NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-06-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

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

This is Ira Glass with This American Life, each week on our show. We choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme. All right, I'm just going to stop right there. You're listening to an NPR podcast, chances are you know our show. So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately. Some big epic emotional stories, some weird funny stuff too. Download us, This American Life. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump and Elon Musk's war of words is

escalating. NPR's Stephen Fowler has more on the potential real-world consequences of their increasingly bitter and very high-profile spat. The world's richest man is using the social media site he owns to blast the president's massive spending proposal that would increase the federal deficit. The world's most powerful man has an even bigger megaphone, the Oval Office. He's posting on his social media site that the easiest way to save money would be to terminate federal contracts with Musk's companies. Tesla stock took a nosedive shortly after Trump's post, and Musk's criticism adds a

more vocal obstacle to passage of what Trump and his allies call the big, beautiful bill. Stephen Fowler, NPR News. The Summer Olympics in Los Angeles are now three years away, but already some international athletes are worrying they won't be able to make the games in the United States. That's because of President Trump's travel ban on 12 countries and restrictions on a handful of others. But Casey Watherman is the president of LA 28. He says he's confident all of the athletes

will be able to get into the U.S. and participate. All the constituents that you know so well that come to the city pre-games and during the games, it's very clear that the federal government understands that that's an environment that they will be accommodating and provide for. And so we have great confidence that that will only continue. It has been the case to date and it will certainly be the case going forward through the games. It's estimated nearly 11,200 athletes will participate in the games, an increase of nearly

7% from the 2024 Paris Games as the Olympics add six new sports. A unanimous Supreme Court has ruled that Catholic charities can opt out of participating in Wisconsin's unemployment compensation program. From Wisconsin Public Radio, Danielle Kading reports the justices found the state was wrong to deny the group a religious tax exemption. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the state violated the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom by requiring a Catholic Charities Bureau to pay unemployment tax. Wisconsin law exempts nonprofit groups that run primarily for religious purposes, but the state's highest court had found that its work was primarily charitable and not religious.

An attorney for Catholic Charities Colton Stanbury says the justices agreed that Wisconsin's high court discriminated against the group. We think that's a big win for religious liberty. One that could radically expand exemptions for hospitals with religious ties in Wisconsin and nationwide. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Kading. Game one of the NBA Finals Thursday went to the Indiana Pacers. They defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, the final score 111 to 110.

Indiana's Tyrese Halliburton hit a shot with three-tenths of a second left in the game to give the Pacers the win and a 1-0 lead in the best of seven series. Game two is Sunday night. This is NPR News. Late Thursday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration and its proclamation aimed at preventing foreign students admitted to Harvard University from entering the U.S. The judge, Allison Burroughs, set a hearing on the matter for June 16. Harvard has been certified to admit foreign students for more than 70 years. Hundreds of Colorado River experts are gathered in

Colorado this week to talk about how to share the shrinking water supply in the future. Alex Hager from Member Station KUNC reports. Negotiators from the seven states that used the Colorado River decided to skip this conference, instead choosing to focus on closed door meetings that haven't shown much progress. Jim Lockhead, Colorado's former top water negotiator, said those meetings might be more productive with others in the room, like federal and tribal governments. The current process to me kind of feels like the conclave. We're waiting for the black smoke or the white smoke to come out of the seven-state negotiating room.

Scientists at the conference say climate change is rapidly shrinking the Colorado River's water supply, making new policies about water use even more urgent. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Boulder, Colorado. A private Japanese unmanned lunar landing mission has failed as the spacecraft lost contact with controllers and crashed into the moon. The Tokyo-based company, iSpace, said everything appeared normal until about two minutes before the scheduled landing, then the communications ceased.

Officials then declared the mission a failure. This was the company's second failed attempt to land on the moon. This is NPR.