NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-08-2025 2AM EDT

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

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Unlike headlines or social media posts, books can give you the long view on the news, which is where NPR's Book of the Day can help. To think big picture about stories like the death of Pope Francis. What's missing from the picture, he says, is the merciful face of Christ. You can find this interview and others just like it on NPR's Book of the Day podcast. Tune out the noise and listen every weekday. of the Day podcast. Tune out the noise and listen every weekday. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. President Trump says he'll announce a trade deal on Thursday morning. In an announcement on his platform to Social, Trump did not say which country is involved in the deal. But it would be the first agreement since the

president imposed tariffs on global imports. Representatives from the U.S. and China, meanwhile, are set to hold trade talks this weekend in Switzerland. The Federal Reserve Board's decision to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged sent stocks higher on Wall Street. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the central bank is taking a wait-and-see approach to President Trump's trade war. The Federal Reserve says the worldwide tariffs President Trump ordered last month raised the risk of higher inflation, higher unemployment, or, in the worst-case scenario, both.

But Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says it's not clear whether the tariffs will remain in place or just how they'll affect the economy, so he and his colleagues feel no great urgency to adjust interest rates just yet. Look at the state of the economy. The labor market is solid, inflation is low. We can afford to be patient as things unfold. There's no real cost to our waiting at this point. President Trump has repeatedly urged the central bank to lower interest rates, but Powell says

he and his colleagues are focused on the economy's performance, not social media posts from the White House. Scott Horsley in PR News, Washington. President Trump has changed his pick for Surgeon General and now wants a physician and author in that post. NPR's Will Stone has more. Trump had previously picked Fox News contributor Dr. Jeanette Neswatt, but has now pivoted

after questions emerged about her medical credentials. His new pick, Dr. Casey Means, gained popularity after publishing a bestseller on metabolic health. The co-author of her book is her brother, Callie Means, who's an advisor to Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Casey Means attended Stanford Medical School and went on to train as a surgeon, but ultimately dropped out of her residency program before finishing it because of what she described as her frustrations with mainstream medicine. She went on to co-found the biotech and wellness company Levels, which offers continuous glucose

monitoring devices to consumers. Will Stone, NPR News. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is stressing the need for judicial independence. Roberts says the high court's job is to decide cases and to check the excesses of Congress or the executive branch. Robert says the high court's job is to decide cases and to check the excesses of Congress or the executive branch. In our constitution, judges and the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the constitution as law and strike down, obviously,

acts of Congress or acts of the president. And that innovation doesn't work if it's not...the judiciary is not independent. Roberts was speaking at an event celebrating the 125th anniversary at the U.S. District Court for Western New York as comments come amid increasing attacks on federal judges who defy President Trump. This is NPR. A federal appeal court is giving the Trump administration seven days to transfer a Tufts University doctoral student to Vermont to continue her immigration detention.

Vermesa Ozturk was flown to Louisiana last month after being arrested near her Vermont home. Ozturk faces possible deportation to her native Turkey because of her pro-Palestinian activism. China's President Xi Jinping is in Moscow, partly to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War II. As NPR's Emily Fang reports, she is also there to show support for Vladimir Putin. She praised China's relationship with Russia as, quote, a friendship forged with blood in an essay published

in Russian media this week. China, the then Soviet Union and the US were all allies during World War II, a war remembered in China today as the anti-fascist war. While relations with the US are now tense, China and Russia are close collaborators once again. And China has been an important economic partner for Russia after it faced international sanctions for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. China's leader Xi is in Moscow on Vladimir Putin's invitation to commemorate the 80th anniversary

of the end of the war. The visit comes as the U.S. is trying to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, a deal that China has repeatedly offered to mediate as well. Emily Fang, NPR News. U.S. futures are virtually unchanged in after-hours trading on Wall Street following Wednesday's gains. On Asia Pacific markets, shares are higher, up 1 percent in Hong Kong. This is NPR News.

Look, we get it. When it comes to new music, there is a lot of it. And it all comes really fast. This is NPR News.