NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-06-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

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Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered. That's NPR's music recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week. Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into new music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts. live from NPR News in Washington I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump is threatening to end government contracts that Elon Musk has as their fractured alliance Thursday escalated into a bitter dispute. The president and his one-time adviser who is also the world's richest man have been attacking each other publicly. NPR's Danielle Kurtzbaum reports there are big risks for both men going forward. There have been business consequences. Shares of Tesla plummeted. Another point is that

there are very tight margins to pass that big, beautiful bill on Capitol Hill. So if Musk has some pull with even a few Republicans, that could very much hurt that bill's chances of passing. But there's one more really important point here. Amid all of this, Musk posted, quote, without me, Trump would have lost the election. Now that's a reminder. He's saying that he dumped more than a quarter of a billion dollars into the 2024 election. Shares of Tesla fell more than 14% Thursday on the NASDAQ. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday the state of Wisconsin violated the Constitution when it refused to give a Catholic charity the same exemption it gives to churches, allowing them to avoid paying the state's unemployment compensation tax. NPR's Nina Totenberg has more. Mayor said that it is fundamental in our constitutional order that the government maintain neutrality between religions. That said, the decision could prompt a significant exodus from the unemployment compensation system in Wisconsin and elsewhere, where religious nonprofits

like hospitals have tens of thousands of employees, and if they were to leave the state unemployment system, it could potentially hobble the ability of states to deal with major downturns in the economy. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi talked by phone on Thursday. NPR's Mara Liason reports the call comes amid an escalating trade war between the two economic powerhouses. Trump told reporters the call, which lasted an hour and a half, went very well. He also posted on social media that the call resulted in a quote, very positive conclusion for both countries.

That conclusion appears to be an agreement to resume in-person talks between Chinese officials and the US Treasury Secretary, Commerce Secretary, and Trade Representative. Last month, the two countries had agreed to temporarily lower their mutual tariffs, but then the Trump administration accused China of violating that agreement by holding back imports of rare earth minerals, which are critical to the U.S. auto industry. And China accused the U.S. of preventing it from buying computer chips for artificial intelligence and of revoking the visas without cause for Chinese citizens studying

in the U.S. Mara Liason, NPR News. A federal judge issued a TRO that blocks the Trump administration's proclamation aimed at preventing foreign students from going to Harvard. You're listening to NPR News. New Zealand's parliament has voted to suspend three lawmakers for performing a ceremonial majori dance in protest against the contentious bill. Christina Kukala reports the lawmakers have been suspended from their

parliamentary duties for up to three weeks. Two leaders of New Zealand's Te Pati Māori or Māori Party were suspended for 21 days and a third member for seven days. The three performed the traditional Maori dance the haka last November. The protest came during a reading of a proposed law that sought to reinterpret the country's founding treaty with the Maori people. The bill which sought to strip certain rights from Maori people has since been voted down. A parliamentary committee recommended the record suspensions last month on the grounds

that their actions could have intimidated other parliamentarians. For NPI News, I'm Christina Kukula in Melbourne, Australia. AAA says as the summer driving season is well underway, the price of gasoline is dropping. The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded dropped by 2 cents to 3.14 a gallon and pump prices are 36 cents less expensive than this time a year ago. That's because of considerably lower prices for crude oil which is trading at about $63 a barrel compared with $75 a barrel a year ago. A private Japanese unmanned lunar landing mission has failed as the spacecraft lost contact with controllers and crashed into the moon Thursday.

The Tokyo-based company said everything was going normal until about two minutes before landing. From Washington, this is NPR News. I'm Dan Ronan. Support for NPR. On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's important in the news. for NPR.