NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-02-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. It's just over 100 days into the second Trump administration, and some Republicans in the largely blue state of Colorado are praising the president's swift pace of change in Washington. Colorado Public Radio's Benta Berkland has more. 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. Turmoil continues at the National Science Foundation. This government agency is a major funder

of basic science research, a lot of it at colleges and universities across the country. But as NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce reports, lately it's been canceling previously approved grants. A spokesperson for NSF says that 344 grants had just been terminated as they were, quote, not aligned with agency priorities. This news comes just as the White House has released its preliminary budget request for

2026, which calls for eliminating more than half of the agency's $9 billion budget. The request says the cuts focus on climate, clean energy and what it calls quote woke social behavioral and economic sciences. Already, last month the National Science Foundation canceled more than a thousand previously approved grants and the agency's director abruptly left saying that he felt he'd done all that he could. Nell Greenfield-Boice, NPR News. Hiring in the US slowed in April as President Trump's trade war intensified.

MP Scott Horsley reports on the latest numbers from the Labor Department. U.S. employers added 177,000 jobs last month, slightly fewer than the month before. Job gains for February and March were also revised down, while the unemployment rate held steady at a low 4.2 percent. Jobs were added in health care and transportation last month while the federal government continued to cut jobs. jobs factories also cut about a thousand jobs in april the manufacturing sector is supposed to benefit from president trump's new tariffs but factory managers complain the import taxes are raising the cost of components and raw materials while also cutting into export sales the

job market has been resilient even as the broader u.s. economy is slowed average wages in april were up 3.8 percent from a year ago. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Wall Street higher by the closing bell, the Dow up 564 points, NASDAQ up 266. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. West Virginia is leading a coalition of states in a lawsuit challenging Vermont's climate superfund law as the Justice Department is taking Vermont and other states to court over their climate laws. West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Curtis Tate has more.

Attorney General J.B. McCuskey and 23 other state attorneys general took Vermont to federal court in a lawsuit filed late Thursday. Their challenging of Vermont law enacted last year that imposes fines on fossil fuel producers for the greenhouse gas emissions they caused over a 30 year period. The states along with the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute say the law violates the US Constitution. They say Vermont is preempted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier this year, West Virginia sued New York over a similar law. For NPR News, I'm Curtis Tate in Charleston, West Virginia. A humanitarian aid ship heading to Gaza was rocked by explosions off the coast of Malta today that set the vessel on fire and put it at risk of sinking. Sixteen people on the ship weren't hurt, and the government of Malta says the fire is now out after a Mayday call. It's not clear what caused the explosion and the fire. The ship, operated by a humanitarian aid group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Tunisia earlier this week with aid and activists

on board to challenge Israel's blockade of all food, medicines, and supplies into Gaza as it continues its war with Hamas. I'm Janene Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.