NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-31-2025 2AM EDT

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

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On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's important in the news. Close out the week with us on our Friday News Roundup. Hear from reporters who've been embedded with the biggest news of the week. Join us every week for the Friday News Roundup. Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Trump says he'll double the current tariff rate on steel coming into the country. We are going to be imposing a 25% increase.

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. The price of steel products have already increased about 16 percent since Trump took office and implemented his first round of tariffs. The new tariffs are expected to take hold on Wednesday and could further increase the price of many goods from cars to housing. Trump later announced aluminum tariffs will also be doubled to 50 percent. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst faced loud opposition to her support of President Trump's so-called

Big Beautiful Build at a town hall on Friday. From Iowa Public Radio, James Kelly reports that constituents took issue with proposed cuts to a number of programs including Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the spending plan would result in more than $700 billion in spending cuts to Medicaid over the next decade. Ernst said the bill is meant in part to make sure benefits aren't going to those in the U.S. without legal status. A person in the audience shouted back that people could die because of the cuts.

They are not eligible, so they will be coming off. So people are not, well, we all are going to die. Ernst said a number of provisions in the House bill will not be included in the Senate's version but did not say which ones. For NPR News, I'm James Kelly in Parkersburg, Iowa. The Department of Energy has canceled $3.7 billion worth of projects that were focused on cutting carbon emissions. As NPR's Kamila Domenoski reports, the department is shifting its focus to match President

Trump's priorities. 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 Dominochki, NPR News. The nation's housing market is struggling with 34 percent more sellers than buyers right now. That's according to an analysis by the firm Redfin. The oversupply, though, has not brought prices down, which means many people are still unable to afford buying a home. Officials say that other than in April 2020 when COVID brought housing activity to a stop there have never been this few buyers in the market. Stocks closed mixed on Friday. You're listening to NPR News. Loretta Switt, the actor known for playing Margaret Hotlips-Hoolahan in the long-running TV show MASH, has died. According to a statement by her publicist, she died just after midnight Friday at her home in New York. She was 87 years old. NPR's Andrew Limbong has this remembrance. Compared to some of the jokier doctors on the sitcom, Margaret Hoolahan was no-nonsense,

dedicated to serving in the US Army as the best nurse in the Korean War. My father was a colonel and my mother was a nurse and I was conceived on maneuvers. The Army's in my blood. MASH ran for 11 seasons and through that time Loretta Switt and the writers gave the character more depth as she pushed back against higher-ups trying to take advantage of her. I'm not a pushover anymore. Get yourself another clay pigeon. You're going to hate yourself in the morning.

Get out of my tent, General. Besides the show's star, Ellen Alda, Switt was the only other actor to appear in the show's pilot and its history-making finale, picking up two best supporting actress Emmys in the process. Andrew Limbaugh, NPR News. PBS has filed suit against President Trump's executive order that said it should be stripped of all government

funding. The public television lawsuit comes three days after NPR also sued Trump. Both suits claim Trump overstepped his authority with his order. A small PBS station in Minnesota joined PBS in the lawsuit. After two days of play, Nick Taylor and Ben Griffin are tied for the lead at the Memorial Golf Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. Taylor played a bogey free round in the rain to finish the day with a 68 while Griffin shot a 72. Scottie Scheffler shot a 70, leaving the defending champion in third three strokes back while Jordan Spieth is fourth strokes off the lead. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News. This message comes from WISE,

the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spin, or receive money NPR News.