NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-23-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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Look, we get it. When it comes to new music, there is a lot of it, and it all comes really fast. But on All Songs Considered, NPR's music recommendation podcast, we'll handpick what we think is the greatest music happening right now and give you your next great listen. So kick back, settle in, get those eardrums wide open, and get your dose of new music from All Songs Considered only from NPR. Lyle from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump's showing no signs of budging on his threat to raise tariffs on the European Union. I'm not looking for a deal. I mean, we've set the deal. It's at 50 percent. Trump speaking at the White House moments ago on his demands on the EU. NPR's Danielle

Kurtz-Leibin has more details. President Trump wrote that trade discussions on the EU. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben has more details. 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 percent 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 and PR's Danielle Kurtz Laban Trump's also threatening a 25 percent tariff on Apple if it does not make its smartphones in the United States And he says Apple's not alone. It would be more. It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair. So anybody that makes that product and that'll start on, I guess,

the end of June, it'll come out. I think we have that appropriately done by the end of June. So if they make that product now, again, when they build their plant here, there's no tariff. Well, critics say the tariffs could cause smartphone prices to be unaffordable for many users. The administration has held a fifth round of talks with Iran to try to block Iran's pathway to a nuclear bomb. Amman, which is mediating, reported some but not conclusive progress. And Pierce Michelle Kellerman reports that the diplomacy takes place against a backdrop of Israeli threats

to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran's foreign minister wrote on social media that a path to a deal is not, quote, rocket science. In his words, zero nuclear weapons equals we do have a deal, zero enrichment equals we do not have a deal. The State Department says the U.S. position is that Iran should not be able to enrich uranium, and the White House has been warning Iran that this could end in two ways, a positive diplomatic solution or a, quote, very negative situation for Iran. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, the State Department. There's been a mass attack in the German city of Hamburg.

Police say a suspect stabbed multiple people at the city's central railway station. They say 12 individuals were injured, several of them critically. No details on the suspect, though. However, police posted on the social media platform X that a person has been arrested. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 145 points. At 41,710, the S&P is down 26. The Nasdaq is off 147. This is NPR News. More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza according to health officials there. Some in Israel are speaking out, saying the war has lost sight of the goal of bringing home the more than 50 hostages still held there. Here's NPR's Hadil Al-Jalchi.

At a protest, a couple of hundred people beat drums and shout anti-war slogans. 100 people beat drums and shout anti-war slogans. The Gaza border is just across the street and over a tall barrier where the war continues. One of the hostages who was killed in captivity taught solely Abraham's children. He says the war isn't the solution anymore. Children are getting dead over there. We want our hostages to be home. And all the situation right now is not really contributing to bring them home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expanded the war last week and has vowed to occupy Gaza. Hadil Alshalchi, NPR News, Otev, Southern Israel. South African governments out with new data that authorities say contradict the Trump administration's claims of genocide against white farmers. Here's Kate Bartlett. South Africa never breaks down its crime statistics by race. On Friday, after repeated attacks by the US administration, it did. Six people were murdered on farms in the first quarter of 2025, police minister Senzo Machunu said. Of those, one was white. The minister said the statistics have always shown more

black people are murdered on farms. The US administration has given refugee status to white Afrikaner South Africans, it says, of fleeing, quote, genocide. That's NPR's Kate Bartlett reporting. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington. World news is important, but it can feel far away. Not on the State of the World podcast. Simeez Singh, NPR News in Washington.