Trump's China Visit Wraps, SCOTUS Mifepristone, Keir Starmer Under Pressure To Resign

0:02Rachel Martin:President Trump starts home to Washington claiming he made fantastic deals with China. But in talking about those deals, he seemed less certain that they were complete. So what did a visit to China accomplish? I'm Steve Inskeep in Beijing with Michelle Martin in Washington, D.C., and this is Up First from NPR News. The abortion pill Mifepristone is still available to Americans over the phone, and through video visits, The Supreme Court put a hold on an order that would have restricted how the medication is prescribed. And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing pressure from within his own party to step down.

0:36Rachel Martin:I know I have my doubters. And I know I need to prove them wrong. And I will. Candidates are already emerging to challenge him for his job. Is Starmer's fate already sealed? Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

0:56Rachel Martin:Each story you hear on Planet Money starts with a question. What happens if we refund tariffs? Why are groceries so expensive? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious, because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see. Follow NPR's Planet Money wherever you get your podcasts and start seeing how the economy really works. President Trump is left here after about 43 hours in China. This has been an incredible visit. I think a lot of good has come of it. We've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries. Trump said this at the compound where China's President Xi Jinping lives and works.

1:38Soon after Trump departed on Air Force One, he left questions about how real those deals actually are.

1:43Rachel Martin:NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith is with us in Beijing, right next to me here. Hi, Tam. Hello. Glad to see you once again. And you've reminded me of this saying in U.S.-China relations about the three Bs, beans, beef, Boeing, things America wants to sell to China, so will China buy? Well, we haven't seen anything in writing yet, but administration officials and President Trump have been making the rounds doing interviews and the pictures coming together. And yes, those three Bs are a big part of it. There's been some movement to allow U.S. beef producers to resume exports to China.

2:14and President Trump in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News said China would be buying lots of soybeans and Boeing aircraft.

2:24Rachel Martin:One thing he agreed to today is going to order 200 jets. That's a big thing. Boeing's Boeing. 200 big ones. That's a lot of jobs. It's a lot. Boeing wanted 150, got 200. He said sort of, I think it was a commitment. I mean, sort of like a statement, but I think it was a commitment. It's a great thing. It's a lot of jobs. I will note that equivocation there. Even as the president was celebrating this deal, he didn't sound totally solid on it. China has made purchase commitments in the past, only to fall short. The bigger picture here, though, is that a year ago, there was a raging and destructive trade war between the two nations.

3:07Last fall, Trump and Xi got together and brought things to something of a truce. And this visit further stabilizes that truce.

3:14Rachel Martin:How did they talk about the war with Iran? Both sides mentioned a discussion of the situation in the Middle East, though President Trump did go into more detail than the Chinese readout of the meeting. He said that he and President Xi had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should be open for navigation and that Iran shouldn't be charging a toll. He said they also agreed that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon. But that wasn't really the question. And it doesn't appear that Trump has secured any commitments from China to help pressure Iran to reopen the strait or to agree to turn over its nuclear material as part of a peace agreement.

3:50Rachel Martin:Tam, I know you watch policy statements on a trip like this, but you also watch the people, especially for these two leaders who have personally assumed so much power. So what stands out for you? Well, today, President Xi hosted Trump for tea and lunch in a private compound where he lives, and they admired the roses together. This was special treatment that most visiting leaders don't get. And the thought I keep coming back to is just how much Trump has praised Xi personally, while Xi's remarks have stuck to the long-term relationship between the two nations. Here's a moment from that Hannity interview where Trump describes Xi as all business, no games.

4:29If you went to Hollywood and you looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie?

4:35Rachel Martin:Central casting. He's central casting. You couldn't find a guy like him. Even his physical features, you know, he's tall, very tall. And especially for this country, because they tend to be a little bit shorter. Central casting is the ultimate Trump compliment. Tam, I like to think of you as central casting for White House correspondents, so it's good you're here. Short for a White House correspondent. No, no, no, no, no, no. Anyway, safe travels home. Thank you. Good to see you. NPR's Tamer Keith.

5:11Rachel Martin:Doctors are still allowed to prescribe the abortion pill Mifepristone over the phone and through video visits, and patients can still receive it through the mail or in a local pharmacy. That's because the Supreme Court kept the status quo in place in a case that is challenging doctors' ability to prescribe the drug remotely. The court gave itself a Thursday deadline to decide what to do. And Paris-Selena Simmons-Duffin is here to tell us more about this. Good morning, Selena. Good morning, Michelle. So it was kind of one of those heart-pounding days yesterday, kind of watching the court. What did the court do eventually?

