NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-31-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

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On NPR's ThruLine, witnesses were ending up dead. How the hunt for gangster Al Capone launched the IRS to power. Find NPR's ThruLine wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Trump announced Friday that he's going to double the current tariffs on imported steel to 50%. The increase could further push up prices for the metal which is used in many products from cars to home construction and kitchen appliances and Piers Frankordonius has more.

He walked onto the stage to his campaign music and he delivered a very political speech. I mean he tacked Biden, he touted how much he loves tariffs. And it was actually when he was talking about his tariff agenda when he stopped to say that he had another big announcement to deliver. And he told the crowd that he's doubling tariffs on foreign steel imports. Later, Trump also said he was doubling tariffs on aluminum imports as well. The US Supreme Court handed President Trump a temporary win Friday. It permitted the administration to prematurely end a humanitarian program that had granted

two-year legal status to more than a half million people from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. And here's Nina Totenberg reports. Trump announced that he was ending the program on his first day in office this year, but a federal district court blocked the administration from doing that. The Justice Department then went directly to the Supreme Court, asking that the district court order be suspended while the litigation plays out in the lower courts. The high court granted the Trump administration's wish for now. Karen Tumlin, co-counsel for the immigrants, fought back tears today as

she described the effects of what she said was the largest mass deportation in the nation's history. These people, she said, played by the rules to enter the country legally. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. A deadly tornado touched down in Kentucky Friday morning, leaving at least one person dead and seven others injured. The National Weather Service confirms it was an EF2 tornado, with wind speeds reaching at least 125 miles an hour. Karen Zarth, Member Station WUKY reports.

It was just after seven o'clock in the morning. Sandy Hartman heard the wind howling and trees breaking outside her home. She ran to the door, pulled her dogs inside, and called her son. Derek, Derek, Derek, Derek, get out here. And he said, are you okay, Mom? I said, a tornado has come through. Hartman's home survived, but massive trees

came crashing down across her property. She calls herself lucky. Down the hill, debris is scattered where a house once stood. Hartman's neighbor, who she said would wave to her while they mowed their fields, did not survive. For NPR News, I'm Karen Zarr in Springfield, Kentucky. Officials in Canada say wildfires are burning across large portions of the province of Manitoba this weekend.

The 5,000 residents of the prairie city of Flynnplan have been evacuated, and more evacuations are expected elsewhere as the fires grow. A total of 17,000 people have been forced to leave their homes across the province so far. This is NPR News. When people get a scratch or an infection, the body responds better if it happens during the day. MPR's Burleigh McCoy reports on how the immune system tells time. 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 knowledgeadian 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, NPR News. Taylor Swift has regained control over all the music she's ever made. Much of her earlier work was owned by the private equity firm Shamrock Capital in a note posted to her websites which said she purchased her catalog of recordings originally released through Big Machine Records. She did not say though how much she paid in that purchase. Mao Sigo has a three-stroke lead

going into the weekend at the US Women's Golf Open underway at Aaron Hills in Wisconsin. She shot a 666 on Friday for a two-day total of 8 under 136. She won her first LPGA Tour title less than two months ago. World number one Nellie Korda meanwhile is in second after posting a 67. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate.

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