NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-11-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

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When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's Throughline podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity. On Throughline, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism. Time travel with us every week on the Throughline podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. 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 short of announcing a 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 percent 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 in Peer News. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is heading to Israel tomorrow, sources tell NPR, to work out details of the Hamas prisoner release of Eden Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and the last known living American still being held in Gaza. Hamas said today they will release him as part of steps to end the war with Israel, and they say they want the ceasefire talks to start immediately. Alexander has been held since October 7th, 2023,

when Hamas attacked southern Israel, kidnapping hundreds. President Trump heads to the mid-east this week on a four-day trip to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he'll travel to Turkey Thursday for direct talks proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin if Putin

agrees to a 30-day ceasefire tomorrow. And Piers Joannica Kisses reports, Ukraine says there can't be serious negotiations to end the war unless there's a truce first. In his nightly video address, Zelensky said he was optimistic that Russia could agree to a ceasefire on Monday. I will be in Turkey on May 15th and I will be waiting there for Putin," Zelensky said. And I hope this time Putin will not look for reasons why he cannot do something. On Saturday the Russian leader said he was ready for direct talks with Ukraine but did

not address a ceasefire. The same day the leaders of four major European countries traveled to Kiev. Together with Zelensky they proposed an unconditional ceasefire that would last 30 days starting on Monday. President Trump says he supports the proposal. Joanna Kikissis, NPR News, Kiev. Pope Leo delivered his first Sunday message in St. Peter's Square today to tens of thousands of people gathered calling on world leaders to end wars and for a lasting peace in Ukraine and Gaza.

I'm deeply hurt by what is happening in the Gaza Strip. May a ceasefire immediately come into effect. Heard there through an interpreter as he was speaking Italian. This is NPR News. Tufts University doctoral student Ramesa Ozturk arrived back in Boston last night, six weeks after immigration officers took her to a detention center in Louisiana. A federal judge in Vermont ordered her release. Agents arrested her after the government revoked her visa, which she says happened without notice. She's due back in

federal court in Vermont later this month for her case alleging she was unlawfully detained. The government is still seeking to deport her. A new study has found that well over 99 percent of the earth's deep sea floor remains unseen by human eyes. Ampere's Nell Greenfield-Boice reports, it's a region of the globe that's cold, dark, and difficult to reach. More than half of the planet's surface is covered by the deep ocean. Sonar can map the shape of the seafloor, but seeing what's happening there means sending lights and a camera down into the dark. Katie Croft-Bell is with a with a nonprofit called the Ocean Discovery League. She recently made a database of all the expeditions that send any kind of probe down

to see how much of the deep seafloor has actually been seen since the 1950s. It ends up being an area of less than the size of Rhode Island. In the journal Science Advances, she and her colleagues report that most of the explored areas are with 200 nautical miles of the United States, Japan, and New Zealand. So it's a fairly narrow sample of the global seafloor. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. And I'm Janene Hurst. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington.

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