NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-31-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

NPR News: 05-31-2025 1PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's Throughline podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity. On Throughline, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism. Time travel with us every week on the Throughline podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Immigrant advocates are dismayed by the Supreme Court's ruling, allowing the Trump administration

to revoke temporary legal status for people who fled unstable countries. NPR's Adrienne Florido reports as many as half a million people now face deportation, even though the court's decision is still being litigated. It's known as CHNV because under the Biden administration, people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were given temporary status if they had a U.S. sponsor. Garlene Joseph directs the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group. This is a group of people who followed every single rule

and came here with that status, and now it is taken away from them. She says the legal fight to protect CHNV will continue. Adrienne Flaherty, NPR News. President Trump announced yesterday he's doubling the tariffs on imported steel to 50% to boost the U.S. steel industry. The Trump administration has said it's in negotiations with several countries on new

trade deals, except for Britain, agreements have not been announced. NPR's Ron Elving has more. And all this has been complicated further by court decisions this week saying Trump does not have the authority to impose all these tariffs without Congress. That ruling by the International Trade Court could cripple the whole anti-tariff campaign, but that too is on pause just now while a higher court reviews that ruling. NPR's Ron Elving, a tornado hit Kentucky yesterday, the latest in a deadly two-week stretch when seven tornadoes struck the state, killing at least 20 people and injuring dozens more.

Karen Zarr with Member Station WUKY reports meteorologists are using new technology plus old-fashioned observation to confirm and classify tornadoes. Officials with the National Weather Service use high-tech equipment like drones grabbing aerial views and phone apps that estimate wind speed based on damage. Lead forecaster Brian Schottmer and his team also surveyed damage on the ground. At their first stop, Schottmer said an EF1 tornado touched down. It looks like the debris from this particular structure was thrown to the north of the path. And since the storm was moving east or northeast, that indicates to me that it was thrown almost counterclockwise."

After stopping at another site where a home had been ripped off its foundation, they upgraded the tornado to an EF2 with wind speeds reaching 125 miles per hour. For NPR News, I'm Karen Zarr in Springfield, Kentucky. Hamas said today it's accepting part of a U.S. proposal to end the violence in Gaza. Israel has agreed to the plan, which includes a temporary ceasefire. Hamas says it will release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 others in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners. You're listening to NPR News.

The drug company Moderna said today the Food and Drug Administration has approved its next-generation COVID vaccine. It said it's been approved for everyone age 65 and older, and for those 12 to 64 who have at least one underlying risk factor. The new vaccine can be stored in refrigerators rather than freezers, which provides a longer shelf life and easier distribution. When people get a scratch or an infection, the body responds better if it happens during the day. NPR's Burleigh McCoy reports. Scientists have known that many cells in the immune system have built-in circadian clocks,

genes that tell them to respond differently depending on the time. But scientists weren't quite sure how the immune system was telling time. To figure it out, researchers used baby zebrafish, which are transparent, with modified immune cells that give off fluorescent light. The team exposed the fish to fluorescent bacteria and watched how the immune cells responded when it was light or dark. During the day, the immune cells killed bacteria faster, but when researchers cut out certain circadian clock genes

from the immune cells, they lost that ability. This knowledge could allow scientists to rally immune cells to respond to a bad infection. They published their findings in the journal Science Immunology. Burleigh McCoy and Pure News. Thousands of people are in southern Hong Kong today for the dragon boat races.

Rowers in decorated boats race to be the first to cross the finish line in sync with drumbeats. The origin of the festival is linked to various legends. It's celebrated in mainland China and Taiwan, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington. Politics is a lot these days. I'm Sarah McCammon, a cohost of the NPR Politics Podcast, and I'll be the first to tell you what happens in Washington

definitely demands some decoding. That's why our show makes politics as easy as possible to wrap your head around. Join us as we make politics make sense on the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.