NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-08-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

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Starting in the 1950s, there was a push to get meat onto Americans' plates at every meal. So you would have breakfast with maybe perhaps sausage offered. You'd have lunch where it would be deli meat sandwiches. And you'd have dinner that would center over a large cut of meat. The hidden forces behind our everyday decisions. That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Cora Vick-Coleman. President Trump is confirming he's ready to sign a big trade deal with the United Kingdom.

NPR's Lauren Fraher reports from London. It's the first such trade agreement he's announced since he imposed global tariffs. Britain had been lobbying the White House for relief from U.S. tariffs on British steel, cars and the British film industry. It had also been looking for a carve out for any future U.S. tariffs on British steel, cars, and the British film industry. It had also been looking for a carve out for any future US tariffs on British pharmaceuticals. The US in turn had been asking for relief from a digital sales tax the UK imposed on e-commerce firms like Amazon. This may be Trump's first trade deal since what he called Liberation Day when he imposed tariffs on most foreign imports into the US. But for the UK, it's

also part of an effort to strike new post-Brexit trade deals. Since Britain left the European Union five years ago, it's been negotiating new trade rules with individual countries, and it signed a deal with India earlier this week. Lauren Fraher, NPR News, London. The Roman Catholic College of Cardinals has again sent up black smoke in the chimney of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. They did the same thing yesterday. This means they have not yet chosen a new pope. The cardinals will have more opportunities to vote today to select a new pontiff. When they do choose a new pope, they'll send white smoke up the Sistine Chapel chimney.

And Piers-Sarah Ventry reports St. Peter's Square is jammed with onlookers who are eager for news. Thousands of people are milling around St. Peter's Square is jammed with onlookers who are eager for news. Thousands of people are milling around St. Peter's Square right now. You can hear people speaking in all different languages. There are tour groups, there are clergy, pilgrims, curious onlookers, just people from all over the world who are really excited to see what's going to happen and to find out who the next pope is going to be. And Piers Cereventri reporting from St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

A federal appeals court is giving the Trump administration one week to transfer a Tufts University doctoral student from her detention in Louisiana to a facility in Vermont. And Piers Cere of Martinez Beltran reports she plans to continue challenging her immigration arrest. Federal immigration agents arrested Trumezaa Ozturk in Massachusetts in March and since then she's been at a federal facility in Louisiana. This ruling is a win for Ozturk. Legal experts have said that fighting deportation is more challenging in Louisiana than in Vermont.

That's because any appeal from the southern state would be considered by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative courts in the nation. Ozturk, who is from Turkey, has not been charged with a crime, but the Department of Homeland Security has accused her of engaging, quote, in activities in support of Hamas. Last year, Ozturk co-authored an opinion essay on Tufts University's handling of criticism related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Sergio Martinez Beltran, NPR News. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy

is scheduled to hold a news conference later today. He's expected to announce plans to address problems in the nation's air traffic control system. This comes after news of an air traffic outage last week at Newark's airport in New Jersey. This is NPR. The UN says that relief operations in Sudan are in serious jeopardy. The rebel rapid support forces have attacked the eastern

city of Port Sudan for days. It is sheltering about a quarter of a million refugees. The UN cannot fly planes filled with aid into Port Sudan. The city's airport is the main hub that gets relief aid that reaches many Sudanese citizens. In the U.S., amid federal layoffs and funding cuts, a group that manages grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park says it is grappling with how best to address a rising number of conflicts between humans and bears.

From Montana Public Radio, Ellis Julin reports. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee is made up of state and federal agencies across Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. In a recent meeting, conversations around managing the region's growing bear population were marked by uncertainty, oversweeping layoffs and funding cuts

under the Trump administration. Hillary Cooley with the US Fish and Wildlife Service notes her agency's director has not yet been confirmed. We don't really know what our priorities are and don't have a direction. So there's some things that are on hold in particular with the Grizzly program, but across the board until we have a director installed. The population is currently estimated at 1,050 bears, and the committee says there was a significant increase in human-bear conflicts in 2024. For NPR News, I'm Ellis Zhu-Lin in Missoula, Montana.

First Lady Melania Trump will unveil a new postage stamp today honoring one of her predecessors, the late former First Lady Barbara Bush. Mrs. Bush was the wife of the late former President George H.W. Bush and the mother of former President George W. Bush. This is NPR. Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good, watch the movie everyone's President George W. Bush. This is NPR.