NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-11-2025 11PM EDT

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

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On this week's Wild Card podcast, Wanda Sykes says she can have a hard time understanding God. What is the plan, man? What is the lesson here? Yeah, it's like, oh boy, you are in a pickle right now, God. What you gonna do about this? I'm Rachel Martin. Wanda Sykes is on Wild Card, the show where cards control the conversation.

Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. China is calling recently concluded trade talks with the U.S. candid and constructive. But as NPR's Emily Fang reports, the two countries stopped well short of announcing a comprehensive trade deal. China's Vice Premier He Li-feng, who led the Chinese side of the negotiations at the weekend talks in Geneva, were quote, in-depth. And he said there would be more details released on Monday about a trade consultation mechanism between the US and China.

President Trump suggested dropping a minimum base of 145% tariffs on Chinese goods down to 80% before the weekend talks. China has set base 125% tariffs on American goods and retaliation. That's high enough that trade between the world's two largest economies has effectively been halted. The two countries did not mention lowering levies after their talks. Emily Fang and Peer News. Pope Leo XIV made his first Sunday noon blessing his pontiff today. Speaking from St. Peter's Basilica to a crowd of about 100,000 people.

He called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. He's heard here through a translator. I carry in my heart the suffering of the beloved Ukrainian people. May whatever is possible be done to reach an authentic, true and lasting peace as quickly as possible. May all the prisoners be freed. May children return to their families. Leo also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza with the release of hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid. And in a nod to Pope Francis, he also said, never again war. The Federal Aviation Administration says a runway equipment issue caused delays at the Atlanta airport

today. Plane arrivals were slowed while technicians dealt with the problem. In a separate announcement, the FAA says operations have returned to normal at Newark Airport. Air traffic was slowed today because of, the FAA says operations have returned to normal at Newark Airport. Air traffic was slowed today because of what the FAA called a telecommunications issue. The Trump administration warns that such problems could happen elsewhere. NPR's Luke Garrett has more on our story. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tells NBC's Meet the Press it is safe to fly out

of Newark, but flight volume needs to be scaled back. I want you to get to where you're traveling. And if that means slowing down flights into Newark, we slow them down to make sure we can do it safely. Duffy says the outdated air traffic control systems are to blame, and it's an issue that other airports face across the country. I'm concerned about the whole airspace, right? The equipment that we use, much of it we can't buy parts for new. We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down.

Duffy says the Trump administration's plan to overhaul the nation's air traffic control system will take three to four years. In the meantime, he says planes remain the safest way to travel. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR News. NPR News, Washington. This is NPR News. Two shipwrecks off the shore of Costa Rica were long thought to be sunken pirate vessels, but new research shows they were actually Danish ships carrying enslaved people. As NPR's Jacob Fenstin reports, the findings suggest that hundreds of Africans may have

found freedom after the wreck. In the early 1700s, the ships were headed from Ghana to the Danish colony of St. Thomas and its brutal sugar plantations. They missed that island by more than a thousand miles. About a hundred of the enslaved people were sold to the Spanish. But the other 500 may have been freed. Andreas Bloch is with the National Museum of Denmark. So they could have gone into the mountains.

They could have joined with the mosquito Indians, with the British. So we really don't know where the remaining 500 went. Block and the other researchers collected samples from the shipwrecks' cargo and were able to match them to materials unique to Denmark at the time. Jacob Fenston, NPR News. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he'll reduce the number of flights in and out of Newark International Airport for the next several weeks.

That airport has recently struggled with radar outages and a number of flight delays because in part of a shortage of air traffic controllers, the latest problem came on Sunday when a telecommunications issue briefly slowed air traffic. Marvel's Thunderbolts brought in $33.1 million this weekend. It's the action flick's second week in north american movie theaters the vampire movie sinners came in second it added twenty one point one million dollars to its four week total which pushed across the two hundred million dollar mark in domestic sales

i'm dale willman and p r news does the idea of listening to political news freak you out I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.