NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-03-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

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Am I a propagandist? A truth teller? An influencer? There's probably no more contested profession in the world today than mine, journalism. I'm Brian Reed, and on my show, Question Everything, we dive head first into the conflicts we're all facing over truth and who gets to tell it. Listen now to Question Everything, part of the NPR Podcast Network. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump announced a sweeping plan to apply a 10% tariff on all imports coming into the United States. NPR's Franco Ordonios reports a list of countries will also face additional reciprocal tariffs. Some countries will face reciprocal tariffs

as high as 49% and what some experts describe as the most aggressive changes to U.S. trade policy in decades. President Trump announced the plan during a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House. This is one of the most important days in my opinion in American history. It's our declaration of economic independence. U.S. officials say the 10 percent tariffs will start April 5th. About 60 countries will face additional customized reciprocal tariffs starting on April 9th. Trump boasted the plan would supercharge the industrial base and boost government revenues.

But most economists warned that tariffs will raise prices for consumers and could hurt the economy. Franco Ordonez, NPR News. The CEO of Boeing is acknowledging that the aerospace giant made his word serious mistakes that hurt the quality and safety of aircraft. But as David Schaper reports, he's promising the company will improve. Under questioning from members of the Senate Commerce Committee, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg admits production flaws and lax oversight led to a door plug blowing out of an Alaska Airlines 737 in flight in January of last

year. Boeing made serious missteps in recent years and it's unacceptable. In response we've made sweeping changes to the people, processes and overall structure of our company. Changes that Ortberg says will improve the quality and safety of Boeing planes. But family members of those killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes want the company held accountable for its design and production flaws and for deceiving safety regulators. For NPR News, I'm David Schaper.

A large part of the south and the Midwest are facing violent weather as an area from central Texas to upstate New York could see tornadoes, thunderstorms and hail. An EF-1 tornado struck in Vernon County, Missouri Wednesday. That's along the border with Kansas. The tornado had winds of nearly 100 miles per hour, stayed on the ground for 17 miles. Rahman Austin is a witness. He ran for cover. It got real quiet and then you hear just like they say that that that train that sound without the whole without the whistle just that and it got louder and louder. The county

sheriff there says there are no deaths and only minor damage to property in that area on Wall Street as Wall Street waits to open Thursday morning ahead of the news on tariffs, stock futures are down on all three indexes. The Dow has dropped 873 percent, 873 points for 2 percent. The NASDAQ is down 685, 3.5 percent. This is NPR News. Tesla said Wednesday that sales of its electric vehicles dropped by 13% in the first quarter of the year,

and the company delivered 336,000 vehicles, making this the worst showing since the second quarter of 2022. According to Bloomberg News, analysts had been expecting the company to sell 390,000 cars and trucks. The weaker-than-expected demand is likely due to a combination of factors, including more competition from other automakers for a share of the electric vehicle market, its

aging lineup of vehicles, and backlash from consumers over Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his decision to take a visible role in the Trump administration. A pair of baby eagles in the mountains east of Los Angeles is star on a 24-hour live stream. Now they have names. From member station KCVR in San Bernardino, Madison Omet reports. The winning names for the eaglets are Sunny for the bigger one and Gizmo for the smaller one. They're both just under a foot tall.

Sandy Steers, who operates the livestream, organized the eaglet naming. She narrowed down the list of 50,000 suggestions to 30 and let local elementary school students near the nest in Big Bear select the two winners. I think they're fun and I like that the kids, so many of them voted for the same name. Steers says the next milestone for Sunnyny and Gizmo is flight. That could be as soon as mid-May. For NPR News, I'm Madison Aumann in San Bernardino.

The average salary for a Major League Baseball player is top $5 million for the first time, this according to a survey done by the Associated Press. From Washington, this is NPR. Support for, listen to this podcast sponsor free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership This is NPR.