NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-30-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

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The scary new movie Sinners from the director of Black Panther finds Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers. It's got vampires, it's got great music, and it's a fun one to see with a big crowd. This is the most excited I've been about a movie in a very long time. We'll tell you why you should see Sinners on the biggest screen you can. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman, a sometime adviser to President Trump who served in Trump's first term, wants Republicans to raise taxes on the wealthy. Steve Bannon spoke in an interview with NPR's Steven Skeet. Steve Bannon was once Trump's White House

strategist and is now a hard-right podcaster who wants to reorient Republicans. He's pressing Congress to cut taxes on lower-income people while not extending tax cuts for the wealthiest. I don't want to raise taxes on the wealthy. I'm not some guy says tax the rich. I'm saying right now the math simply doesn't work. You're worried about the debt. I'm worried about the debt. You can't have two trillion dollars a year in deficits that you have to finance and finance now. Now it's killing the working class and middle class. Trump has toyed with the idea of higher taxes, but also said it might hurt him politically

a remark that Bannon says he takes to mean Trump wants an unconstitutional third term. Stephen Skeep, NPR News. President Trump is seeking to fire three of the five members of the board of directors for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB provides funding for public media outlets. The CPB has sued Trump in return. The lawsuit says the president does not have the power to fire the board members, according to federal law and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The CEO of PBS, Paula Kerger, says the CPB board members are nominated by presidents and confirmed

by the Senate. This is not a government agency. This is a nonprofit organization that was set up to receive the federal appropriation and then distribute it out to the stations. Their job principally is to make sure that the stations are well run and that they are worthy recipients of funding. She was interviewed by Axios News.

PBS and its member stations rely on federal funds from CPB for 15% of their revenues. For NPR member stations, it's 10% on average. NPR itself receives just 1% directly and slightly more indirectly in fees paid by NPR member stations. Federal court hearings are underway to determine a punishment for big tech company, Google.

NPR's Jacqueline Diaz reports there is a renewed focus on Google's role in artificial intelligence. Back in 2020, the government's antitrust case against Google had few mentions of artificial intelligence or AI chatbots. That case was over claims Google monopolized the search engine market. In last August, a federal judge ruled that Google had been acting as monopoly in that space. Now, the Justice Department says the company could use its artificial intelligence products to strengthen its monopoly in online search, and then use the data from its powerful search index

to become the dominant player in AI. Google denies this, saying the AI marketplace is full of healthy competition with OpenAI's chat GPT and meta-AI. So Google and the DOJ are in court again. Jacqueline Diaz, NPR News. Google is a financial supporter of NPR. You're listening to NPR. A federal judge has released Columbia University student Mohsen Madhawit. The legal permanent resident of the U.S. had been detained by the Trump administration in Vermont for weeks.

The administration is trying to deport him. Madhawit's lawyers say the administration targeted him for his political activism. Stocks on Wall Street are falling this morning. That comes as the Commerce Department says the nation's gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 0.3 percent during the first quarter of this year. That shrinking number was affected by a surge of imports. Consumers are racing to buy things before President Trump's tariffs took effect. Package delivery company UPS says it is planning to eliminate up to 20,000 jobs and close more than 70 facilities.

UPS is citing tariffs and sharp cuts in the volume of shipments from its largest customer, Amazon. From member station WABE in Atlanta, Marlon Hyde has more. UPS plans to reduce its workforce as it continues to cut the number of Amazon shipments handled in half by June of next year. Here's CEO Carol Tomei. The environment may be uncertain, but with our actions we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS. Tomei says business owners are weighing their shipping options as tariffs persist. Last year, U.S.-China trade lanes made up 11% of the company's international revenue.

In a statement, the Teamsters union threatened to retaliate if UPS violates their contract by eliminating Teamster jobs and say the company is obligated to create 30,000 union jobs. For NPR News, I'm Marlon Hyde in Atlanta. And I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington. These days there is a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR.