NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-29-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

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On NPR's Thru Line, witnesses were ending up dead. How the hunt for gangster Al Capone launched the IRS to power. Find NPR's Thru Line wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States is going to quote aggressively provoke visas from students from China. The announcement comes after a court blocked the Trump administration's attempt to terminate visas from nearly 2,000 international students.

NPR's Emily Fang has more. EMILY FANG The State Department said in a cable this week it was pausing interview sign-ups for new student visa applicants in order to adequately screen their social media profiles. And now Rubio says the U.S. will enhance visa application scrutiny for students coming from China and Hong Kong and terminate the visas for students with quote connections to China's ruling Communist Party

and those who study in what he called critical fields. Depending on how broadly the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security define those criteria, this could affect many of the some 280,000 Chinese students at all levels in the US. China is the second biggest source of international students in the US, having recently been eclipsed by India. Emily Fang and Pure News Washington. A panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade says President Trump's sweeping tariffs on global imports are illegal.

The panel says Trump overstepped his authority by using the Emergency Powers Act to justify the import levies. White House spokesperson Kush Desai says trade deficits are a national emergency that's decimated U.S. communities and left American workers behind. President Trump pardoned a handful of people on Wednesday, including a former congressman and two reality TV stars. Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland also made the list, as WSHU's Molly Ingram reports. Roland was Connecticut's governor from 1995 until 2004 when he resigned amid a corruption scandal.

He had accepted illegal gifts, including vacations, flights, and improvements to his home from people who wanted state contracts. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud and spent 10 months in prison. A decade later, Roland was found guilty of two counts of falsification of records in connection 10 months in prison. A decade later, Rowland was found guilty of two counts of falsification of records in connection with a congressional campaign. He was sentenced to

another 30 months in prison. In addition to Rowland, Trump pardoned former U.S. Representative Michael Grimm from New York and reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley. He also commuted the sentence of Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover. For NPR News, I'm Mollie Ingram in Fairfield, Connecticut. British prosecutors have released a list of charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate. As Bill and Marks reports, the sibling personalities are accused of rape. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service says Andrew faces 10 charges linked to three alleged victims, while Tristan faces 11 linked to a single victim. The charges also include assault and prostitution. The brothers, dual US-UK

nationals, are still under ongoing criminal investigations in Romania. British officials acknowledge that those must be settled before they can be extradited back to the UK. This is NPR. Harvard has agreed to hand over what are believed to be the oldest photos of South Carolina slaves. The agreement settles a 15-years-long legal battle between the Ivy League school and a woman who says she is a descendant of one of the slaves in the photos. The 175-year-old images are to be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology to

the International African American Museum in South Carolina. Many doctors specializing in women's health say they're grieving the loss of researchers that issued guidelines on birth control. As NPR's Katie Ariddle reports, the team was among the hundreds of employees cut from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eight people were on the CDC team. Their job was to stay up to date on research around contraception and keep clinicians in America up to date on it as well. Doctors say without this team,

they're at a disadvantage. Andrea Braden is an obstetrician in Atlanta, Georgia. It was such a great resource and they put so much time into it. And I don't know where the motivation is coming from. I don't know who decided that that was, you know, not necessary anymore, but it deeply affected all OB-GYNs. NPR reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for an explanation about the cuts and did not receive a response. Katie Arrett, NPR News. The Florida Panthers have advanced to their third consecutive Stanley Cup final. The Panthers beat Carolina 5-3 in Game 5 of the playoffs. U.S. futures are higher in after-hours trading on Wall Street.

After Wednesday's losses, the Dow fell 244 points, and Asian market shares are mixed. This is NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply.