NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-01-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

NPR News: 06-01-2025 7PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As NPR's daily economics podcast, the indicator has been asking businesses how tariffs are affecting their bottom line. I paid 800,000 today. You paid $800,000 in tariffs today. Yes. Wow. And what that means for your bottom line. Listen to the indicator from Planet Money.

Find us wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. In Boulder, Colorado, police and the FBI are investigating an attack on an outdoor mall that left several people injured by some sort of flammable device as they walked in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. One person, an adult male, is in custody. Police Chief Stephen Redfern. A suspect was pointed out to our officers on the scene. Our officers immediately encountered that suspect who was taken into custody without incident. That suspect, who I'm not able to

ID at this time, was taken to the hospital with some minor injuries as well. He says it's a complex situation and they aren't calling it a terrorist attack at this point. The scene is contained, but Redfern says a large area is closed off and businesses are closed and police are looking into a vehicle of interest. Redfern says it's too early to speculate on a motive. Mexicans are heading to polls for an election that will remake the judiciary. For the first time, the country will elect its judges, not appoint them. And here's Ada Peralta reports, despite a smooth process, many voters are confused. In this election, voters were faced with a tall task, picking nearly

3,000 judges from 8,000 candidates. Just for the Supreme Court, voters have to vet 64 candidates and pick nine of them. Eduardo Cuellar, 33, came out of the voting booth saying it was a bittersweet experience. It feels like a test that I didn't study for, that I didn't know the subject. Cuellar says he did his best to study the candidates, but he couldn't find enough information. So he came feeling unprepared but ready to fulfill his civic duty. Others in the capital city decided not to vote at all and instead protested the process, saying it will lead to a less independent judiciary.

Aida Pralta, NPR News, Mexico City. The Trump administration has published a new plan it says will make the federal hiring process more efficient and merit-based. NPR Andrea Shue reports, the plan was released even as a hiring freeze remains largely in place through July. The plan emphasizes recruiting candidates the administration sees as patriotic. It includes a questionnaire for most job applicants that asks about their commitment to the Constitution, how they would improve government efficiency, and how they'd help advance President Trump's executive orders. The plan also takes aim at efforts by previous administrations to diversify the workforce.

It calls on agencies to stop using statistics on race, sex, ethnicity, or the concept of underrepresentation in any personnel decisions, and to stop disseminating such data. The government says it will focus recruiting efforts at state universities, religious colleges, community colleges, and homeschooling groups, among other places. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. You as futures contracts are trading lower at this hour. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Federal forecasters are giving a heads up that a geomagnetic storm is expected to be

severe, and that brings the chance of a spectacular northern lights display across much of the U.S. tonight. In Pierce, Amy Held has more. Think of it as a nighttime salutation from the sun. Cent-Friday, a powerful coronal mass ejection that's basically a chunk of the sun erupted, says the Space Weather Prediction Center, hurtling toward Earth. Charged particles colliding with our atmosphere can create an aurora, also known as the Northern Lights.

Shimmering sheets of purples, blues, and greens. Tonight's could be visible as far south as Alabama, forecasters say, all the way to Northern California. On a five-point scale, they put this geomagnetic storm at four. That's severe, but less intense than last year's that lit up skies the world over and disrupted some power and communication systems. This time, forecasters say, GPS and voltage control problems are possible. Amy Held, NPR News. The Atlantic hurricane season is now underway and it runs through November.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are predicting 13 to 19 named storms this season with 6 to 10 hurricanes. Five hurricanes made landfall in the U.S. last year. Three of those were in Florida. Officials are urging people to get ready now by preparing a disaster kit, finding out if they're in an evacuation zone, and also paying attention to local emergency managers. Crude oil futures are trading higher, up nearly 2%

at $61.98 a barrel. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington.