NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-03-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump unveiled a sweeping program of tariffs against 185 nations on Wednesday. NPR's Tamara Keith says White House officials insist the plan will work and they say it will help bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Starting Saturday, every item imported into the U.S. from every single country in the world will be hit with at least a 10% Tariff on top of that starting a week from now a long list of countries with higher barriers to trade will face even higher Tariffs so take Vietnam a country where a lot of American companies moved Manufacturing after Trump put tariffs on China in his first term according to a chart that Trump held up in the Rose Garden event, products coming into the U.S. from Vietnam would now face a tariff of 46%.

Leaders from around the world are reacting to the president's calls for a minimum tariff of 10% on all imported goods, and as many as 60 nations and trading blocs could face higher tariffs depending on their trading policy towards the U.S. The former United Kingdom trade negotiator, Crawford Falconer, said the effect the new tariffs will have depends on President Trump's true agenda. If he really wants to have those tariffs to get revenue, then it's going to be very difficult to negotiate them away. If on the other hand he really wants a deal where he improves his

market access and others improve their market access because it has to be a balanced deal, then ironically you might have an opportunity to go for something that in the end is beneficial. But that's an open question right now. The European Union is imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum products and they are also preparing a package of tariffs in response. The Education Department surprised many state leaders when it canceled their ability to spend the remaining COVID relief money they had gotten from the federal government. NPR's Jakaki Mehta reports.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told state leaders in a letter that the extensions they may have previously gotten to spend COVID relief money will no longer be honored. That means states may have already spent money they were promised from the federal government and now might not be reimbursed for it. Secretary McMahon said the spending extensions were not justified, quote, years after the COVID pandemic ended. State leaders, including Democratic Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey have spoken out against the unexpected move. Murphy says more than 20 school districts in his state

could see $85 million gone from their budget as a result. Some districts around the country are scrambling to cancel projects and school initiatives they already had in the works. Janaki Mehta, NPR News. In Myanmar, the death toll from last week's earthquake has now risen to 3,085, as officials say more bodies are being discovered by search and rescue teams. From Washington, you are listening to NPR News.

The average salary for a Major League Baseball player is top the $5 million mark for the first time ever. This according to a study by the Associated Press. The New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto is the highest paid player in the game, $62 million annually. Both the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball, $322 million for the Mets, $319 million for the Dodgers. The Miami Marlins have the lowest payroll at $65 million. Salaries in baseball increased by 3.5% year over year. Tech giant Amazon is placed a bid to acquire TikTok as the deadline nears for the video app to be sold.

As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, another group led by a software company, Oracle, appears to be favored by the White House. According to a source directly involved in the talks, Amazon has submitted a last-minute proposal to buy TikTok, but Trump officials are not taking it seriously. Instead, a coalition of American companies, including Oracle, appears to have an edge. The bidding frenzy comes days before Trump's Saturday deadline for TikTok to be sold away from its Chinese owner. Under a proposal being weighed in the White House, TikTok's algorithm could be leased

from owner ByteDance, which would still own it in Beijing. If the deal is finalized, the question becomes whether that arrangement satisfies a federal law requiring TikTok to be fully separated from China. Bobby Allen, NPR News. Large parts of the South and the Midwest are under weather alerts as forecasters are warning separated from China. Bobby Allen, NPR News.