NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-10-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korova Coleman, the European Union says it will match President Trump and pause its pending tariffs against U.S. products for 90 days. Trump suspended some of his new tariffs yesterday, but he increased U.S. tariffs on China to 125 percent. China says it is open to negotiation, but NPR's John Ruich reports China says the U.S. first needs to change its attitude. China's Commerce Ministry spokeswoman He Yongquan says the door for talks is open. Pressure and threats are not the right way to deal with China, she says.

Dialogue must be conducted on an equal footing and on the basis of mutual respect. Beijing and Washington have been locked in a spiraling terror war with each side blaming the other and no end in sight. Trump has said China wants to make a deal but hasn't given with each side blaming the other and no end in sight. Trump has said China wants to make a deal but hasn't given him a call yet to get the ball rolling. Despite openness to talks, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian says Beijing is prepared to continue to take resolute countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests. John Ruhich, NPR News, Beijing.

The suspension of tariffs is bringing some relief to small business owners. NPR's Windsor Johnston spoke to an entrepreneur in western North Carolina, struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Helene. Jessie Dean is the owner of the Ashfield Tea Company. She says the on-again, off-again threat of tariffs is making it that much harder to rebuild her business from the ground up. Coming off the back of losing our entire facility during Hurricane Helene makes this particularly challenging because we are trying to replace lost equipment that was washed down the river.

We already had debt because of COVID. The Trump administration says the use of tariffs will lead to a stronger trade relationship between the U.S US and international powers. However, the duties could force small business owners to either absorb the price hikes, pass them on to consumers, or risk going under. Windsor-Johnston NPR News. President Trump has signed two executive orders that target private Americans. They're aimed at two men who worked during his first term in the White House. Trump is stripping their security clearances and ordering an investigation into their conduct while federal employees.

One is former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor. He criticized Trump in an anonymous op-ed article and later publicly in a book. And Piers Ashley Lopez reports the other targeted person is former cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs. For folks who don't remember this, right after the 2020 election, Krebs, who, by the way, has described himself as a lifelong Republican and he had been appointed by Trump, basically refuted Trump's big lie about the election being stolen. As you can imagine, Trump didn't like that. He fired Krebs at the time and now he's ordering the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and other agency

leaders to immediately suspend any active security cleanses held by him and entities associated with him. NPR's Ashley Lopez reporting. You're listening to NPR. The Senate has confirmed two of President Trump's choices. Senators have confirmed Paul Atkins as the nation's top Wall Street regulator. He will lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Senate also confirmed former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel. The maker of chat, GPT, OpenAI, is countersuing billionaire Elon Musk. OpenAI claims Musk has engaged in a pattern of harassment.

As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, Musk first filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming that it put profits over the public good. Lawyers for OpenAI are asking a federal judge to stop Musk's attacks against the leading AI firm, saying he has made it his project to take down OpenAI. The bitter feud between Musk and OpenAI has been long running. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, but split away from the company before it unveiled ChatGPT in late 2022. Musk has since launched a competing firm called XAI. In recent months, Musk has sued OpenAI, saying it abandoned its nonprofit mission and misled early investors.

And in February, Musk submitted an unsolicited bid to take over OpenAI, which the company dismissed as an unserious publicity grab. Bobbi Allen, NPR News. There are flood warnings up in several states today from Ohio to the Gulf Coast. This follows several days of storms that began a week ago. Now the exceptionally heavy rain that followed has surged into rivers, pushing them to major flood stage. Officials in Cincinnati say the Ohio River crested there yesterday at levels not seen in decades. Parts of downtown Cincinnati are flooded.

I'm Corva Kuhlman, NPR News.