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- [00:00]
Catherine Marr
When you walk into NPR headquarters, one of the first things you see is a big map of the country covered with little blue dots. Each dot represents a local public radio station. That's the NPR network. I'm Catherine Marr, CEO of npr. With federal funding for public media eliminated, your network is under serious threat. Help us plan for the road ahead at donate.npr.org live from NPR News.
- [00:27]
Jeanine Herbst
I'm Jeanine Herbst. President Trump is firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This comes hours after the federal agency released weaker than expected jobs numbers. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has more in.
- [00:40]
Hansi Lo Wang
A post on his social media platform about Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erica McIntarfer. President Trump says he has, quote, directed my team to fire this Biden political appointee immediately, unquote. McIntarfer is a labor economist whose term at the Bureau of Labor Statistics was not set to end until early 2028. Federal law, however, allows presidents to remove commissioners of labor statistics before their four year term is up to hours. Before Trump's announcement, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new numbers showing a slowdown in the job market that many economists fear would be driven by uncertainty over Trump's push for more import taxes through his tariff policy data. Experts have also raised concerns about the integrity of US Government statistics under this Trump administration, which has been slashing positions and programs at statistical agencies. An Zila Wang, NPR News, Washington.
- [01:24]
Jeanine Herbst
Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accomplice and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas comes a week after she met with a top Justice Department official. NPR's Ryan Lucas has more.
- [01:39]
Ryan Lucas
Maxwell is serving a 20 year sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit underage girls. She had been held at a federal lockup in Florida, but the federal Bureau of Prison says Maxwell has now been transferred to a lower security prison camp in Bryan, Texas. No reason was given for the move, but it comes after Maxwell's meeting last week with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as President Trump's personal attorney. The Justice Department has not provided any details on the meeting, which was behind closed doors. Maxwell's attorney, though, has said she answered every question from Blanche over two days. The meeting was part of the Trump administration's effort to tamp down public uproar over its handling of the Epstein files. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
- [02:22]
Jeanine Herbst
Today brings a big change for millions of federal student loan borrowers. For the first time in a year, interest will start accruing on their loans if they're enrolled in the repayment plan known as Save. NPR's corporate Cory Turner reports.
- [02:36]
Cory Turner
SAVE is the Biden era repayment plan that was so generous, especially with loan forgiveness, that Republicans sued and the courts have so far blocked it. For a year, the 7.7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE have been in a kind of legal limbo with no interest and no payments required. But starting today, interest will once again begin accruing for these borrowers, and that means to keep loans from ballooning, the Education Department is encouraging borrowers to, quote, quickly transition to a legally compliant repayment plan. Options include an older, similar plan created by Congress known as income Based repayment, or ibr. Cory Turner, NPR News.
- [03:17]
Jeanine Herbst
Wall street sharply lower by the closing bell. The Dow down 542 points. You're listening to NPR News. A federal jury in Miami found Elon Musk's company, Tesla partly responsible for a deadly crash involving its autopilot technology and ordered Tesla to pay the victims more than 200 million DOL in punitive damages. The jury found that Tesla bore significant responsibility because its technology failed and that the reckless driver can't be held solely responsible. He says he dropped his phone and was looking for it when he hit two people. Scientists didn't know how potatoes originated until now.
- [03:59]
Ari Daniel
Ari Daniel explains researchers sequenced the genomes of wild and farmed potatoes and their relatives. They found potatoes have a balanced mix of genes from tomatoes and a small group of plants called Etuberosum, suggesting that some 9 million years ago, ancestors of these two groups interbred to create a new kind of plant, the potato, one that could do something neither parent grow tubers, the starchy blobs we eat. They're a way for a plant to persist through seasons, which are not good for growing. Sandy Knapp is a botanist at the Natural History Museum in London. She says not all interbreeding events produce winners. Often the result's a dud. But we're fortunate in this case, it was a spud. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel.
- [04:49]
Jeanine Herbst
And on Wall street, the dow was down 542 points. That's down 1.2%. The Nasdaq down 2.2%. And that's a loss of 472 points. The S&P 500 down 101 points, a loss of 1.6%. This is NPR.
- [05:04]
Cory Turner
Listen to this podcast sponsor, free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast app, by subscribing to npr news now +@pl npr.org that's + npr.org.