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

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

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Hey, it's Sarah Gonzalez. The economy has been in the news a lot lately. It's kind of always in the news and Planet Money is always here to explain it. Each episode we tell a sometimes quirky, sometimes surprising, always interesting story that helps you better understand the economy. So when you hear something about cryptocurrency or where exactly your taxes go, yes, I was. Listen to the Planet Money podcast from NPR. ago, yes I was. Listen to the Planet Money Podcast from NPR. Noor Rahm Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Rahm. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke today to a security conference in Singapore. He urged U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific to spend more on defense to counter a growing threat from China. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has more. Anthony Kuhn He said that China is intimidating and harassing its neighbors, including Taiwan. It's using

gray zone tactics that are short of war but are coercive. And at the same time, he insisted that the U.S. does not seek to strangle or humiliate China, but he said that China's threat is real. NPR's Anthony Kuhn. According to a report released today, the United Nations nuclear watchdog says Iran has greatly increased its stockpile of weapons-grade uranium. Almost immediately, Israel said that Iran's program is not peaceful. NPR's Hadil El-Shelchi reports. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency delivered a warning to Iran, saying that it was concerned that the country now has enough enriched uranium to theoretically make one atomic bomb.

Following the release of the report, Israel accused Iran of being determined to complete its nuclear weapons program. It also called on the international community to, quote, act now to stop Iran. Iran and the US have recently held several rounds of talks about Iran's nuclear capabilities. Trump said on Friday that he thinks a deal could be reached in the quote, not too distant future and that Iran doesn't quote, want to be blown up. Hadil Alshalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. The Palestinian militant group Hamas said today it has submitted a response to a U.S.

proposal to end the fighting in Gaza. Hamas has agreed to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in exchange for Israel's release of a number of Palestinian prisoners. It says it won't agree to a ceasefire without changes. President Trump says starting Wednesday he's raising the tariffs on foreign steel from 25 percent to 50 percent. He also says that Nippon Steel has agreed to make a large investment in U.S. steel, which the Japanese steelmaker had been attempting to acquire. Stocks gained ground this week amid tariff uncertainty. NPR's Scott

Horsley reports. Investors seemed well-rested this week after the long Memorial Day weekend. They got some encouraging news on inflation, as the Fed's preferred cost-of-living gauge showed prices in April rose just 2.1 percent from a year ago. Core inflation was 2.5 percent for the 12 months ending in April. That's the smallest annual increase in more than four years. Forecasters have been warning that tariffs could put more upward pressure on prices, but a pair of court rulings this week found the president does not have the authority to order sweeping worldwide tariffs the administration's promised to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. For the week that Al rose 1.6 percent,

the S&P 500 index climbed 1.9 percent and the NASDAQ jumped 2 percent. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR News in Washington. The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded SpaceX's Starship until the company determines what went wrong Tuesday. It was the ninth test flight for the Starship. It tumbled out of control and broke apart over the Indian Ocean. No damage or injuries were reported, but the failure prompted the diversion of one airline

flight and the diversion of one airline flight and the delay of another. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that he wants to speed up Starship test flights with the goal of reaching Mars. The European Space Agency will broadcast Johann Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz into space today to mark the composer's 200th birthday this year. The piece has become synonymous with space travel. The BBC's Sascha Schlichter has more on today's performance by the Vienna Orchestra.

Thanks to Stanley Kubrick's film 2001, A Space Odyssey, this music is now firmly associated with space. Tonight's performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will be transmitted to the 35-metre satellite dish at the European Space Agency's Thebreros ground station in Spain. From there, the signal will travel at the speed of light to reach, 23 hours later, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, the most distant man-made object in the universe. I'm Nora Rahm from NPR News here 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.