NPR News: 02-21-2026 2AM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. The Supreme Court Friday struck down President Trump's tariff regimen. It's a stinging loss on an issue critical to his economic agenda. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the ruling was a mistake.
What recent Supreme Court ruling affected President Trump's tariff policies?
Today was a loss for the American people because by taking away President Trump's instantaneous leverage using the IEPA authority, the American people have suffered a significant setback. Think to this time last year when President Trump put on the fentanyl tariffs against Mexico, Canada, China for the precursor chemicals. And then we saw a rapid decline in fentanyl deaths. If that's not an emergency authority, what was?
Besant was speaking on Fox News. President Trump, meanwhile, announced a global 10 percent tariff using an authority that allows him to put tariffs in place for just 150 days before he must ask for congressional approval. A federal appeals court has cleared the way for Louisiana to enforce a law that requires public schools to display posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. As NPR's Matt Bloom reports, that decision reverses a lower court ruling that blocked the posters from going up.
Republican lawmakers first passed the measure two years ago. It requires all public K-12 schools and colleges to post the biblical text for students to see. A group of families from multiple faith backgrounds sued, arguing it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. While a lower court initially agreed, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals did not, primarily because the posters have not gone up yet and the court says the family's case was filed too early. Republican leaders say the ruling means schools must now comply. But critics of Louisiana's law say they will look for more ways to fight it. The case's outcome could also affect the future of similar Ten Commandments laws passed in Texas and Arkansas.
Matt Bloom, NPR News, New Orleans.
NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6th, and Peresnell Greenfield-Boyce reports that the space agency is working toward this launch date following a successful test fueling of its big moon rockets.
When NASA workers tried fueling up the 322-foot-tall rocket earlier this month, they had problems like a liquid hydrogen leak. But swapping out some seals and other work seems to have done the trick. Lori Glaze leads NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
This is really getting real, and it's time to get serious and start getting excited.
The astronaut crew is starting its two-week quarantine to limit their exposure to illnesses before their flight around the moon and back. NASA managers will meet late next week to conduct an extensive flight readiness review to discuss all aspects of the mission to make sure that everything is really ready to go. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.
And you're listening to NPR News. Officials in Cuba say a U.S. blockade on that country is pushing its health system toward collapse. On Friday, Cuba's health minister said people's lives are being put at risk by the blockade. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said hospitals, ambulances, and supply flights now face severe fuel shortages, and power outages keep hitting aging hospitals there. The number of student loan borrowers considered delinquent on their payments has nearly tripled since 2019. NPR's Janaki Mehta has more on a study showing those students have seen a big hit to their credit scores.
The new report, which comes from the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers, says student loan delinquency has spiked to a record 25 percent of borrowers. And those considered delinquent, meaning students who've been late on their payments, have seen their credit scores go down by an average of 57 points. The report blames the Trump administration's policies for blocking borrowers from, quote, accessing the income-driven repayment plans they're legally entitled to. that and the increasing cost of living in this country.
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