NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-09-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. To put it in perspective, today's announcement by the Trump administration is putting in place a global pause on new reciprocal tariffs against most countries sent U.S. markets to some of their biggest one-day gains in history. The Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P all soared on the news. The Dow was up nearly 3,000 points, a gain of 7.87 percent. The Nasdaq rose 12 percent. The S&P was up nine and a half percent. In an escalation, President Trump is upping tariffs on Chinese imports, but as mentioned he is pausing steep new

tariffs he'd imposed on other nations, at least for the next 90 days. In the meantime, imports from all over the world will still face a 10 percent across the board tax. MPR's Tamara Kreith reports it marks a sharp reversal for the president. In a post on social media, Trump said the pause would allow time to negotiate new trade deals with dozens of countries. This came just a day after the White House insisted the president wasn't considering a pause.

And just hours after, Trump implored people to stay cool while markets continued a multi-day freefall. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant explained the shift this way. It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate. It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment. Besant said Trump wants to be personally involved in negotiating bespoke trade deals with each country. Tamar Keith, NPR News.

The administration is backing off plans to impose export controls on semiconductor chips popular in China, more from NPR's Bobby Allen. Chip industry analysts were expecting the Trump administration to announce new curbs on a chip known as the H-20, the most advanced chip U.S. companies can legally sell to China. But the California-based maker of the chip, NVIDIA, lobbied against it. NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang attended a million-dollar-ahead dinner at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, where Huang promised new U.S. investments in AI data centers. That's according to two sources familiar who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Since the dinner, the White House has paused its plan crackdown on the chips. The move comes despite the Trump administration's ongoing trade war with China, including a 125 percent tariff on Chinese imports. Bobby Allen, NPR News. The head of the IRS is stepping down. Here's NPR's Scott Horsley. Melanie Krause is the third IRS leader to quit the tax collection agency since President Trump took office.

News of her departure comes shortly after the Treasury Department agreed to allow immigration officials to use some taxpayer data in their search for people who are in the country illegally. IRS data has traditionally been closely guarded, even from other government agencies. Critics say the new agreement likely violates data privacy laws and may discourage immigrants without legal status from filing tax returns. A Treasury spokesperson says the Trump administration is quote, breaking down data silos, adding that sharing taxpayer information will help to identify waste and fraud and The Mind's Safety You're listening to NPR.

An Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza has killed at least 23 people. That's according to officials with the Gaza Health Ministry. Officials there say nearly half the dead were women and children. At least 40 others were injured. The Israeli military says it was targeting a senior Hamas militant who it said was behind other attacks. Just as President Trump called for more production, use of coal, the agency's responsible for the health and safety of coal miners suspended efforts to protect them from deadly black

lung disease. NPR's Howard Burkett says more. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has announced a four-month delay in enforcement of tough new limits on coal miner exposure to silica dust, which is blamed for an epidemic of severe black lung disease. NPR and its partner news organizations have documented more than 4,000 cases of advanced black lung disease, which is incurable and fatal. At the same time, the Department of Health and Human Services suspended indefinitely the testing of coal miners for black lung. That means miners with

early stages of disease won't know it's growing inside them and won't be able to take steps to keep it from getting worse. For NPR News, I'm Howard Burkus. Soil and rock samples are turned to Earth from the far side of the moon are showing it may be drier than the side that consistently faces the Earth. Chinese scientists reported the findings today while cautioning more samples are needed. China has become the first country to return samples from the moon's far side last year. A spacecraft scooped up volcanic rock and dirt from an ancient impact basin. Researchers then used electron microscopes to analyze the samples. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.