NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-13-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Saudi Arabia is hosting a state dinner for President Trump, the culmination of a day of major announcements. One involves a shift in U.S. policy. Trump says the U.S. will lift sanctions on Syria. NPR's Frank Ordonez has more on that. President Trump made the announcement at the beginning of his four-day tour of the Middle East. Trump said he decided to lift the sanctions after speaking with the Saudi crown prince and the president of Turkey. There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace. That's what we want to see in Syria.

The president received extended applause for the announcement, which came near the end of his 45 minute address Trump is expected to meet briefly with the syrian president amad al shara on wednesday Trump added that secretary of state marco rubia would meet with his syrian counterpart later this week Franco ordonez npr news riad Trump's also celebrating business deals with Saudi Arabia totaling $600 billion. At the Riyadh Investors Forum earlier today, he outlined a list of defense and economic agreements signaling plans to deepen ties with Saudi Arabia. Trump repeatedly praised his host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Human rights groups are strongly critical of Salman. U.S. intelligence agencies had determined that MBS, as he's known, approved a capture or kill operation that resulted in the death of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi more than six years ago. The Trump administration says it is cutting an additional $450 million in grants to Harvard University. NPR's Alyssa Nadwani has more. In the latest escalation between the Trump administration and the world's wealthiest university, a federal anti-Semitism task force wrote a letter telling Harvard it will lose additional grants from eight federal agencies. This comes in addition to $2.2 billion that was already frozen last month by the administration.

The letter said Harvard faces, quote, steep uphill battle to reclaim academic excellence. It also said, quote, there is a dark problem on Harvard's campus and went on to say institutional leaders have forfeited the school's claim to taxpayer support. University officials did not immediately provide comment on the letter. The school is suing to block the federal funding freeze.

Alyson Adwornani, NPR News. Inflation's cooled for a third straight month. Consumer prices rose in April 2.3% from the year before. Meanwhile, NPR's Scott Horsley has market reaction to the 90-day reprieve in the U.S.-China trade war. Yeah, I think the market reaction suggest this was a bigger drop in tariffs than investors had been expecting.

And that's just another sign of how unpredictable the tariff landscape is under the Trump administration. NPR's Scott Horsley, the Dows closed down 269 points. The S&P was up 42. The NASDAQ closed up more than 300 points. It's NPR News. Cassie Ventura, the ex-girlfriend of hip hop tycoon Shawn Combs, testified against him today in a federal courtroom in Manhattan. She is one of the prosecution's star witnesses against Combs. And Piers Anastasias-Yulgas is following the trial.

And a note, this story includes mentions of physical and sexual assault. Cassie Ventura was a model and singer who signed a 10 album deal with Combs' record label when she was 19 years old. She claims that rather than releasing her music and furthering her career, Combs instead subjected her to years of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. On the stand, she said her main job was organizing

and participating in multi-day marathons of sex and drug use directed by Combs. She added, quote, there was no space to do anything else but to recover and try to feel normal again. Combs is accused of racketeering and sex trafficking. His lawyers say domestic violence, while a crime, is not sex trafficking or racketeering. Anastasiia Tsilkos and Perron News, New York. Reality TV star and businesswoman Kim Kardashian has testified against the defendants charged

in a 2016 jewelry heist in her Paris hotel room. Today, she told the French court she feared at the time that she would be raped and killed. She says thieves tied her up at gunpoint and proceeded to steal more than $6 million in jewelry. U.S. stocks close the day mixed with NASDAQ up 1.5%. You're listening to NPR News.