NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-02-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

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Imagine, if you will, a show from NPR that's not like NPR, a show that focuses not on the important but the stupid, which features stories about people smuggling animals in their pants and competent criminals in ridiculous science studies, and call it Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me because the good names were taken. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Yes, that is what it is called wherever You Get Your Podcast. Lye from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. The government's latest big jobs report shows a cooling but resilient market against the

backdrop of trade wars and government wide cuts. The Labor Department says the U.S. economy gained 177,000 jobs in April. That's fewer than the downwardly revised 185,000 jobs created the month before. The unemployment rate in April held steady at 4.2%. As we begin to wind down a week of assessments about the first 100 days of Trump 2.0, we're hearing from voters in the blue state of Colorado. Colorado Public Radio's Benta Berklin reports some Republicans are applauding the aggressive pace of the changes President Trump's ordered so far.

Frank Virginia is a retired small business owner and lives in the foothills west of Denver. The Republican voted for Trump. He's pleased with the administration's immigration crackdown and efforts to cut government spending, and he's okay with the tariffs despite the turmoil. But he is concerned about the stock market. But at this point in the process, I'm still comfortable in supporting the president and his policies, hoping that over the next four, five months, things will even out.

Virginia says he doesn't want Democrats to be disruptive to Trump's agenda just for the sake of pushing back. For NPR News, I'm Benta Berkland in Denver. The White House's national security leadership is going through its first major shakeup of this second Trump presidency as the team prepares for Trump's visit to the Middle East. NPR's Frank Ordonez is monitoring the fallout

of National Security Advisor Mike Walz's exit from the White House, a development that comes weeks after he and others were accused of mishandling highly sensitive information. The White House is trying to put a good spin on it. President Trump says he's nominating Mike Walz to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor while continuing to do his current job as well.

And it's very unusual, I'll say, for one person to hold both major roles, and it's not clearly how it's going to work. And we really don't know who's going to replace Walz, either. NPR's Franco Ordoniez, the International Court of Justice completes a week of hearings today on Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza. More on this from NPR's Hadil Al-Shalchi. More than 40 countries have been urging the UN's top court to condemn Israel for blocking aid to Palestinians. They say an Israeli law banning the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known as UNRWA,

is a violation of international law. The UN charges that the ban is a violation of the charter, to which Israel is a signatory. The International Court of Justice issues advisory non-binding opinions. There are no penalties to ignoring them. Israel does not abide by the rulings of the court, which it says is biased against Israel. Israel has blocked all aid, including food, from entering Gaza for two months, saying it is a tactic to pressure Hamas to release more hostages. That's Hadil Al-Shalchi. It's NPR.

British comedian and actor Russell Brand has appeared in a London courtroom to face charges of rape and sexual assault. Villain Marx reports his charges are linked to four separate women. Brand arrived at Westminster Magistrates Court in the heart of the British Capitol Friday morning with photographers surrounding his car and a crowd of journalists pelting him with questions. He did not speak during the roughly two minutes it took for him to push his way into the building despite a heavy police presence. Four separate women had between them alleged indecent assault, oral rape and sexual assault between 1999 and 2005. 49-year-old Brand has been living in the US and has always denied non-consensual sexual actions that were first reported by the British media in 2023. In online postings, he said he was quote, grateful to finally be able to defend himself and prove his innocence in court. For NPR News, I'm

Villamarks in London. TikTok has been fined more than half a billion dollars for transferring European users data to China in breach of EU legislation. More from the BBC's Jo Inwood. Tick Tock always denied sending user data to China. The court in Ireland ruled that was not true. The Irish government, who had been handling the case on behalf of the EU, was investigating whether the Chinese-owned firm

had breached General Data Protection Regulations, GDPR. The court found that transferred data had not been given sufficient protection. TikTok, which has been under increasing scrutiny in a number of countries for its handling of user data and its potential links to the Chinese government, has said it will appeal the ruling. That's the BBC's Joe Inwood.

On Wall Street, major market indices are up roughly 1.5%. It's NPR. These days, there's 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 as 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.