NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-09-2025 7AM 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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Kuhlmann. Pope Leo XIV has celebrated the first mass of his papacy today

at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The new pope is an American. The former Robert Prevost was born in Chicago. He was close to the late Pope Francis and is expected to echo similar themes to Francis's, such as care for the poor and advocacy for migrants. But it appears Jason DeRose says Pope Leo also faces criticism from earlier in his ministry. Survivors of clergy sexual abuse say Cardinal Prevost

did not do enough to address the issue as a bishop or archbishop or cardinal. That's true of many in church leadership. Now the question is how he'll respond to victims going forward. He's also come under criticism for comments on LGBTQ people. Back in 2012, he lamented what he called the culture's sympathy with, quote, the homosexual lifestyle. NPR's Jason DeRose reporting from Rome. President Trump is appointing Fox News host and former judge and prosecutor Jeanine Pirro

as the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, the president announced the move after pulling the nomination of his first choice for the job, Ed Martin. In a post on social media, Trump praises Pirro and says she's, quote, incredibly well qualified for this position. Jeanine Pirro previously served as district attorney of Westchester County in New York, but she left that job 20 years ago.

Since then, she's become a prominent face on Fox News and other conservative media. She has a record as a fierce defender of Trump and notably she promoted false claims about the 2020 presidential election. It's unclear when the Senate will consider Pirro's nomination to be interim US attorney for the nation's capital. Alaina Moore, NPR News. President Trump has fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. Hayden is the first

woman and the first black American to serve as the nation's top librarian. A federal court has struck down Alabama's congressional district map. It said the map intentionally discriminates against black voters. And Beers-Debbie Elliott reports, the ruling comes in an ongoing voting rights case that resulted in Alabama getting a second black member of Congress.

A panel of three federal judges says the Alabama legislature intentionally drew its congressional district map to dilute black voting strength, which is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act. The court enjoined the state from using the map in future elections.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit that made it to the US Supreme Court, which agreed that Alabama's congressional map was discriminatory in a state where African-Americans make up about a quarter of the population. Black voters who sued called the ruling a testament to the persistence of generations of black Alabamians who pursued political equality at great cost.

Debbie Elliott, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. A federal judge holds a hearing today in Vermont for a Tufts University doctoral student. The Trump administration is seeking to deport Ramesa Ozturk. A federal appeals court has already ordered the administration to take her out of detention in Louisiana and move her to Vermont while her case is decided. Ozturk has not been charged with a crime.

She published an essay criticizing her university over the war in Gaza. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has retired its influential billion-dollar disaster report. NPR's Alejandro Barrundo reports NOAA is cutting, rather citing, the shift in priorities under the Trump administration. The report counts up the number of major environmental disasters like hurricanes or wildfires that cost the country more than $1 billion to deal with in any year. In 1980, when it started, there were three disasters.

By last year, there were 27, and the cost tallied up to a total of $182 billion just for that year. One important cause of the rise? Climate change. It's making disasters like droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes more dangerous and costly. Another cause? Americans continue to live and build in dangerous places like flood zones and the urban wildland interface. The report helped highlight those changes.

Experts say its loss will make it harder to understand climate change's cost to the U.S. Alejandra Burunda, NPR News. The World Video Hall of Fame inducted new members. One of them is a children's favorite, Tamagotchi. These are the digital pets that united both toys and video games. This is NPR.

When Malcolm Gladwell is NPR.