NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-02-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

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Does the idea of listening to political news freak you out? Well, don't sweat it. The NPR Politics Podcast makes politics a breeze. Every episode will break down the day's headlines into totally normal language and make sure that you walk away understanding what the day's news might mean for you. Take a deep breath and give politics another chance with the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Stocks opened higher this morning as the Labor Department reported somewhat stronger job

growth in April than forecasters expected. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped about 320 points in early trading. Job growth slowed last month, but not as much as analysts had feared as President Trump's worldwide tariffs went into effect. U.S. employers added 177,000 jobs in April. That's down only slightly from the previous month. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 percent, even as more than half a million people joined

or rejoined the workforce. Jobs were added in health care, restaurants and construction in April, while retailers and factories cut workers last month. The federal government also cut about 9,000 jobs, but that was more than offset by job gains in state and local government. The labor market has held up well in recent months, even as the overall U.S. economy has showed some signs of weakness. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. President Trump is expected to release a proposed summary of his budget later today. NPR has

learned it cuts about $163 billion from discretionary spending that's not related to defense spending. The proposal does not include federal spending on safety nets such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That's expected to be shown later in a full budget proposal. The president is removing National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and nominating him instead as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Waltz admitted he was the one who mistakenly added a journalist to a group chat discussing U.S. military strikes in Yemen. And Piers Frenko-Ordonez says that close Trump aides didn't fully trust Waltz. And we've seen Trump lean more heavily on other aides when it comes to big conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and

even in talks with Iran Those included Rubio as well as the Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and even Treasury Secretary Scott Bassin. NPR's Franco Ortonia is reporting. Israel has launched airstrikes near the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus. The bombing follows days of clashes involving fighters from a Syrian religious minority and government security forces. And Piers Jane Arath has details. The strike before dawn Friday was the second Israeli attack in two days in Syria. Israel's defense minister said the latest bombing was a message to the Syrian president

that Israel is determined to protect the Druze, a religious minority also present in Israel. And it warned the Syrian government not to deploy its own troops in southern Syria. Israel has launched airstrikes and seized more territory in Syria's southwest since the fall of the Syrian regime last year. The Druze faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam. Clashes between Druze militias, Sunni Arab militants, and government security forces in Druze areas in southwestern Syria have killed dozens of people this week. Jane Araf, NPR News, Amman.

On Wall Street, the Dow's up about 400 points. This is NPR. President Trump has signed an executive order targeting federal funding for public broadcasting. It prohibits local public radio and television stations and any other recipients of funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from using taxpayer dollars. In a statement, the CPB says it is not subject

to the president's authority. President Trump accuses NPR and PBS of left-wing political bias. The writer Ksenia Lubrin has won this year's Carol Shields Prize. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports the award honors women and non-binary fiction writers in the U.S. and Canada. Kinesia Lubrin is a Canadian writer known more for her poetry. Her debut fiction book, Côte Noire, won her the prize, though. It's a collection of 59 connected short stories taking inspiration from French King Louis XIV's laws legalizing and regulating slavery

in France and the French colonies. Judges for the Carol Shields Prize called it a, quote, virtuoso collection that breaks new ground in short fiction. The Carol Shields Prize for fiction is relatively new, but it's made an impact on the literary world because of its sheer size. Winners get $150,000. In comparison, winners of the National Book Award receive $10,000. Andrew Limbong and Pyrrha Neuse. The U.S. Geological Survey says there's been an exceptionally powerful earthquake south of the southern tip of Chile.

It's in a body of water called the Drake Passage. It also borders Antarctica. The quake's magnitude was 7.5 and there is the possibility of tsunami waves. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News. There was Barbenheimer summer, then Brat summer. What will this season bring? waves. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.