--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: An appeals court rules that most of President Trump's tariffs are illegal. It's a setback for the president's signature trade policy, but the ruling won't be enforced until October, giving the White House time to appeal.
--:-- Scott Simon: I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Texas lawmakers are on track to pass further restrictions aimed at reducing the use of abortion medication. The bill would allow members of the public to file lawsuits against the medicine's providers.
--:-- Scott Simon: Also, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will soon release new dietary guidelines. He's promised to make them brief and easy to read, but will the new guidelines make any difference to the nation's eating habits?
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.
--:-- Scott Simon: This message comes from BetterHelp. President Fernando Madeira describes how BetterHelp Online Therapy has helped him.
--:-- Fernando Madeira: For me, sometimes I just need to go and talk to somebody that is not going to judge me, right? Is going to be there and going to listen to me. And I can start just saying, look, I'm not feeling right today. And it feels natural. I love it.
--:-- Scott Simon: To get matched with a therapist, visit betterhelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Support for this podcast and the following message come from Betterment. Don't just imagine a better future. Start investing in one with Betterment.
--:-- Betterment Representative: Betterment helps people and small businesses put their money to work by automating to make savings simpler, optimizing to make investing smarter and building innovative technology backed by financial experts.
--:-- Scott Simon: So be invested in yourself. Be invested in your business. Be invested in better with Betterment at Betterment.com. Investing involves risk. Performance not guaranteed.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over $1.75 million to support NPR programming.
--:-- NPR Wine Club Representative: Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, you can learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase.
--:-- Scott Simon: President Trump has long touted tariffs as critical to rebalancing global trade, believing that trade deficits penalize the U.S. But now a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. has ruled that the president overstepped his authority when he imposed many of those tariffs, including China, Canada, and Mexico.
--:-- Ron Elving: Joining us now to talk about that in other political news, NPR's Ron Elving. Ron, thanks for being with us.
--:-- Scott Simon: Good to be with you, Scott. Social media posts, the president says it would be, quote, a total disaster for the country if the tariffs went away. What does this ruling and all the back and forth mean for those trade deals?
--:-- Ron Elving: You know, this tariff story has been whiplash practically from the get-go. Trump has imposed tariffs and lifted them. He set them at 25 percent for a given country and then doubled them, set them at 100 percent of the value of the goods and then pared that way back.
--:-- Scott Simon: He's looked very much, or this whole playing out has looked very much like an array of negotiating tactics in search of a strategy. And while billions have been collected, it's premature to say that's really money in the bank, at least not yet.
--:-- Ron Elving: So the disposition here is going to depend on what a series of courts, ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court, should decide. Did Trump follow the law in his end run around Congress in setting these tariffs? Or is he within his rights?
--:-- Scott Simon: That's been a crucial question all along, but Friday's ruling from the full Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that really raises the stakes. So it will go to the Supreme Court eventually. But in the meantime, it's back with a trade court that has been tough on Trump in the past.
--:-- Ron Elving: And at the same time, let's remember, it could be good news for consumers if it ultimately restrains these new Trump tariffs and allows U.S. retailers to return to their previous price structures.
--:-- Scott Simon: Well, yesterday a federal judge in Washington, D.C., held a hearing on Trump's attempts to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
--:-- Ron Elving: That's right. Gia Cobb, a four-year veteran of the federal bench here in D.C., heard arguments on the lawsuit filed by Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board whom Trump said he was firing this week.
--:-- Scott Simon: It is far from clear he has the legal right to remove a member of the board except, quote, for cause, unquote. Now Trump has cited as a cause a controversy that was stirred by one of his most recent appointees who has accused Cook of violating a rule on holding multiple mortgages.
--:-- Ron Elving: There been no finding of guilt in that matter and in fact, no charges have been filed in that matter.
--:-- Scott Simon: So we will be following that case. Also late yesterday, Judge Cobb ruled against the president on the administration's fast-tracking of deportations.
--:-- Ron Elving: And that's right, too. And in this case, which involves hundreds of thousands of individuals, Judge Cobb said Trump had not met the legal tests to show a national emergency existed that would give him special powers.
--:-- Scott Simon: So that, too, is under review. And again, the Supreme Court will likely be the last stop. But the case and the ruling have the potential to upend another big element in Trump's agenda for his second term.
--:-- Ron Elving: President moved to cancel nearly $5 billion in funding for international aid this week unilaterally. isn't Congress supposed to have the power of the purse?
--:-- Scott Simon: Well, yes, that's what the textbooks say. But here again, as we heard Trump himself say on tape this week, he's the president, and that means he can do pretty much what he wants if he thinks the country is in danger.
--:-- Ron Elving: And Congress, at least so far, has shown no willingness to buck the president on any of these major policy matters, even when his moves seem to challenge or ignore the role of Congress itself.
--:-- Scott Simon: Now, with the midterms of 2026 just around the corner, right now is the season for members of Congress to worry about challengers, not just for their reelection, but for their renomination by their own party.
--:-- Ron Elving: And that's where Trump's influence over the Republican voting base can mean life or death for a member of Congress.
