NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-04-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corva Coleman, President Trump's higher tariffs on foreign imports of aluminum and steel kicked in overnight to 50 percent, but not on the United Kingdom. As NPR's Fatima al-Khassab tells us, Britain is being spared while details of a U.S.-UK trade deal are being worked out. The U.K. signed a trade deal with the U.S. last month, which would remove all tariffs on steel and aluminum. But this hasn't come

into force yet. So for now, tariffs remain at 25 percent for the U.K. President Trump has warned the U.K. could still face the higher rate if it does not stick to the trade agreement. Industry Association UK Steel says it can breathe a temporary sigh of relief, but has warned uncertainty remains. And Piers Fatima Al-Khassab reporting. The Trump administration has formally asked Congress to cancel billions of dollars in foreign aid funding. NPR's Fatima Tanis has more.

The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a memo to Congress that the request reflects the administration's need to, quote, cut wasteful foreign assistance. The cuts outlined in the memo include millions in funding for HIV AIDS and other global health programs, 135 million in funding for the World Health Organization, millions in contributions to the United Nations, and cuts to other programs related to women and gender issues. The process is called a rescission request, and it would codify the slashes the administration already made to the United States Agency for International Development Earlier this year as it dismantled the aid agency

Congress has 45 days to pass the request which would only require a simple majority Fatma Tanis and PR News that same White House demand for cuts in foreign aid also Includes a demand to claw back more than $1 billion for public broadcasting. That money had already been approved by Congress and President Trump for the next two fiscal years. Without federal funding, many PBS and NPR stations could face cuts to national programming, their own local shows or layoffs of their own local journalists. The Trump administration wants to limit how long people can get federal rental aid.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports the housing agency is writing a rule that would also allow work requirements. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News Anchor The rule could be proposed by this fall, according to an internal document seen by NPR. It would expand policies that, right now, only a few local housing authorities have the power to enact It's part of a broader push to promote self-sufficiency Though critics say there's little evidence these policies do that Tacoma Housing Authority in Washington State recently ended its time limits

Executive Director April Black says tenants wages could not keep up with skyrocketing rents There was no way that we were going to exit people from a program knowing that they would become homeless. Expanding time limits and work requirements without going through Congress could also face a legal challenge. Jennifer Lutten, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. The Trump administration has revoked a Biden-era requirement that hospitals give emergency abortions to women in danger of their lives. That also included in states where abortion is outlawed. But there's a federal law still on the books requiring hospitals to provide emergency reproductive care.

So it's not clear yet if the Trump administration is instructing hospitals to turn away women in medical emergencies. The National Weather Service has posted more air quality warnings for more states today. They're getting smoke from Canadian wildfires. Cautions are up from northern Minnesota to Michigan and Iowa. Singer Rick Astley's 80s hit, Never Gonna Give You Up, has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.

NPR's Chloe Veltman reports the British pop star owes much of the song's success to the fact it has since become an internet joke. Rick Astley's earwormy tune zooms to the top of the charts in the US and more than 20 other countries in 1987. Some two decades after its release the song took on new life thanks to the Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run. Some two decades after its release, the song took on new life thanks to the Rickrolling trend. The online prank involves clicking on a hyperlink that takes you not to the web page you're

hoping it leads to, but instead to the never gonna give you up music video. A few other 1980s songs by British artists have reached one billion streams on Spotify. Among the nearly 1,000 who have reached the benchmark are Soft Cells, Tainted Love and Every Breath You Take by The Police. Chloe Valtman, NPR News. And this is NPR News from Washington.