NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-08-2025 10PM EDT

Episode Date: May 9, 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. Jack Spear Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. It's been more than a hundred years since the last pope named Leo, and today the Vatican

announced a Chicago-born missionary picked to be the next pope will be taking the name Leo XIV. Sylvia Paggiole is in Rome and has more on the history of the name chosen by the man who will succeed Pope Francis. The last Leo was Leo XIII and he was known for his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, of new things. In it he outlined the rights of workers to fair wages, safe working conditions, and the creation of trade unions.

The document also affirmed the right to own property, free enterprise, and it was opposed to both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. Leo XIII was called the social pope or the workers' pope, and he is really seen as the founder of the Catholic Church's social doctrine. Leo was the first American pope in public remarks today, emphasized peace, dialogue, and missionary work. The pope was born in Chicago, but attended Villanova University in Philadelphia. Carmen Ruslos Luchanski of member station WHYY visited the campus today to get reaction. Church bells echoed across the Villanova campus all afternoon as students celebrated studying news.

The newly elected pope Leo XIV is one of their own. Cardinal Robert Francis Bravos, a 1977 graduate in mathematics who once walked these very halls now leads the Roman Catholic Church. Emily Daieto, a Catholic economy major in her junior year, said she's pumped. I'm kind of hoping he comes for the commencement speech next year when I'm graduating, but I think this is an awesome moment for campus. In a campus-wide email, Villanova's president called it a proud and extraordinary day. For NPR News, I'm Carmen Russell Sucanski.

President Trump is appointing Fox News host and judge Jeanine Pirro to serve as interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. It comes just hours after Trump pulled the nomination of his first pick for the job, Ed Martin, who faced pushback from some Republicans in the Senate. More from NPR's Elena Moore. In a post on social media, Trump praises Pirro and says she's, quote, incredibly well qualified for this position. Jeanine Pirro previously served as district attorney of Westchester County in New York,

but she left that job 20 years ago. Since then, she's become a prominent face on Fox News and other conservative media. She has a record as a fierce defender of Trump and notably she promoted false claims about the 2020 presidential election. It's unclear when the Senate will consider Pirro's nomination to be interim U.S. attorney for the nation's capital. Elena Moore, NPR News. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage held mostly steady this week, remaining not far from the highest levels of the year. The average rate holding at 6.76% for the second week in a row according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac a year ago.

The average rate on a 30-year loan was just above 7%. Stocks closed higher on Wall Street today, the Dow up 254 points. This is NPR. Over the last few weeks, California beachgoers have been treated to a beautiful marine life wonder. Hundreds of thousands of glittering sea creatures wash to shore. NPR's Vanessa Romo has more on what they are and why they're on the beach. The small creatures can grow up to four inches long and look like oval mini sailboats. Their gelatinous bases can range in color from a vibrant blue to purple

with a transparent sail on top. That's what allows them to be blown across the surface of the open sea in huge numbers. Professor Matthew Bracken of the University of California Irvine says their arrival is part of the spring transition when winds shift from north to south. He says when you spot a volella, what you're seeing is not a single organism. This is a large colony

with a whole bunch of individuals each specialized to a different purpose. With dangling tentacles, they're related to jellyfish and Portuguese Man O' War, but Velelas are nowhere near as dangerous. Vanessa Romo, NPR News. British Rockers The Who now say they are planning their final goodbye tour in North America for this summer. Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townsend confirming today the group will perform hits from its sixth decade career. Called The Song is Over, North American Farewell Tour, it's named after the band's 1971 hit. The tour is scheduled to kick off in August in Florida before wrapping up this fall in Las Vegas. Crude oil futures prices closed higher today.

Oil up around 3% on some renewed hopes of a breakthrough on U.S.-China trade talks. Oil gained $1.84 a barrel today to settle at $59.91 a barrel in New York. Speier, NPR News in Washington.