--:-- Scott Simon: Which introduces the fact that there has been some Republican resistance. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the top Senate appropriator, called this, quote, a clear violation of the law.
--:-- Ron Elving: So could Congress vote to stop it? They could, legally speaking. But do they want to go to war with Trump and his voters, who are also their own voters?
--:-- Scott Simon: Collins called it a clear violation, and it's hard to argue that point. She's in a prime position to push back, but how will she do so? And will other Republicans in the Senate who talk a good game about the Constitution and shared powers but then find their own reasons to stand with the party and stand with the president?
--:-- Ron Elving: The day when Republicans defy Trump may well come, but it has not come yet. So in that sense, Trump is right. He can do anything he wants, practically speaking, because the Republicans in the House and Senate have yet to show it's ready or they're ready or willing to stop him.
--:-- Scott Simon: And Paris Senior Contributor Ron Elving, thanks so much.
--:-- Ron Elving: Thank you, Scott.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Texas banned abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago. And now Texas lawmakers are working on legislation to further restrict a ban on abortion medication sent in from other states.
--:-- Scott Simon: The bill would allow members of the public to file lawsuits against the medicine's providers and to keep some of the money.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: They could bring the suits even if they're not connected to the person getting the medication.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Olivia Aldrich from member station KUT in Austin joins us now. Olivia, thanks for being with us.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: Thank you.
--:-- Scott Simon: The bill passed the Texas House and looks headed for passage in the state Senate next week. What is it intended to do?
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: Well, medication abortion is already banned in Texas, just like surgical abortion. But that hasn't totally stopped people from getting abortion pills here.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: People get pills prescribed from a doctor outside the state who mails it here.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: And anti-abortion legislators want to curb that practice by letting private citizens sue for at least $100,000.
--:-- Scott Simon: Those prescribers, manufacturers, even someone who helps order those medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, into Texas.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: And this has been a focus for a while. The state tried to get at this by suing a doctor in New York who prescribed pills to a woman in Texas.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: But, you know, New York is among the states that has what's called a shield law that protects her from lawsuits like this.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: I talked to Amy O'Donnell, who represents the anti-abortion group called Texas Alliance for Life.
--:-- Amy O'Donnell: House Bill 7 adds another level of protection, another layer of protection on just to help ensure that we're doing everything we can to stop chemical abortion drugs from harming women and children in Texas.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: So the effect of this could be that cases will end up in federal court to settle these legal conflicts between abortion rights states and states that ban abortion.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: What do abortion rights advocates say?
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: Well, they're concerned because this medication abortion through telehealth has really been the only way that many folks are still able to access abortion.
--:-- Scott Simon: And the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports reproductive rights, found in 2024 that more abortions are taking place actually than before the bans in the U.S.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: That's because of telemedicine. Donna Howard, a Democratic Texas state representative from Austin, spoke about this on the Texas House floor this week.
--:-- Donna Howard: Let me be clear. The only reason we have not seen a return to the days of coat hanger abortions is because of the medication abortion pill.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: There's also a concern that the cash reward for people who bring suits could incentivize bad actors, and opponents call that a bounty.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: In some cases, a large part of the reward could also be directed to nonprofits, and that includes anti-abortion nonprofits.
--:-- Scott Simon: How are other states handling this issue?
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: Well, more than a dozen states have banned or tightly restricted abortion since Roe was overturned, but pills are kind of the focus right now because it's so much more difficult to effectively control them.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Louisiana has also attempted to sue and even charge an abortion doctor from out of state.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: There was also a failed effort to get the Supreme Court to roll back FDA approval of mifepristone last year.
--:-- Scott Simon: But abortion legislation out of Texas has been influential because it was early to ban abortion, and other states have tried to adopt some of its methods.
--:-- Olivia Aldrich: So they could possibly follow Texas on this too.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Americans will soon get new advice on what they should and shouldn't be eating. The federal government updates its dietary guidelines every five years, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the Trump administration plans to release the 2025 version by the end of next month.
--:-- Scott Simon: To give us a sense of what we might expect from the new guidelines, We're joined by NPR health correspondent Will Stone.
--:-- Will Stone: Hi, Will.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: So Secretary Kennedy has made food and diet a central issue in his Make America Healthy Again agenda. What's he said about the guidelines?
--:-- Will Stone: Quite a lot, actually. Kennedy and others in the administration have in certain ways vilified the current guidelines, blaming them for high rates of obesity and diet-related diseases in the U.S.
--:-- Scott Simon: Obviously, food, poor nutrition is a huge driver of these problems.
--:-- Will Stone: At the same time, some of Kennedy's statements have mischaracterized the process and what these guidelines are.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: And to give you a sense, take a listen to what he said during a congressional hearing in the spring.
--:-- Will Stone: We took the Biden guidelines, which were 453 pages long and were clearly written by industry that are incomprehensible, driven by the same industry capture and those kind of carnal impulses that put fruit loops at the top of the food pyramid.
--:-- Scott Simon: And he's going on to say the forthcoming guidelines will be brief, they'll be easy to read, and they will emphasize, quote, whole foods, healthy foods, and local foods.
--:-- Will Stone: So how much of what Kennedy said there is actually accurate about the current guidelines?
