NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-06-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

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Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good, watch the movie everyone's been talking about, or catch the show that the internet can't get over? At the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, we chase that feeling four times a week. We'll serve you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, and more. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, catch the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. stuff in between, catch the pop culture happy hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. The Israeli military has carried out multiple strikes targeting a key port in Yemen. As NPR's Greg Myhrew reports, the attacks came a day after Yemen's Houthi rebels fired

a missile into central Israel. The Israeli military posted a statement saying its jet fighters targeted the seaport of Hodeida on Yemen's western coast as well as a nearby concrete factory. The Israelis say both facilities are central to Houthi military operations. A day earlier, a long-range missile from Yemen crashed close to Israel's main airport outside Tel Aviv, causing several injuries. This marked an extremely rare instance of a Houthi missile penetrating Israeli air defenses and hitting near a sensitive site.

The U.S., meanwhile, has been bombing Yemen almost daily for seven weeks. The U.S. is demanding a halt to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Greg Myrie, NPR News. A federal judge has ordered North Carolina's Board of Elections to certify Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs as the winner of a state Supreme Court race. WFAE Steve Harrison reports that Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin challenged the results.

For six months, Allison Riggs has held a 734-vote lead out of more than 5.5 million cast. The North Carolina Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, had opened the door for Jefferson Griffin to win by requiring roughly 5,500 overseas and military voters from some Democratic-leaning counties to provide photo ID. If they didn't, the state's highest court said their ballots would be discarded. But a federal judge stopped that order, noting that rules are set before the game, not after the game is done.

The State Board of Elections must wait a week before certifying Riggs as the winner to give Griffin a chance to appeal. For NPR News, I'm Steve Harrison in Charlotte. The Trump administration has eliminated the team that led a decades-old public health campaign called Safe to Sleep. Details from NPR's Maria Godoy. The campaign launched in 1994 to bring awareness to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. At the time, more than 4,000 infants a year died from the condition.

Dr. Rachel Moon is a researcher at the University of Virginia. She says soon after the campaign launched, those deaths decreased by 50 percent. We've saved thousands and thousands of babies' lives because of this. Safe to Sleep was led by the Communications Department at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The entire department was terminated on April 1. In an email to NPR, NIH said, quote, no final decision has been made regarding the future of the Safe to Sleep campaign. Maria Gadoy, NPR News.

U.S. futures are flat in after-hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR. The Department of Homeland Security is offering to pay $1,000 and travel costs to illegal immigrants who leave the United States voluntarily. DHS says individuals who use the CBP Home app to self-deport will be prioritized for detention compensated and removed from the country.

The Trump administration is defending Biden-era rules that eased access to the abortion pill Mipha Pristone. The Justice Department is asking a federal judge in Texas to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to restrict access to Mipha Pristone. The move comes after Attorneys General of three Republican states revived a lawsuit that was initially filed by anti-abortion groups and dismissed by the Supreme Court last year. A decades-old Soviet space probe is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere this weekend.

As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, it is unclear where the spacecraft will fall or whether it will burn upon reentry. Soviet scientists launched Cosmos 482 in 1972 with the goal of reaching Venus, but an apparent engine malfunction stranded the spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, according to NASA. The craft's lander has been following an elliptical path that has finally decayed to the point that it will soon fall back to Earth. It could burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere, but one astronomer told NPR that because of its strong heat shield, the Cosmos 482 lander will probably stay in one piece through re-entry.

If the thousand-pound, meter-wide spherical lander survives, scientists say they aren't yet sure where it will land. Joe Hernandez reporting. This is NPR News. You may have heard that President Trump has issued an executive order seeking to block land. Joe Hernandez reporting. This is NPR News.