NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-09-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

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Does the idea of listening to political news freak you out? Well, don't sweat it. The NPR politics podcast makes politics a breeze. Every episode will break down the day's headlines into totally normal language and make sure that you walk away understanding what the day's news might mean for you. Take a deep breath and give politics another chance with the NPR politics podcast available wherever you get your podcasts. Lye from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter has died. He passed away yesterday at his home in New Hampshire at the age of 85. Souter is being remembered as a private figure whose impact on the nation's highest court was as a moderate

justice who bucked expectations. Souter was a Republican nominee in 1990, selected by then-President George H.W. Bush. But he surprised conservatives when he sided with his liberal colleagues on high-profile cases during his 19-year tenure. The new pope has not only made history as the first from the United States to be elected to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, he appears to have Creole roots in Louisiana. A New Orleans genealogist and the Pontiff's brother, John Pravos, are cited in multiple news reports about Pope Leo XIV's ancestry. However, according to the New York Times,

the pope's brother says the family did not identify as black. Prevost talked about what people can expect from his sibling. A regular run-of-the-mill person, I think because he was trained in missionary work in South America for so many years, he will be looking out for the disenfranchised. He will be looking out for the poor. Earlier Pletka Earlier today, the Pope, previously known as Cardinal Robert Prevost, celebrated his first mass in Sistine Chapel since his election yesterday. The Trump administration is officially granting refugee status to more than 50 white South Africans.

Kate Bartlett reports they're expected to begin arriving in the U.S. next week. Kate Bartlett The group of white South Africans could arrive at Dulles Airport as early as Monday, three sources with knowledge of the matter told NPR, which has also seen an email confirming the arrangements. The sources all work for the US government, so did not want to be named out of fear of retribution. This comes just three months after President Trump signed an executive order claiming Afrikaners

faced persecution in South Africa and could apply for refugee status in the United States. Afrikaners are the descendants of mainly Dutch colonists. The South African government says there is no evidence they are being persecuted and has accused the U.S. administration of being taken in by disinformation. For NPR News, I'm Kate Butler in Johannesburg. Trump's fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to hold the job. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports. Carla Hayden became the 14th Librarian of Congress in 2016. Back then, the big job of

head of her was bringing the library into the 21st century, digitizing the library's massive collection. But even as the world became more digital, she told NPR back then that the library was still important. The library now is even more of a sanctuary and even an opportunity center for so many people. The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world and is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress. It's NPR News.

Ahead of this weekend's U.S.-China trade talks in Geneva, President Trump took to truth social. Today, he wrote, quote, 80 percent tariff on China seems right. Up to Scott B. End quote. A reference to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, who is expected to be at the Geneva meeting. He'll be the first since the country's trade war escalated after President Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is planning to defund a program that catalogs

data on sea ice. Scientists say they worry the move will create a gap in climate research at a time when polar ice is nearing historic lows. Shelby Herbert with member station KUAC has details. NOAA funds the sea ice index which is basically an interactive catalog of the long-term retreat of Arctic sea ice. Updates stopped rolling in on Tuesday. Rick Tolman is a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy in Fairbanks. He says the index allowed scientists to track how the ice was changing over time. People ask me, you know, what's the sea ice concentration look like in the Bering Sea? What's the ice extent now compared to last year? In the short term

the answer is going to be we don't't know. Now, he says, climate scientists have one less important tool in their kit to study the Arctic, which is warming two to four times faster than the rest of the world. For NPR News, I'm Shelby Herbert in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Dow has fallen 214 points down roughly half a percent. It's NPR news.