NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-03-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: May 3, 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 Giles Snyder. A 25% tariff on imported auto parts is now in effect.

President Trump has offered automakers a partial reprieve for automakers, but as NPR's Kamila Dombonowski reports, the tariffs are still expected to have a major impact on the auto industry. This week, President Trump announced that automakers importing foreign parts for US-built cars could get reimbursed for some tariffs, temporarily, in recognition of the fact that it's not possible to build a car with exclusively US parts right now. The industry welcomed the changes, but the tariffs are still expected to cut profits and drive up prices.

The reprieve doesn't extend to anyone buying parts for repairs, so the tariff will make it more costly to maintain existing cars, as well as sending insurance prices, which have been rising for several years, up even higher. Kamila Dominovski, NPR News. President Trump's tariffs are part of the backdrop in today's federal elections in Australia. Polls have begun closing in a race largely pitting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's Labor Party against the conservative opposition led by Peter Dutton. The Trump administration and Secretary of Health vowing to crack down on toxic chemicals,

but as NPR's Will Stone reports, stiff job cuts by the administration have demolished an agency devoted to investigating these hazards. Studies on workplace exposure to chemicals that may harm reproductive health. Investigations into a possible cancer cluster at a state university. The only national program tracking blood lead levels in adults. These are among the many casualties of the Trump administration's firing of about 90% of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or NIOSH. Dr. Robert Harrison at UCSF says NIOSH is instrumental in funding and advancing research on carcinogens and other

dangerous substances. It's been near eliminated. It's almost destroyed. In a statement to NPR, the Department of Health and Human Services said critical initiatives under NIOSH will remain intact and will join the newly created Administration for a Healthy America. Will Stone, NPR News. Will Stone, NPR News. A suspect in a shooting that injured two women at Southern California's Spartan College is in police custody. Inglewood Mayor James Butt says he was caught in downtown Los Angeles after initially fleeing

the scene and that he is believed to be a former employee. William Jones is a student who was nearby when the shooting unfolded, attracting a heavy police presence. He spoke to K. A. B. C. T. V. I just feel like we just really couldn't panic. We really had to just kind of stay cool and you know, the police were here to do their job and we just didn't really want to intervene. So the shooting happened late yesterday afternoon. Los Angeles Police Dep police department says officers detained a man from a car matching the description of a vehicle linked to the incident. Mayor Butt says one of the victims is in critical condition.

And from Washington, this is NPR News. Canada's newly elected prime minister will travel to Washington on Tuesday for a meeting with President Trump. Dan Karpanchuk reports the meeting will be the first face-to-face for the two since Mark Carney was sworn in as Prime Minister. The meeting will come even before Carney names his new cabinet in the wake of Monday's federal election in Canada. At the top of the agenda will be Trump's trade war with Canada.

Tuesday's talks could set the groundwork for negotiations over a new trade and security pact. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Carney would not say anything about his approach to the meeting, adding that he doesn't want to negotiate in public. He says he expects difficult, but constructive talks and will act in the best interests of Canada. Carney also said when he and Trump talked earlier

this week, there was no mention of annexing Canada. For NPR News, I'm Dan Carpinchuk in Toronto. Scientists are studying the blood of a Wisconsin man who has let himself be bitten by venomous snakes hundreds of times. Tim Friede says he began injecting himself with small doses of venom and has let snakes bite him for nearly 20 years. When I was doing it, I sat back after about a year and just realized that people died from snake bite and I nearly 20 years. When I was doing it I sat back after about a year and

just realized that people died from snake bite and I wasn't dying. So at that point I decided I have to reach out to every scientist on the planet, which I did. I reached out to a lot of them, can you study me? What can we do to save people from snake bite? And a new study published in the journal Cell, scientists said they hope to use antibodies from Freeti's blood to create better treatments for humans. The World Health Organization says some 110,000 people die from snake bites every year. And I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News from Washington. Tariffs, recessions, how Colombian drug cartels gave us blueberries all year long. That's

the kind of thing the Planet Money podcast explains. I'm Sarah Gonzalez and on Planet Money, we help you understand the economy and how things all around you came to be the way they are. Para que sepas. So you know. Listen to the Planet Money podcast from NPR.