NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-03-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

NPR News: 06-03-2025 3PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life. Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the Shortwave Podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump's decision to double tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will take effect tomorrow. The move aims to bolster domestic metal industries but has sparked concerns across various sectors.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says the president is moving ahead with the hike in duties. The president will be signing that executive order today and steel and aluminum tariffs will be going to 50 percent, yes. Manufacturers are warning of potential price hikes on products ranging from cars to canned goods. Education secretary Linda McMahon appeared before a Senate subcommittee today. NPR's Cory Turner reports she defended President Trump's latest budget proposal. Secretary McMahon told senators as she helps close the Department of Education her goal is clear.

Make education better, fairer, and more accountable by ending federal overreach and empowering families, schools, and states who best know the needs of their students. The problem for McMahon is that the department's budget proposal would cut funding by 15 percent, which means eliminating programs that enjoy bipartisan support. For example, Pell grants for low-income college students would face a steep cut. McMahon also got tough questions from Democrats and Republicans about ending the TRIO and GEAR UP programs, which help low-income and first-gen students access college.

Corey Turner, NPR News. Tech billionaire Elon Musk is blasting the massive tax cut and spending package that's now before the Senate. In a post on X, Musk called the legislation a, quote, disgusting abomination. He also shamed lawmakers in the House who voted for it. This is a major break with President Trump, who has turned up the pressure on Senate Republicans

to pass the measure. Musk stepped down last week from overseeing the government's cost-cutting entity, DOJ. Ukraine is pressing Russia to immediately return children forcibly taken to Russia during the war. NPR's Joanna Kikissis reports from Kyiv. Ukrainian researchers say nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted during the war. Khrisynash Guder is an activist who advocates for these children and their families. The biggest challenge is that Russia is not willing to return those kids back.

They even don't want to tell how many of them are right now in Russian Federation. Ukraine's delegation to the Istanbul ceasefire talks is pressing Russia to return 400 of those children immediately. Russia said it would return 10 of them and insisted it did not abduct the children but rather save them from a war zone. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kiev. On Wall Street the Dow was up 228 points. This is NPR News. The Trump administration is asking Congress for a record $4 billion in extra disaster aid even after repeatedly vowing to slash the agency in charge of it. The White House says the president still intends to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management

Agency in its current form. The funding request comes amid a surge in severe weather across the nation, stretching emergency resources thin. Critics are calling it a reversal. Supporters say it shows the president's flexibility in a crisis. Today marks 100 years since the debut of the Goodyear Blimp. Kabir Bhatia with member station WKSU reports the company is marking the centennial this week with flights of its three U.S. blimps in Ohio.

Akron-based Goodyear had already been building airships for the military when it launched its first branded blimp, used as a flying billboard for the company, on June 3, 1925. Adam Bass ran as assistant chief pilot at Goodyear. We started building airships because frankly it was a market for rubberized fabric. Where we first entered the market really was around that and later it became more or less a marketing vehicle. Currently three Goodyear blimps operate in the US. This week they'll fly in formation over the company's home city as part of a tour of 100 cities this year. For NPR

News, I'm Kabir Bhatia in Akron. Stocks are trading higher on Wall Street at this hour. The Dow Jones Industrial averages up 230 points. The Nasdaq Composite up 170. The S&P 500 up 37 points. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News in Washington. Listen to this podcast sponsor free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or