NPR News: 05-02-2025 4PM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The U.S. economy is coming off a month of slower job creation. The Labor Department's reporting an increase of 177,000 jobs in April, lower than the month before, which was revised downward. As President Trump's tariffs and government funding cuts weigh on the public, however, the labor market continues to show resilience. The unemployment rate held at 4.2 percent. The administration closed a little-known trade loophole that had enabled shoppers to buy sharply discounted Chinese goods. The de minimis provision allowed shipments valued under $800 to enter the U.S. without customs inspections and duty freight. Aaron Rubin, founder of the warehouse management system ShipHero, describes what today's action means for the platforms like Xi'an and Temu that sell discounted Chinese goods directly to American shoppers.
There'll be some delays. It's not going to be as easy as it's been where you could typically expect your items from Temo and Sheen to be a little bit slower than your Amazon packages, but still get there consistently in about a week. Now there's going to be more variability where some of your packages might sit for several weeks because the customs process is more complicated with this change.
As we begin to wind down a week of analysis over the first 100 days of Trump 2.0, we turn to Wisconsin. Many conservatives in the swing state who voted for President Trump say they're on board with his rapid efforts on immigration and the economy. From Member Station WUWM, Maayan Silver has more.
48-year-old Rebecca Smith is a Trump voter from Milwaukee who says the border was like, quote, Swiss cheese under former President Joe Biden. She appreciates Trump's efforts there, even though she says she realizes detentions and deportations upend people's lives. You could say it seems really cruel, but at the same time, wasn't it really cruel when we had an open border and just let all these people in? 87% of Republicans approve of how the president is handling immigration, according to the latest NPR-PBS News Marist poll. That compares to a 44% approval rating for Trump on immigration among voters overall. For NPR News, I'm Ayaan Silver in Milwaukee.
The Justice Department is suing a handful of states over their efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for damages from climate change. More from NPR's Michael Copley.
The Justice Department is suing New York and Vermont over laws that are aimed at holding fossil fuel companies responsible for damages from more extreme storms and heat waves. The department's also suing Hawaii and Michigan to stop them from suing fossil fuel companies for allegedly misleading the public about the dangers of burning fossil fuels. The Justice Department says climate pollution is a national and global issue and that states are exceeding their authority. An environmental coalition called Make Polluters Pay says the Justice Department lawsuits are politically motivated. The Supreme Court has already refused to halt climate lawsuits filed against the fossil fuel industry by various states and localities.
Michael Copley, NPR News.
A massive crowd, possibly exceeding 300,000, is on an annual religious journey in Taiwan. They're carrying the statue of a revered local deity from one temple to another. NPR's Emily Fang reports the vast numbers of pilgrims are traveling a route that they believe is dictated by the gods.
The sea goddess Mazu is worshipped across Taiwan and in parts of southern China. And this annual pilgrimage is meant to bring one of her likenesses by palanquin to one of her temples in the island's Miaoli County. The journey takes hundreds of thousands of pilgrims as long as 10 days to finish, but has been completed in under three days in some years. Because the precise route the parade with the Matsu statue will take is determined by fortune tellers bearing her palanquin who divine which roads to walk while the faithful set off fireworks. The pilgrims following behind Matsu often sleep outdoors on the side of the road or in homes offered by generous passerby and begin walking again the next day. Emily Fang, NPR News.
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