NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-09-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: May 9, 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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. President Trump says an 80 percent tariff on Chinese goods seems right. Currently, it's at 145 percent. Trump says the next trade steps are up to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. Besant will meet Chinese trade officials this weekend in Switzerland. Pope Leo XIV has begun his papacy by celebrating mass in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.

The former Cardinal Robert Prevost is from Chicago, but he also spent decades ministering in Peru. NPR's Silvio Pujol, he says, Prevost's choice of Leo as his papal name reveals a link with history. The last Leo was Leo XIII, and he was known for his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum of new things. In it he outlined the rights of workers to fair wages, safe working conditions, and the creation of trade unions.

The document also affirmed the right to own property, free enterprise, and it was opposed to both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. Leo XIII was called the social pope or the workers' pope, and he is really seen as the founder of the Catholic Church's social doctrine. And Piers Soviet Pugoli reporting from Rome. The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been replaced. This comes after he appeared to disagree with the Trump administration's calls to eliminate FEMA. NPR's Jeff Brady reports. FEMA has been criticized for its disaster response in recent years. Now the agency confirms that acting administrator Cameron Hamilton is no longer serving in that capacity. No

details were offered on why he's gone, but earlier this week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said this on Capitol Hill. The president has indicated he wants to eliminate FEMA as it exists today and to have states have more control over their emergency management response. Then on Wednesday, Hamilton said this during a different congressional hearing. I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A FEMA spokesperson says Homeland Security Assistant Secretary David Richardson is now

serving as acting administrator. Jeff Brady, NPR News. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has unveiled a sweeping plan to modernize U.S. air traffic control. NPR's Scott Newman reports that includes upgrading tracking systems, putting in new ground radar, and revamping the flight management system. At a news conference with airline CEOs and the heads of the FAA and NTSB, Duffy cited January's deadly midair collision in DC and recent problems at Newark Airport as urgent reasons for action. He said President Trump is committed to solving the problem once and for all.

He doesn't want to take this problem and pass it to the next administration, to the next secretary, to a next set of victims. He didn't give a price tag, but said with full funding from Congress, the overhaul could be done in three to four years. Scott Newman, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR News. A militant group in Sudan continues to attack the eastern city of Port Sudan. About a quarter of a million refugees are sheltering there.

Relief agencies say that fighting is blocking the delivery of their aid. They warn supplies could run out in that part of Sudan at the end of the month. Today, Russia is marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. But the events are deeply intertwined with Russia's current war in Ukraine. NPR's Charles Means has more from Moscow. 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. Chinese President Xi Jinping headlines a group of 29 mostly autocratic leaders joining Putin on Red Square for a Soviet-style military parade.

With Charles Maynes, NPR News, Moscow. The Academy of Country Music Awards has given its top honor, entertainer of the year, to Lainey Wilson. This is the second year in a row she's won the honor. Last night she debuted a new song with country stars Miranda Lambert and Reba McEntire, called Trailblazer. Talk about a trailblazer. Cutting one tenth at a time. Running like a dream chaser.

Laney Lambert and McEntire co-wrote the song with Brandi Clark. The music is courtesy of the Academy of Country Music. This is NPR. Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good, watch the movie everyone's been talking about, Academy of Country Music. This is NPR.