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

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

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On the next Thulein from NPR. For the presidency, I'm indebted to Almighty God. I'm in charge of the country and I need to serve all the American people and not just the political machine. The origins of the modern civil service. Listen to Thulein wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Trump administration is ending a duty-free exemption on low-value imports from China beginning today.

That includes sites like Shien or Temu. NPR's Emily Fang says the move will make those goods much more expensive for U.S. consumers. There has been pressure since the Biden administration to end what's called the de minimis loophole, meaning packages under $800 were not charged an import fee. More than one billion of these packages now come to the U.S. a year, mostly from China, a more than six-fold increase from the last decade. The Trump administration says it's now going to charge customs duties on packages from China in order to combat fentanyl trafficking and to collect revenue for the government. American consumers are now sharing screenshots of the new import cost estimates they're

getting on Tomo, which in most cases double or even triple the cost of their purchases from China. And trade logistics companies are warning of massive delays in shipping in the coming weeks. Emily Fang, NPR News, Washington. NPR and PBS say they will challenge President Trump's executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to public media. NPR has released a statement from President and CEO Catherine Maher. She writes the president's order is, quote, an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America, as well as the listeners and donors who support independent news and information.

NPR's David Fokinflick reports on what comes next. David Fokinflick, NPR News Anchor It's not clear he has the power to do this. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has filed a suit in court that's supposed to, you know, move forward next week. It's being heard on an expedited basis by a federal judge in Washington. And we're gonna see. It appears right now that the CPBS is simply ignoring the president's edict, saying he doesn't have the authority to do this to us. We are not owned by the federal government. Danielle Pletka That's NPR's David Falkenfleck. President

Trump has accused NPR and PBS of left-wing bias. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky is calling a minerals deal with the US historic and expects it'll modernize Ukraine. NPR's Joannika Kisses reports the deal also opens the door to continuing US military support for Ukraine. The agreement creates a joint investment fund that would raise revenue through the sale of licenses to mine Ukraine's critical minerals as well as other natural resources. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to sign an early draft because he says it would have left Ukrainians deeply in debt.

Speaking in his nightly video address, he said negotiations made the deal fairer. This agreement changed, he said. It's now an equal partnership, one that creates opportunities for substantial investment in Ukraine. Zelensky said the deal happened after what he calls a meaningful meeting with President Trump at a Vatican Basilica just before Pope Francis' funeral. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, Kyiv. It's NPR. Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, best known for her 90s hit, I Kissed a Girl, passed away yesterday in a statement a spokesperson says she died in a house fire outside Minneapolis. NPR's Amy Held reports Sobule was 66 years old.

It was 1995 and a song like none before was climbing the charts. I Kissed a Girl is considered the first openly gay-themed song to break into the Billboard Top 20. Sobule told NPR's Ask Me Another in 2018 the label wanted it to be a goofy novelty. They wanted to take away the queerness of it. But it made an impact. Still to this day I get people who are saying that song meant a lot to me growing up in Alabama, and I wanted a song like that when I wish there would have been when I was a kid.

With the sardonically aspirational supermodel from Clueless, Sobue called herself a two-hit wonder. Sobue continued to record and perform with biting takes on politics and culture. Amy Held and PR News. Harrods, Co-op and Marks and Spencer are dealing with the aftermath of cyber attacks. Today, M&S issued a statement that says it has been unable to complete online orders since last Friday. That retailer and Co-op lost millions in online breaches, they say. Yesterday, Harrods disclosed its systems were hacked. The Qatar-owned luxury department store in London says customer payment data

were not compromised. However, some customers reported that they were unable to complete purchases. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is up nearly 600 points or 1.4 percent. It's NPR News.