NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-04-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

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Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life, powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is addressing the projected impact of President Trump's tariffs on the U.S. economy. It is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected. And the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation

and slower growth. Powell, speaking today at the annual conference for the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Outside Washington, D.C. Powell's focus on inflation suggests the Fed will likely keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged. On Truth, Social President Trump urged the Fed to cut rates. U.S. stocks are spending a second day in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1600 points, rather 1,672 points or more than 4%. The S&P is down 262 points

and Nasdaq is down 818 points. Trump's reciprocal tariffs on 60 countries and territories include ones large and small. NPR's Jackie Northam reports some are impoverished or uninhabited. Many of the countries on Trump's tariff target list can hardly be described as economic powerhouses working against U.S. interests. Guyana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and many others now face more than 30 percent tariffs. Lesotho, one of the world's poorest countries, is subject to 50 percent tariffs. Then there's Heard Island and McDonald Islands, a group of islands in the Antarctic whose only inhabitants are penguins and seals, facing

10 percent tariffs. It's a similar situation in the Norwegian territories of Svalbard and Jemian. And the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a population of about 5,000. It exports fish to the U.S. and is now facing 50 percent tariffs. Jackie Northam, NPR News. A group of labor unions representing federal employees is again suing the Trump administration, this time over an executive order ending collective bargaining rights for more than one million employees. Here's NPR's Andrea Hsu. The labor unions collectively represent more than 950,000 workers in the federal government.

They argue that President Trump's executive order is retaliation for lawsuits they filed seeking to block Trump's firing of federal employees and other actions. The White House says Trump has the authority to deny bargaining rights to employees at agencies whose missions involve national security. The unions point out that union employees in the government have served with distinction through multiple wars and a global health emergency and that even President Trump has never before called unions a national security concern. Now the unions are asking a federal judge to declare the executive order unlawful and block agencies from implementing it.

Andrea Hsu, NPR News. The Dow is down more than 1,500 points or nearly 4% from Washington. This is NPR news. Myanmar's supreme military leader is in Thailand for a regional summit as his country tries to recover from last Friday's devastating earthquake that killed thousands of people in and around Myanmar's second city. Michael Sullivan has more from Chiang Rai, Thailand. Senior General Minh Ong Long's trips outside the country are infrequent, as he's been shunned by most of the international community, as Myanmar faces sanctions for its 2021 coup against a democratically elected government and the brutal civil war that's followed.

His only other trips since the coup have been to the military's patrons, including Russia and China. But the Thai government has allowed his attendance at this meeting of nations that border the Bay of Bengal, including India and Bangladesh. He held meetings on the sidelines of the summit with leaders of both Thailand and India. Myanmar's military says it's observing a three-week ceasefire in the civil war to help with recovery efforts. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai. That region is well also stands to be affected by new U.S. tariffs. Today President Trump said that he had spoken with General Thu Lam, leader of Vietnam's

Communist Party, about potentially making a deal on tariffs. Trump is proposing 46% levies on imports from Vietnam starting Wednesday as part of the sweeping new tariff regime he announced this week. Trump said on social media that Lamquot told him that Vietnam wants to cut their tariffs down to zero if they are able to make an agreement with the US. This is NPR News. Oh, hey there. I'm Brittany Luce and I don't know maybe this is a little out of is NPR News.