NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-07-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

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These days, there's a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Listen to the Consider This Podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. On the first day of the Conclave in Vatican City, black smoke poured out of a chimney at the Sistine Chapel.

That means the more than 130 Cardinals meeting to choose a successor to Pope Francis to lead the 1.4 billion-member church did not choose a candidate on the first ballot. MPR's Jason DeRoses is in Vatican City and says it's too early to predict how long the process might take. Most recent conclaves have been fairly short, between one and three days, so I'd expect something in that vicinity.

Starting tomorrow, there'll be two morning votes and two afternoon votes until someone gets a two-thirds super majority. The thought is that nobody wants a long conclave because it could signal disunity or internal conflicts and I am not expecting a reenactment of the 13th century papal election that lasted almost three years. Cardinals will spend the night at Vatican residences where they're being sequestered and returned to the Sistine Chapel tomorrow.

Three former Memphis officers have been acquitted in the killing of Tyree Nichols, whose police beating after a 2023 traffic stop was caught on video. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports lawyers for the family call the verdicts a devastating miscarriage and denial of justice. A jury pulled from Chattanooga found fired Memphis police detectives Tadaria Spien, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty. District Attorney Steve Mulroy was at a loss after the verdict given the video evidence showing officers repeatedly beating and kicking Nichols and leaving him gasping for his life with no medical attention.

I personally think any fair-minded person who watches the video would come to the conclusion that everybody there had some responsibility for Tigran Nichols death. The ex-officer still faced sentencing on federal civil rights convictions. Nichols' family is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Memphis. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. House Republicans are racing to agree on a spending bill, but factions of the party are at odds over whether the legislation needs to include drastic cuts to Medicaid. Sen. Parasolano Moore reports moderates won some concessions last night after a meeting

with House Speaker Mike Johnson. This week, Speaker Johnson said that at least one of the previously floated options for cutting Medicaid is now off the table, a move that may complicate Republicans' goal of finding a total of $1.5 trillion in savings. And in a letter to Johnson, many hardline conservatives say that goal was non-negotiable. Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick is one of them. He says the speaker has a hard decision to make. Now you have 32 members that said,

this is our criteria. We're not negotiable on this. You cannot pass the big, beautiful bill without the support of the more conservative fiscal hawks in Congress. Republicans are still negotiating and hope to resolve this and other major differences in the coming weeks. Elena Moore, NPR News. Stocks close higher on Wall Street today the Dow is up 284 points. This is NPR. With delegations from the US and China set to sit down in Geneva over the weekend, China continues to roll out measures meant to counter the Trump administration's tariffs.

The two sides confirming the weekend discussions, though it's not clear how long a deal might take to reach, or if one can be reached at all. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant yesterday described the planned conversation as initial talks, perhaps more about de-escalation of the current trade fight with China than reaching a deal. The added costs from the 145 percent tariffs put in place by the administration are affecting China's export-dependent economy. French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Syria's interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharah, in Paris today, a significant step in the evolving diplomatic relations between France and Syria. As Rebecca Rossman reports, the meeting marks Al-Shara's first visit to Europe since taking power from the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December of 2024.

Macron offered a cautious path forward for Syria, stating that if its new government continued on its current trajectory, he would push for the gradual lifting of European Union sanctions. Macron also emphasized his commitment to encouraging the United States to follow Europe's lead in easing sanctions. He further stressed the importance of protecting all Syrians, regardless of their background, and called for justice for those responsible for sectarian violence. This meeting sparked criticism from the French far right, with party leader Marine Le Pen calling Al-Sharah a, quote, jihadist because of his past ties to a group that was later affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Rebecca Rossman, NPR News, Paris.

Well, it fell more than a dollar a barrel today to $50.07 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. You may have heard that President Trump has issued an executive order seeking to block I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.