NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-29-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

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World news is important, but it can feel far away. Not on the State of the World podcast. With journalists around the world, you'll hear firsthand the effects of U.S. trade actions in Canada and China. And meet a Mexican street sweeper who became a pop star. We don't go around the world. We're already there. Listen to the State of the World podcast from NPR every weekday.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Krova Coleman. A federal court has blocked President Trump's sweeping tariffs. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the U.S. Court of International Trade says Trump overstepped his authority by taxing imports from nearly every other country. In a unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel said the Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to regulate trade and impose tariffs. The court says the 1977 emergency law Trump relied on in ordering tariffs does not give the President unbounded power to tax imports from nearly every other country.

If that ruling stands, it would strike down all the tariffs that Trump ordered on April 2, as well as separate taxes on imports from China, Canada, and Mexico, some of which have been temporarily suspended. The tariffs were challenged by a dozen states and five businesses. The three judges who ruled against the president were appointed by Presidents Reagan, Obama, and Trump himself. Scott Horsley in PR News, Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. will aggressively revoke visas from many Chinese students. The Chinese government says today this exposes hypocrisy behind America's proclaimed values

of freedom and openness. Microchip maker Nvidia is reporting better than expected earnings in its latest quarter. Company sales jumped 69 percent from the prior year. NPR's John Rewich reports that surgeon sales comes as big purchaser. China effectively could not buy NVIDIA's best chips. NVIDIA makes some of the world's leading microchips for the development of artificial intelligence, and its sales highlight strong demand driven by intense global competition in the space. And that's without China as a market. The U. The US government

has effectively banned the export to China of Nvidia's best chips, citing national security concerns. Still, the company made more than $44 billion in revenue in the first fiscal quarter, and its net income was $18.78 billion, an increase of 26%. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been a sharp critic of the policy that shuts out China. On an earnings call, he said shielding China's own chip makers from U.S. competition only strengthens them abroad. NVIDIA's shares rose nearly five percent in after-hours trading following the earnings news. John Ruch, NPR News. The Department of Health and Human Services has canceled the only federal contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against the bird flu virus.

And Biers Robbstein has more. Federal officials are canceling a contract with Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine to protect people against flu strains that could cause pandemics. That includes the H5N1 bird flu virus that's been spreading among dairy cows in the U.S. The cancellation comes even though the company says a study involving 300 healthy adults has produced positive results.

An HHS spokesman says the contract was canceled because of concerns about the safety of mRNA vaccines. Rob Stein, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says travel delays and security concerns should be easing at Newark Liberty International Airport. Airline executives and federal officials recently limited the air traffic using the New Jersey airport.

That was after air traffic controllers saw brief but alarming equipment outages. Roughly 140,000 people die every year from snake bites. Experts gathered at the World Health Assembly in Geneva have discussed a problem that's often hidden. NPR's Jonathan Lambert has more. Venomous snake bites aren't often at the top of the global health agenda. But each year, millions of people get bitten, often far away from antivenom treatment. To raise awareness, a new initiative called

Strike Out Snakebite scattered human-sized snake statues throughout Geneva. They were pretty spectacularly colored and colorful and pretty large. They certainly, I think, attract a lot of attention. That's David Lalu, vice chancellor of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Going forward, he says the initiative aims to boost funding for antivenom research and help bolster health systems so they can get bitten people to treatment before it's too late.

Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. Officials in the central Canadian province of Manitoba have declared a state of emergency. A series of wildfires has forced some 17,000 people to flee several communities. Manitoba lies north of Minnesota and North Dakota. The provincial premier says this is the largest evacuation in Manitoba's history, and the Canadian military has been called in to help. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News.