NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-23-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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These days, there's a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider this from NPR as a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This Podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korova Coleman, President Trump is again threatening to impose new tariffs. Writing online, he threatened to impose steep levies on goods from the European Union as well as on Apple for making iPhones overseas.

NPR's Danielle Kurtz-Levin has more. President Trump wrote that trade discussions with the EU were going nowhere. He added that therefore, quote, I am recommending a straight 50% tariff on the European Union starting on June 1st, 2025. As the president has previously imposed tariffs via executive actions, it is unclear what he meant when he said he was recommending new tariffs. In early April, Trump announced 20% tariffs on EU goods as part of a wave of higher tariffs on most countries.

He later pulled those back, and the EU rate currently stands at 10 percent. Trump in a separate post said that he has told Apple CEO Tim Cook that iPhones have to be manufactured in the United States. If not, Trump added, Apple would have to pay a tariff of 25 percent. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News, The White House. Harvard University has sued the Trump administration for a second time. NPR's Alyssa Nadwarni reports this comes a day after the Department of Homeland Security said it would block international students from attending the university. In the lawsuit

the university accused the Trump administration of retaliating against Harvard for exercising its First Amendment rights. The lawsuit follows a letter sent Thursday by Christy Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. In it, she says the administration is terminating Harvard's student exchange certification, which means the school can no longer sponsor student visas, impacting new students and currently enrolled

international students. Noem says the administration is holding Harvard accountable for, quote, fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. the administration is holding Harvard accountable for quote fostering violence, anti-Semitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. The university has nearly 7,000 international students, roughly one-fourth of the student body. Elissa Nadwarni, NPR News. Ukraine says the first stage of a massive prisoner exchange is underway. Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky says nearly 400 Ukrainian troops held by Russia have been exchanged today and more are coming. NPR's Joanna Kekis's reports from Ukraine were families of captured troops are holding out hope. At the request of Ukrainian authorities who cite security reasons, NPR is not disclosing the location where the families are waiting. Katya Koval weeps as she holds a banner emblazoned with an image of her husband, Grigoriy, a soldier.

He has been in the captivity since December 7, 2023. I hope he will be exchanged today. One thousand Ukrainian POWs are expected to come home if the exchange happens as planned. Joanna Kekises, NPR News. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 324 points. The Nasdaq is down more than 200 points. This is NPR. Democrats in Congress are introducing a bill that

would shift control of the US Marshals Service from the Justice Department to the federal courts. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports there's concern the marshals could be caught in a power struggle. Congressman Eric Swalwell of California worries the Trump administration could order the Marshals Service not to enforce a court order or remove security protection from judges who ruled against the White House. That's why he and other Democrats in Congress are trying to move the Marshal's service out of the chain of command at the Justice Department and under the wing of Chief Justice John Roberts and the policymaking body of the federal courts. This year, judges have faced violent threats

and calls for impeachment because they've ruled against President Trump and the Doge team remaking the government. The courts have asked for an increase in security funding to help confront those threats. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. -"Sesame Street Rockstar Kermit the Frog was a commencement speaker yesterday

as one of the original Muppets he spoke at the University of Maryland College Park's graduation ceremony. Kermit made sure to give life advice. The show must go on and if you're with your people then you won't have to do it alone because life is not a solo act. No it's not. It's a big, messy, delightful ensemble piece, especially when you're with your people. This was kind of a homecoming for Kermit the Frog. His creator was the late Jim Henson. He graduated from Maryland in 1960.

I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News. This is Fresh Air contributor Anne-Marie Baldonado. I'm Cora VaColeman, NPR News.