NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-09-2025 2AM EDT

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

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Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered, that's NPR's music recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week. Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm She Shae Stevens the Vatican's 133 cardinal electors have chosen American Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new pope Prevost a missionary from Chicago has taken the name Pope Leo the 14th NPR's Ruth Sherlock was in st. Peter's Square Thursday as people from around the world

gathered to hear the results of the papal conclave. Just incredible variety. It's amazing walking through the crowd because you hear languages from all over the world. It's such an international scene. And then you had people who had brought their small children, tiny babies. I've met somebody who had a baby who was just days old, you know, coming hoping that they would be blessed by the new pope. Also, a French woman in a shimmering gold sequin floor-length ball gown had come to celebrate this moment. NPR's Ruth Sherlock in Rome. The Trump administration has granted refugee status to 54 white South

Africans who could arrive in the United States next week. The move comes months after President Trump, his South African-born adviser, Elon Musk, and others claim that Afrikaners were being persecuted under a new land reform law. The South African government says it has not taken any land from the country's descendants of mainly Dutch colonizers and that doing so without compensation would be rare. Russia is marking the 80th anniversary

of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. As NPR's Charles Mains reports from Moscow, the events are deeply intertwined with Russia's war in Ukraine. Charles Mains, NPR News, The NPR News, The NPR News Victory Day is Russia's most solemn holiday, a moment when the country pays respect to the more than 20 million Soviets who died fighting Hitler's armies. More controversially, Russian President Vladimir Putin has drawn comparisons

between that sacrifice and what he frames as a war against neo-fascism in modern-day Ukraine. Western powers, many of them Soviet allies 80 years ago, reject that narrative and are skipping the Moscow event. Yet the Kremlin will seek to show it still has plenty of friends. Chinese President Xi Jinping headlines a group of 29 mostly autocratic leaders joining Putin on Red Square for a Soviet-style military parade, one in which Putin is expected to promise another victory, this time in Ukraine. Charles Mainz, MPR News, Moscow. Bill Gates is marking the 25th anniversary of his namesake foundation, with a new commitment

to spend down its more than $200 billion fortune over the next two decades. Gates says he believes the foundation can achieve its goal of helping people live healthier and more productive lives in a shorter period of time. I'm worried, you know, the US medical research has been hugely beneficial to the world. So, you know, I think the. commitment to medical research is great.

We got to make sure it continues and we'll try and influence it in the right direction. The Gates Foundation is a supporter of NPR. You're listening to NPR. The Trump administration has announced a three-year plan to overhaul the nation's air traffic control system. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffey says the plan would include new air traffic control centers and towers, upgrading data and communication systems. The move follows a series of flight disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey in recent weeks. Over the last few weeks,

California beachgoers have been treated to a beautiful marine life wonder. Hundreds of thousands of glittering sea creatures have washed ashore. And NPR's Vanessa Romo reports 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 villela, 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 villelas are nowhere near as dangerous. Vanessa Romo, NPR News. U.S US futures are flat in after hours trading on Wall Street. On Asia Pacific markets, shares are mixed at this hour, down a fraction in Shanghai, and up 1.6% in Tokyo. This is NPR News. On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about

helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's important in the news. Close out the week with us on our Friday News Roundup. Hear from reporters who've been embedded with the biggest news of the week. Join us every week for the Friday News Roundup. Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU.