NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-12-2025 10PM EDT

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

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With a major shift in our politics underway in this country, 1A is drilling down on what's at stake for you and our democracy. In our weekly series, If You Can Keep It, we put these changes into focus and answer your questions about the impact of the Trump administration on the U.S. Join us every Monday for If You Can Keep It on the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Americans pay higher prescription drug prices than patients in other countries. And today, President Trump signed a new executive order aimed at changing that.

Here's NPR's Sydney Lupkin. President Trump wants the U.S. to pay less for prescription drugs. He signed an executive order today aiming to force pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices voluntarily. Called most favored nation policy, Trump wants U.S. drug prices to be tied to those in other developed countries. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to give price targets to the industry within 30 days.

If the industry doesn't comply voluntarily, the order lays out steps the administration can take to impose lower prices, such as administrative rulemaking. However, it's not immediately clear in the short term what authority the Trump administration has to enforce the order. Sydney Lepkin, NPR News. A federal judge is refusing to block the IRS

from sharing immigrants' tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, for the purpose of identifying and deporting people in the U.S. illegally, MPH's Jasmine Garz reports. There are restrictions on what kind of information ICE can request from the IRS, but U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, has denied a preliminary injunction. The decision comes weeks after IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause resigned over a deal to allow ICE to use IRS tax records to identify immigrants without legal status in the U.S. ICE has said working with the IRS is strictly for major criminal cases.

Various non-profit groups argued that immigrants who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy as U.S. citizens, regardless of their legal status. They argued that to do otherwise threatens the privacy of all Americans. Jasmine Garst, NPR News, New York. The U.S. and China have agreed to scale back their trade war for now. The two countries following a weekend meeting in Geneva, both agreeing to go from triple digit tariffs to much smaller tariff levels for the next 90 days as they seek to hammer out a broader deal. NPR's Scott Horstey said that it's likely to now spark an effort to restart stalled

shipments of goods coming from China to the US. It could be a real scramble. I talked to Bonnie Ross, who imports clothing for discount chains like Burlington. When the sky-high tariffs were announced last month, she actually pulled two containers off of a ship and they've been sitting at a factory in China all this time. When Ross heard about the 90-day reduction in tariffs this morning, she went right to work trying to get that merchandise and maybe more to the US. As to what happens next, it's not clear.

The U.S. lowered tariffs to 30 percent while China cut its tariffs on U.S. goods to 10 percent. That move sparked a relief rally on Wall Street stocks up sharply today. The Dow gained more than 1,100 points. Nasdaq rose 779 points today. You're listening to NPR. The prosecution and the defense in the Sean Diddy Combs trial delivered their opening statements to a packed courtroom today. Two witnesses testified as NPR's Isabel Gomez Sarmiento reports. Prosecutors alleged that Sean Combs used his businesses to carry out and cover up crimes.

His defense attorneys argued that the rapper and music mogul was in toxic relationships that had nothing to do with his companies. After opening arguments, two government witnesses testified. First, a Los Angeles police officer who was working as a hotel security guard in 2016, described how he responded to an altercation between Combs and his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

Video of the incident, which shows Combs kicking and dragging Ventura, has been widely viewed since CNN obtained and released a version of it last year. Then, a man who claims Ventura paid him for sexual encounters that Combs watched took the stand. He said he witnessed Combs violently attack Ventura more than once. Testimony will continue on Tuesday.

Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento, NPR News. Ukraine is accusing Russia of launching more than once. Testimony will continue on Tuesday. Isabella Gomez-Armiento, NPR News. Ukraine is accusing Russia of launching more than 100 Shaheed drones along with decoys as part of a nighttime attack. It comes after the Kremlin is effectively rejected in an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. It's now more than a three-year-old war against Ukraine. For Moscow said it will take part in peace talks later this week without preconditions. There was no direct response from the Kremlin to a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

His Russian counterpart met him face-to-face for talks in Turkey on Thursday. Critical futures prices move higher today. Oil up 93 cents a barrel to $61.95 a barrel. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from NYU Langone. a barrel. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.