NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-02-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

NPR News: 05-02-2025 1AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Whoever you are, wherever you're from, NPR is here for you. Our mission is to create a more informed public. That's why access to NPR's rigorous, independent journalism is free for everyone. It's Public Media Giving Days, the perfect time to give back to the service you rely on. Visit donate.npr.org. Live from NPR.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. The Trump administration has ended a tariff loophole that allowed certain goods, valued

at $800 or less, to enter the United States duty-free. The move could increase prices for some goods that Americans buy online. A growing number of companies had used the exemption to avoid tariffs on products shipped directly to small businesses and to consumers. China is evaluating the possibility of trade talks. Beijing says the U.S. has conveyed through several channels a desire for discussions on tariffs, but says the U.S. needs to show sincerity and be prepared to roll them back. More from NPR's John Rewich in Shanghai. China's Commerce Ministry says Beijing's stance has been consistent.

If it's a fight, we'll fight to the end. If it's talks, the door is open. If the U.S. wants talks, though, it says Washington needs to be prepared to cancel the tariffs. President Trump and administration officials have said they expect talks with China and that tariffs will likely be reduced from the current rate of 145 percent. And China's Commerce Ministry says it's taken note. But it says if the U.S. does not correct its unilateral tariffs, it would demonstrate insincerity and further damage trust between the two sides.

The comments come after a string of conflicting statements about whether talks are already underway with neither side apparently willing to make the first move. John Ruehich, NPR News, Shanghai. In an executive order signed late Thursday, President Trump directed federal agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease current and future federal funding to NPR and PBS. It is the latest salvo aimed at public media, which Trump has accused of being biased in its news coverage.

Last month, the administration announced that it had drafted a memo to Congress spelling out its plans to eliminate federal funding for public media through rescission's process. Roughly 1 percent of direct NPR funding comes from the government. This is NPR. Millions of dollars for a federal program that helps pay heating and cooling bills for low-income families had been in limbo after the Trump administration fired the staff that managed it. NPR's Ali Handri, Burunda has more. The federal program called LIHEAP helps about six million families in the U.S. with their

energy costs each year. Most of the money goes to pay for winter heating, but a chunk helps with cooling costs in the summer. This year, that was scheduled to be about $400 million. Those additional funds were enough to help about 750,000 families pay the cooling bills this summer. That's Mark Wolf. He leads the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. He says there was a lot of fear that the money wouldn't get out the door after the Trump administration fired the entire LIHEAP team in early April.

But after a flurry of attention, the money is moving. However, the program's long-term future is still uncertain. Alejandro Burunda, this is NPR. The House of Representatives has voted to bar California from ending the sales of gasoline-powered vehicles. The vote repeals an EPA waiver that allowed California to mandate that by the year 2035, at least 80 percent of all new vehicles sold in the state must have zero emissions. The lobbying group Alliance for Automative Innovation

says there isn't enough consumer demand for electric vehicles to justify the mandate. The writer, Kinesia Lubrin, has won this year's Carol Shields Prize. The award honors women and non-binary fiction writers in the U.S. and Canada. NPR's Andrew Limbong has more. Kinesia Lubrin is a Canadian writer known more for her poetry. Her debut

fiction book, Code Noir, 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, NPR News. On Wall Street, stocks closed higher Thursday ahead of the report on hiring in April. The Dow Jones industrials gained 83 points, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 264, and the S&P 500 added 35 points. U.S. futures are higher.

This is NPR News. This is Ira Glass, the host of This American Life. So much is changing so rapidly right now with President Trump in office. It feels good to pause for a moment sometimes and look around at what's what. To try and do that, we've been finding these incredible stories about right now that are funny and have feeling and you get to see people everywhere making sense of this new America that we find ourselves in. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.