NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-08-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

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On this week's Wild Card podcast, Wanda Sykes says she can have a hard time understanding God. What is the plan, man? What is the lesson here? Yeah, it's like, oh boy, you are in a pickle right now, God. What you gonna do about this? I'm Rachel Martin. Wanda Sykes is on Wild Card, the show where cards control the conversation.

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Voices erupt in Vatican City. A new pope has been chosen. Here's NPR's Jason DeRose. White smoke began billowing out of the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel a short while ago, signaling that the 133 cardinals cloistered there have made their decision. The newly elected pope is expected to appear soon on the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square and offer his blessing to the city and the world. Before then, the cardinal electors sing a hymn of praise known as the Tedeum and approach the newly elected pope to pay him homage.

Just before the new pope steps onto the balcony, the senior cardinal deacon will appear and declare Habemus Papem, Latin for we have a pope. Jason DeRose, NPR News, Rome. Swiss guards in striped uniforms in a marching band dressed in rich blue clothing taking part in a procession, part of the grand ceremony to celebrate the significance of the moment, the election of a new pope to succeed, Pope Francis, who died Easter Monday at the age of 88. President Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a trade deal between their two nations. NPR's Tamara Keith reports it is the first deal announced

since Trump launched a global trade war, but the deal isn't actually done. Trump was in the Oval Office with the UK's Starmer on speakerphone. Both hailed the deal, but Trump let slip that it isn't actually finalized. The final details are being written up in the coming weeks. We'll have it all very conclusive,

but the actual deal is a very conclusive one. We think just about everything's been approved. So good for both countries. The agreement will open up markets for American agricultural goods like beef and ethanol, while the U.S. would lower tariffs on vehicles from the U.K. Think Rolls-Royce. But Trump is leaving in place a 10 percent

tariff on all imports to the U.S. Tamara Keith and PR News. Tick-tock may be facing another ban in the U.S. next month, but for younger voters, it's more than just a social media app. It's a political tool. And Piers Windsor-Johnston with more. Online platforms, especially TikTok, have become powerful tools that young voters are using to organize, amplify, and mobilize around causes they care about. Iona Litterat is a professor in the communications department at Columbia University. She says members of Gen Z don't draw hard lines between their digital and real-world lives. For young people today, like, that just doesn't

make sense. That's totally out of sync with their experience. There's not this clear threshold anymore between the online and the offline. That's definitely applicable to the civic aspects as well. Literatte says youth-led groups have been clear to lawmakers. Ban online platforms like TikTok, and you may lose an entire generation at the ballot box. It's NPR. Ukraine's among countries marking the day of remembrance and victory over Nazism in World War II.

NPR's Polina Litanova reports from Kiev. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky his address honored the memory of those defending Ukraine in the past and now. Zelensky compared the war Ukraine is fighting against Russia to World War II when 80 years ago allied countries fought Nazis. More than 8 million Ukrainians died in that war and now they're defending their land again. Each of us wants silence to come, peace to come, Zelensky said. We are fighting for it.

Ukraine's president surprised a lot of people by his unexpected appearance in the Kyiv Center the day before when he recorded this video. Walking in the streets surrounded by bodyguards, he stopped to talk and take photos with people who were there. Polina Litvinova, NPR News. Kyiv. In Utah, a law banning fluoride in public water systems takes effect today. Here's KUER's Sage Miller.

Under the law, which is now in effect, Utah cities are no longer allowed to add fluoride to drinking water. The mineral is known for preventing cavities. But lawmakers in Utah's Republican supermajority argued there are more risks associated with fluoride than benefits. And removing fluoride is something that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has championed. Since Utah approved its ban, six other states have proposed doing the same.

That's Sage Miller reporting. It's NPR. Does the idea of listening to political news freak you out? Well, don't sweat it. That's Sage Miller reporting. It's NPR.