NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-02-2025 5AM EDT

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

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Hey, it's Aisha Harris from Pop Culture Happy Hour. If you love NPR podcasts, you'll want the new NPR Plus podcast bundle. Enjoy an all-you-can-eat selection of NPR Plus podcasts with sponsor-free listening and bonus episodes. Plus, you'll be supporting public radio. Check it out at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly. President Trump says he's removing Mike Walz as his national security advisor and nominating

him to be U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. This follows an incident in March when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was inadvertently added to a group chat on the Signal messaging app in which details of pending US military strikes targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen were discussed. Walz later said he took responsibility for that. It sparked calls from Democrats in Congress for Walz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign. The Trump administration is ending a duty-free exemption on low-value imports from China, beginning today. NPR's Emily Fang says the move will make those goods much more expensive for American 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 US a year, mostly from China, a more than six-fold increase from the last decade. 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. President Trump has signed an executive order to end federal funding to NPR and PBS to the maximum extent allowed by law. The president has accused the organizations of left-wing bias. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease payments to NPR and PBS. NPR has more than 1,300 stations and receives about 1 percent of its funding directly from the federal government and more

funding indirectly. South Korea now has its third acting president in five months. As NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul, the political chaos began with last year's impeachment of President Yoon Song-hyul. Former acting president and prime minister Han Deok-soo declared his intent Friday to run for president. He resigned the acting presidency, which then passed to Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok. But he too resigned after opposition lawmakers moved to impeach him over his appointment

of constitutional court justices. Education Minister Lee Ju-ho then took over as acting president. Lee must hold the government together until presidential elections next month. The leading candidate, meanwhile, opposition leader, E.J. Myung, is facing a retrial on charges of violating the election law, which could disqualify him from running. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. This is NPR News from Washington.

Some clinics that offer abortion in the U.S. are closing their doors, even in states where abortion remains legal. As Michigan Public's Cade Wells reports, it's happening in states such as New York, Utah, Illinois, and now Michigan. Planned Parenthood of Michigan just closed four health centers in April, including the only clinic that provided abortion in the rural Upper Peninsula for financial reasons. Hannah Harriman is a public health nurse in the Upper Peninsula who used to work for Planned Parenthood. Lots of families are going to suffer. She says now those patients will have to drive almost five hours to get cancer screenings,

family planning services, or in-person medication abortion from Planned Parenthood. And many just can't make that trip. Planned Parenthood of Michigan says it can't afford to operate those small clinics as it braces to lose some federal funding. It is encouraging patients to use telehealth options instead. That's Michigan Public's Kate Wells reporting. About 2,500 union workers at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Connecticut say they plan to go on strike later this month if no tentative contract agreement is reached. A walkout would begin May 18th. Most of the workers are involved in the design of the U.S. Navy's fleet of nuclear submarines.

General Dynamics is Electric Boat's parent company. It was recently awarded a contract worth almost $12.5 billion to build two submarines and to increase worker pay. Later this morning, the Labor Department will release the April numbers on employment in the U.S. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News in Washington. Does the idea of listening to political news freak you out? Well, don't sweat it. The NPR to.