NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-30-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

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Imagine, if you will, a show from NPR that's not like NPR, a show that focuses not on the important but the stupid, which features stories about people smuggling animals in their pants and competent criminals in ridiculous science studies, and call it Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me because the good names were taken. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Yes, that is what it is called wherever You Get Your Podcast. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Donald Trump told an enthusiastic crowd of steelworkers near Pittsburgh today

he is doubling the tariff rate on imported steel coming into the U.S. Trump making the announcement at U.S. Steel's Bond Valley Works in West Mifflin, where he also talked about an investment by Japan's Nippon Steel in the stored U.S. steelmaker. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Trump initially vowed to block Nippon's bid to buy U.S. steel. Stonart clears what the partial ownership deal announced by Trump last week will look like. He stressed U.S. steel will stay under American control.

Since Trump took office, steel prices are up 16%. Supreme Court today moved to again clear the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Justice is lifting a lower court order that had kept humanitarian parole protections in place for some 5,000 migrants from four countries, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Court also allowed the administration to revoke temporary legal status from about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his staff must do additional vetting for any visa applicants

applying to go to Harvard, and that means not just students, but also faculty, guest speakers and tourists. Here's MPR's Michelle Kellerman. Secretary Rubio has been revoking student visas and expanding the social media vetting of applicants in response to anti-Semitism on college campuses. In the case of Harvard, he's now extending that to anyone planning to visit the university. In a cable seen by NPR, he directs consular officers to maintain extra vigilance and to comprehensively review all applicants planning to go to Harvard for any reason. The State Department wouldn't comment on

the leaked cable or say why he's singling out Harvard, which is suing the Trump administration over a decision to bar international students from the university. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. The Department of Energy has canceled $3.7 billion worth of projects focused on cutting carbon emissions

and Piero's Kamila Dominovski reports. The 24 canceled awards include an initiative by ExxonMobil to use hydrogen instead of natural gas at a plant in Baytown, Texas, and a cement plant in Indiana that planned to integrate carbon capture. Clean energy groups have objected, with one calling the move short-sighted, while another described it as an unforced error. Many of these grants focused on novel or unproven forms of cutting emissions, an area where the U.S. is widely seen as having a competitive edge. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement that the projects would not provide

a return on the taxpayer dollar. Camila Dominovski, NPR News. On Wall Street, the Dow was up 54 points. The NASDAQ fell 62 points. This is NPR. Search engine company Google returns to Federal Court today, where the company continues to fend off Justice Department efforts to topple its Internet empire. Legal and technological threats facing the company are likely to be part of discussions

during closing arguments in the case. It could determine the company's fate as the dominant Internet search engine. Justice Department is looking to persuade a federal judge to order a shake-up of the company that would ban Google's lucrative deals with Apple and force the sale of its Chrome browser. Pakistan has outlawed child marriage in its capital territory, defying opposition from conservative religious scholars. NPR's Diya Hadi reports the country's president signed a law bill raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 for girls and boys. The law includes penalties, including jail time, for family, clerics and other officials

who facilitate underage marriage. It was rare pushback against a powerful Islamic council that reviews legislation to see whether it's compatible with Sharia law. The new law only covers areas of the capital city Islamabad. A similar law was passed in the southern province of Sindh, but Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, still allows girls to marry at 16,

as does the rest of the country. And even where laws exist, Pakistani activists say they aren't rigorously implemented, particularly when it involves Muslim men marrying girls from minority faiths. Deah Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai. Good old futures prices continue to bounce around a bit in uncertainty over the direction of oil industry cartel OPEC.

We'll drop 15 cents a barrel to 60.79 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.