffs will lead Mexico to produce fewer tomatoes this winter and American consumers could pay up to 10% more for tomatoes at the supermarket. Lawmakers in Texas and Arizona lobbied the Trump administration to walk away from the tariffs, saying it could cost thousands of jobs in their states. AL but the Trump administration says this tax will help American producers who they say have been unfairly priced out of the tomato market by Mexican producers. Ader Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.
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Windsor Johnston
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, says his company will invest hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence computing power. NPR's John Ruich reports. The money is going into giant data centers.
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John Ruich
Zuckerberg said online that Facebook's parent company is building several multi gigawatt clusters, basically huge data centers that consume a gigawatt or more of power. A gigawatt is enough electricity for roughly three quarters of a million homes. The first of these massive data centers is being called Prometheus, after the figure in Greek mythology who defied the gods and gave fire to humanity. Zuckerberg says it's coming online next year. Another one is named after the Greek titan Hyperion associated with the rising sun. That one's slated to be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts. Meta and others have been pouring money into a cutthroat competition to attract the personnel and build out the computing power to lead the AI race. John Ruich, NPR News.
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Windsor Johnston
At the close on Wall street, the dow was up 88 points. This is NPR News. In Washington. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a third party run for mayor of New York City. Cuomo says he'll run as an independent after losing last month's Democratic primary. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams is also running a third party bid in the fall. Cuomo stepped down as governor in 2021 after he was accused of sexual harassment. Mystery author Martin Cruz Smith has died. He had a decades long career publishing more than 30 books, but he was best known for his 1981 bestseller Gorky park, which followed Detective Arkady Renko, Smith's most famous character. He was 82 years old. NPR's Andrew Limbong has this remembrance.
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Andrew Limbong
Whether he was writing about the Soviet Union in the 80s, Japan in the 40s, or Cuba in the 90s, Martin Cruz Smith's writing was always deeply researched and reported because facts were fodder for complicated characters. For Smith, here he is talking to NPR in 2002.
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Windsor Johnston
Complicated characters are not more difficult to write.
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John Ruich
They're easier to write because you're I'm interested.
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Windsor Johnston
I'm engaged and fascinated. What else? What else deliciously bad could this character do?
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Andrew Limbong
Smith was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1995, a disease he shares with his star character, Arkady Renko. The two capped their relationship together just earlier this month with the release of Smith's final book, Hotel Ukraine. Andrew Limbaugh, NPR News.
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Windsor Johnston
Stocks traded higher today on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 88 points, closing at 44,459. The Nasdaq composite rose 54 points, the S&P up 8. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.
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