NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-07-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

NPR News: 05-07-2025 3PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Imagine, if you will, a show from NPR that's not like NPR, a show that focuses not on the important but the stupid, which features stories about people smuggling animals in their pants and competent criminals in ridiculous science studies, and call it Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me because the good names were taken. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Yes, that is what it is called wherever You Get Your Podcast. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates steady for now.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports the central bank is monitoring the impact of President Trump's trade war. This was the Fed's first rate-setting meeting since President Trump imposed a 10 percent tax on nearly everything the U.S. imports, along with a 145 percent tariff on most imports from China. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warned those tariffs are likely to lead to higher prices and slower economic growth, at least in the short run. With inflation still running slightly above their target and unemployment at a low 4.2

percent last month, Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold their benchmark interest rate unchanged. That rate helps determine the cost of borrowing money to buy a car, expand a business or carry a balance on a credit card. Scott Horslake in PR News, Washington. President Trump is still holding firm on tariffs on China ahead of high level US China talks in Switzerland this weekend. Trump took reporters questions following an Oval Office ceremony in which former Senator David Perdue

of Georgia was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to China. President Trump declined to elaborate on reports that his administration may deport migrants to Libya. U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity tell NPR's Tom Bowman that for now, the plan is to use one C-17 aircraft to transport an undisclosed number of migrants, perhaps sometime this week, although another source says a White House could pull the plug on that plan. One of the hiccups here is Libya's government of national unity said it rejected the use of Libyan territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent. It says there's been no coordination with the United States regarding these migrants

being sent to Libya. And now Khalifa Haftar, his Libyan National Army, they control eastern Libya. He also rejected any migrants coming from the United States to Libya. He said simply, quote, it violates the sovereignty of the homeland. And Piers Tom Bowman reporting. Starting today, you'll be asked for a real ID to board an airplane or enter some federal buildings in the United States. And Piers Martin Costi reports a law has taken 20 years to implement. The 2005 law raised standards for state IDs that are used for federally regulated activities

such as flying. States had to do more to check a person's identity and print cards that are harder to counterfeit. Brian Zimmer wrote the law and then consulted on real ID implementation. He says it also took time to outfit airports with the right technology. These new scanners that you can find at the airport are now going to be able to recognize fakes. It's highly unlikely that more than one in 10,000 will pass through those scanners that you can find at the airport are now going to be able to recognize fakes. It's highly unlikely that more than one in 10,000 will pass through those scanners.

Acceptable state IDs are marked with a star or a flag, and TSA will also accept federal picture IDs such as passports. Martin Costi, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR. We've just learned black smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel meeting. Cardinals holding a conclave to select a new pope must continue voting. Earlier today, sung prayers as 133 Cardinals, princes of the Roman Catholic Church, formally began the deeply profound process of selecting a successor to the late Pope Francis who died

Easter Monday at the age of 88. Former President Biden has given his first interview since he left the White House in January was to a British broadcaster, the BBC. Speaking from his home state of Delaware, Biden said he did not believe the timing of his decision to exit the 2024 presidential race against Trump just months before the election affected the outcome. In PR's Lauren Fair reports from London, Biden took aim at Trump's actions during his first 100 days in office. About President Trump's efforts to acquire Greenland and to make Canada the 51st state, Biden told the BBC, what president ever talks like that? That's not who we are. Biden also

responded to questions from the BBC about Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to cede some territory to Russia as part of a peace deal. Think it's not common sense. It's perhaps modern day appeasement. It is modern day appeasement. That's a reference to how Britain sought to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, which didn't work and failed to prevent World War II. Biden also said a breakdown of U.S.-European relations under Trump and Vice President Vance would, quote, change the modern history of the world. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, London. It's NPR.