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Yeah, there's a lot in there. First of all, the food pyramid was actually retired more than 10 years ago.
--:-- Will Stone: It did not mention specific products like Froot Loops. That was replaced by a visual called MyPlate.
--:-- Scott Simon: That describes the food groups and how much you should aim for. For example, it says, try to fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables.
--:-- Will Stone: More broadly, it's important to realize the guidelines are developed by a committee of leading experts in nutrition through an extensive review of the data.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: The current ones from 2020 were released under the Trump administration. During the Biden years, a scientific committee was assembled to put together its report for this 2025 version.
--:-- Will Stone: They don't actually write the guidelines, though. They offer recommendations. And what gets released is ultimately up to the Department of Agriculture and HHS.
--:-- Scott Simon: Does it seem like there will be some big changes this time around?
--:-- Will Stone: Well, that's definitely what Kennedy and others seem to be indicating. The definition of a healthy eating pattern has remained pretty consistent over the years, emphasizing vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean meat, and limiting certain foods like saturated fat, added sugar.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: That echoed in the newest report but Kennedy has made no secret of his love for beef tallow and meat more broadly.
--:-- Will Stone: So that could be one change we see. He also called for elevating the role of whole fat dairy.
--:-- Scott Simon: Ultra processed food is another area to watch.
--:-- Will Stone: I spoke to Deanna Helscher, who's at the UT Health Houston School of Public Health.
--:-- Deanna Helscher: We did say there was a relationship between consumption of ultra-processed foods and health outcomes, specifically to growth, body composition, and obesity.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: But the relationship was limited. And she says that's partly because scientists are still figuring out exactly how to define ultra-processed food, and high-quality evidence is pretty limited right now.
--:-- Will Stone: So they have to be cautious. And I think, Aisha, this just underscores the committee tends to be pretty conservative in their recommendations.
--:-- Scott Simon: They don't want to get ahead of the science.
--:-- Will Stone: Now, Kennedy and others in the Maha movement have talked a lot about the harms of ultra-processed food, and they could push this much further.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: So how consequential would it be if the new guidelines stray from these recommendations?
--:-- Will Stone: Well, it is worth pointing out that most Americans currently don't follow the dietary guidelines.
--:-- Scott Simon: But Barbara Schneeman tells me they still matter a lot.
--:-- Barbara Schneeman: They are used in federal government policy. They're used by educators. They're used by health professionals.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: So undercutting the guidelines, I think it will have major implications for many programs.
--:-- Will Stone: My hope is there will be awareness of what the advisory committee did so that people can judge for themselves if it gets changed.
--:-- Scott Simon: Schneeman says in 2020, the Trump administration did not heed all of their advice, for example, on added sugar and alcohol.
--:-- Will Stone: But for the most part, they did follow the recommendations. Whether that happens this time, we may find out in a few weeks.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: That's NPR's health correspondent, Will Stone. Thank you so much, Will.
--:-- Will Stone: Thank you.
--:-- [Theme music starts playing]
--:-- Scott Simon: And that's up first for Saturday, August 30th, 2025. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Today's podcast was produced by Andy Craig with help from Ryan Bank and Gabe O'Connor.
--:-- Scott Simon: Our editors were Scott Hensley, Larry Kaplow, Melissa Gray, Jacob Fenston, and Martin Patience.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Our director is Michael Radcliffe. Our technical director is Nisha Hines with engineering support from Zoe Vangenhoven, Damien Heron Nathan, and Valentina Rodriguez-Sanchez.
--:-- Scott Simon: Shannon Rhodes is our acting senior supervising editor.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Evie Stone is our executive producer.
--:-- Scott Simon: And Jim Cain is our deputy managing editor.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, air travel can be stressful enough. And then you spot those travelers who paid to jump the line.
--:-- Scott Simon: You know what I'm talking about? Those passengers who are ushered straight to the front of airport security.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Well, it's all part of a service provided by a company called Clear. And we'll be looking at the way the company has inched its way into airport security and asking what happens when public and private interests collide.
--:-- Scott Simon: That's here in your podcast feed.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: There's a whole lot more, too, that you can hear on the radio. Join us.
--:-- Scott Simon: Go to stations.npr.org to find your local NPR station.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: No waiting. No waiting in line. Exactly. You can keep your shoes on, too.
--:-- Scott Simon: Or you can keep them off. Yes.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: This message comes from KeyBank. Growing a successful business has never been easy.
--:-- Scott Simon: That's why KeyBank offers curated strategies to help your business grow today and into the future.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Reimagine business as usual. KeyBank opens doors. More at key.com slash b2b.
--:-- Scott Simon: This message comes from REI Co-op. A summit view. An epic climb. That first 5K.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: It all starts here, with gear, clothing, classes, and advice to get you there. Visit REI.com or your local REI Co-op. Opt outside.
--:-- Scott Simon: This message comes from the Nature Conservancy. Nature is common ground for everyone, and uniting to protect nature can help solve today's challenges and create a thriving tomorrow for future generations.
--:-- Aisha Roscoe: Discover why at nature.org slash NPR.
--:-- [Theme music continues to play until the end of the episode]
