NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-09-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

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Since Donald Trump took office in January, a lot has happened. The White House Budget Office ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans. The impact of the Trump administration's tariffs is already being felt in President Trump's efforts to radically remake the federal government. The NPR Politics Podcast covers it all. Keep up with what's happening in Washington and beyond with the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day. Live from NPR News in Washington, I with the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear.

Global markets shuddered, and it appears the Trump administration blinked. US stocks soared today after the administration said it would temporarily back off on steep reciprocal tariffs for 90 days for most countries. Stocks were moving into bear market territory today and a bond sell-off was underway. Trump had a different explanation for his decision.

You have to have flexibility. I could say, here's a wall and I'm going to go through that wall. I'm going to go through it no matter what. Keep going and you can't go through the wall. Sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall, around the wall or over the wall. The administration is keeping auto tariffs in place as well as 25 percent tariffs on some goods from Canada and Mexico. The two countries would not be subject to the 10 percent tariffs on goods that will be in effect for others.

One major exception, China, where Trump has raised tariffs to 125 percent after Beijing retaliated with tariffs of its own. For Wall Street, one of the best days in history in reaction to the move, the Dow was up nearly 3,000 points. Many small business owners across the U.S. are breathing a sigh of relief after President Trump's push of the pause button, but as NPR's Windsor Johnston reports, companies that rely on factories in China are bracing for a big hit. Casey Ames is the owner of Harkla, an Idaho based company that specializes in developmental and sensory products for kids with special needs.

He says the majority of his goods are manufactured in China and shifting to domestic production is not an option. We've tried to look to manufacture in the U.S. before and it's just end product ends up being not working for our customers. Hopefully we can try and bring back to America or keep this going, but there's a lot of U.S. small businesses that are just going to get decimated by this new policy. Domestic production costs far exceed those in countries like China, leaving many small business owners in the U.S. squeezed between soaring tariffs and unsustainable overhead. Windsor-Johnston, NPR News.

The first operational satellites for Amazon's new space-based internet service are set to take flight tonight from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Center. Central Florida Public Media's Brendan Byrne reports. Commercial company United Launch Alliance is giving the satellites their boost into orbit on an Atlas V rocket. It's the first batch of more than 3,200 satellites Jeff Bezos' company Amazon plans to place in orbit. It's called Project Kuiper, which aims to blanket the globe with internet access.

Amazon has planned roughly 80 more launches to get the system up and running. Project Kuiper joins other space-based internet constellations like SpaceX and Elon Musk's Starlink, which has more than 7,000 satellites in orbit. These so-called mega constellations have drawn criticism over concerns they could create additional space debris or interfere with astronomical observations. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando. Looking at Wall Street, the NASDAQ was up more than 12 percent today. You're listening to NPR. Dozens of people gathered today at a forensic institute in the Dominican Republic hoping

for news about their loved ones following the collapse of a well-known nightclub there. The collapse of the roof of the Jet Set Club in Santo Domingo earlier this week is now being blamed for the deaths of at least 124 people, though fewer than half the victims have been identified so far. Hundreds of others were hurt. Officials say they still have not been able to identify dozens of bodies of those killed when the roof gave way.

The price of U.S. postal stamps may be going up again beginning this summer. U.S. Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR, says a price increase is needed to help stabilize the federal mail agency's finances. More from NPR's Hansi LeWong. USPS is proposing to raise the price of a first-class forever stamp to 78 cents. That's about a 7% increase sent to start July 13th if the Postal Regulatory Commission gives a green light. USPS says this and other proposed price hikes are part of its reorganization plan for addressing its long-standing financial problems.

The Bolsa service generally receives no tax dollars to fund its operations. It relies instead on selling stamps and other service fees at a time when its most profitable kind of mail is on the decline, with fewer people and businesses using first-class mail to send letters, bills, payments, and advertising. To cut costs, USPS rolled out changes to delivery times this month that may slow down mail for some rural communities. More delivery time changes are set to start in July. Anzila Wang, NPR News, Washington. Crypto futures prices bounce back from four-year lows onward of the 90-day tariff pause even

as the administration has raised tariffs on China. Oil settled at $62.35 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Psychologist Dolly Chugg studies the lengths we will go to protect the way we see ourselves. We care about whether we're seen as a good person, whether others see us as a good person, and whether we feel like good people. Ideas about our self-image. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.