NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-30-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Kyiv has signed a deal that would give the U.S. access to some of its valuable, rare minerals as a way of assuring support as the fight with Russia continues. That's according to Ukrainian officials and the Treasury Department. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister flew to Washington today to help finalize the deal. President Trump indicated in February he wanted access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals as a condition of continued U.S. support. A federal appeals court has voted to keep a block on Doge staffers access to social security data

while appeals play out. MPR Stephen Fowler is more. Mid-April, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that essentially blocked Department of Government Efficiency staffers at the Social Security Administration from accessing sensitive data. The government appealed and asked for that ban to be lifted while the appeal is considered. But now a majority of the Fourth Circuit's judges has agreed to have the whole bench consider the motion to stay and in a nine to six vote the judges voted to keep the preliminary injunction in place.

Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. A sometime advisor to President Trump who served in Trump's first term wants Republicans to raise taxes on the wealthy. Steve Bannon spoke in a video interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep. 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 who 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 $2 trillion 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. Steve Inskeep, NPR News. Israel marked its annual memorial day with a nationwide siren commemorating Israeli soldiers and civilians killed in wars and attacks. Imperialist Daniel Esten reports Israelis are torn about the war in Gaza, the longest

war in Israel's history. In the year since last Memorial Day, 456 people, mostly soldiers, were killed or died of their wounds, according to Israeli government figures. At one memorial ceremony, the father of a soldier killed in Gaza yelled at the speaker of parliament, blaming Israeli leaders for the soldier's death. At another tribute, protesters threw rocks at Israelis, marking Palestinian and Israeli victims. Polls show a little more than half of Israelis want the Gaza war to end through a hostage release deal with Hamas. A bit less than half want to continue the war or are unsure. In Gaza, dozens were killed in new Israeli strikes Wednesday, according to health

officials. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. On Wall Street, the Dow was up 141 points, the Nasdaq fell 14. This is NPR. China has so far declined to negotiate with the US over triple-digit tariffs, put in place against its products brought into the US. Where there are signs that Trump administration tariffs are beginning to bite, monthly surveys of Chinese factory managers show export orders slowing in April. As higher US tariffs kicked in, President Trump ordered 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, with China responding with 125% tariffs on US imports into the country.

A key Chinese manufacturing index fell to a 16-month low in March. Hollywood is getting ready for a new round of summer movies as NPR's Neda Ulubi reports there's a lot at stake for the film industry. The summer season that starts this weekend usually accounts for about half of the year's box office. Nearly 50 movies are coming out in theaters this summer, and it feels like nearly all of them are part of massive franchises. Maybe we should make it quick. From Jurassic Park to a John Wick spinoff, from Mission Impossible to two Marvel movies,

from Superman to the Swerves. One of the few major summer movies with blockbuster buzz that is not drawing from existing intellectual property is the film F1, about Formula One race car drivers. There's 20 other drivers still out on that track. Box office analysts are hopeful that the springtime success of a Minecraft movie and the horror film Sinners have primed audiences to return in person to theaters. Nettie Ulubi, NPR News. Critical futures prices continued their downward slide today.

Oil fell $2.21 a barrel to $58.21 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.