5:42Yeah, so they set themselves a 5 p.m. Eastern deadline, went right past that deadline, and then finally issued an unsigned order at 5.30 p.m. Eastern. So a nail-biting couple of minutes there. But what they did is that they granted an emergency request from two drug makers to put a hold on an appeals court order that would have put new restrictions on access to mifepristone. Specifically, it would have required patients to go in person to a clinic or a doctor's office to receive the medication. So the justices have issued a stay pending appeal in the case so telemedicine access can continue as it has been while this case plays out in the lower courts.

6:21Rachel Martin:And Selena, you've been reporting that telemedicine has become a key way that people have been getting abortions. Is that right? That's right. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly four years ago, telemedicine abortion has grown and grown, and it now accounts for a quarter of all abortions in the country. Some of those abortions are happening in states with bans, but residents of states where abortion is legal are also making use of the flexibility of telemedicine to access abortion. I've talked to people who live in remote parts of California, in Georgia, in Louisiana, who all use telemedicine abortion and we're grateful they had that option.

6:55On a broader scale, telemedicine access is a big part of the reason why the overall number of abortions hasn't gone down at all, despite the state bans. Mifepristone has been found to be safe by the FDA, which says 7.5 million patients have used it since it was approved in 2000. Doctors say the in-person requirement is not medically necessary. Major medical groups all asked the Supreme Court to allow telemedicine abortion to continue, which is ultimately what they did for now.

7:22Rachel Martin:So the FDA is the named defendant here, but I understand that they didn't actually file a brief to the Supreme Court. Yeah, that's right. The FDA's position in the lower courts has been that the case should be put on ice. The agency says it's conducting a new review of the safety of Mifepristone, which was prompted by Republican lawmakers and governors putting pressure on the FDA. And its authorities were saying, let's do that review first. But the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was the appeals court in this case, did not go along with that plan. And the FDA didn't respond to the appeals court ruling.

7:56And it also didn't respond to the justice's request. And that's striking because a key part of this case is about the power of the agency itself. And former FDA leaders, including some who served under Republican presidents and the trade group for drug makers, asked the Supreme Court to keep mifepristone available over telemedicine, saying that it relies on a stable and predictable process for FDA to regulate medications in the U.S.

8:22Rachel Martin:Selena, was the decision unanimous? No, there were two public dissents from Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and they were pretty pointed. Alito called the decision of his fellow justices unreasoned and remarkable, and Clarence Thomas called the work of the two drug makers a, quote, criminal enterprise. Okay, so what is next for this case? It's going back to the lower courts, and FDA's leadership is also in flux as of this week, which could also affect mifepristone. So this is not the end, and whatever happens next, we will be following it. That is MPR Selena Simmons-Duffin. Selena, thank you.

8:57Rachel Martin:You're welcome.

9:05Rachel Martin:The battle begins. That's a headline out of the United Kingdom today. After a week of political rebellion and resignation letters of cabinet members, contenders are emerging to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his job. We do not know when or if Starmer would go. To look back over this tumultuous week in British politics, we go to NPR's Lauren Freyer in London. Lauren, good morning. Good morning. So Prime Minister Starmer has a huge majority in Parliament. The next election isn't expected for three years. Why would his party replace him now? It basically comes down to fear of the far right taking power.

9:40Let me back up. Starmer is center left. His party is called Labour. They won that big majority less than two years ago. Seen as sort of a return to stability after a revolving door of prime ministers through Britain's exit from the European Union, which you'll recall was a little bit of a roller coaster. Since then, Starmer's approval ratings have plunged to some of the lowest in history. Polls show voters think he has not delivered on promises to improve government services, help with the cost of living. He's seen as kind of wooden, unable to connect with regular folks. In contrast to the populist, chain-smoking Nigel Farage, who casts himself as a man of the people.

10:16And his anti-immigrant party trounced labor in municipal elections last week. That has sent the political establishment into a frenzy, fearing the same could happen at the national level.

10:26Rachel Martin:What does Starmer say about all this? He says, you know, a lot of the things dragging down his approval rating are out of his control. The Iran war, Trump administration's tariffs. The British economy is growing. The health service wait times are down. So is immigration. Starmer acknowledges, though, he hasn't communicated that well. Here he is in a speech to the nation earlier this week. I know I have my doubters and I know I need to prove them wrong and I will. He basically wants more time, but it doesn't look like the party is willing to give that to him. So who might replace him then? Probably one of his former allies.

11:01None have filed for candidacy yet, though. We had this extraordinary scene this week when King Charles came to parliament, read out the prime minister's agenda for the coming year. But we don't know if this prime minister will be in office to implement it. Politics here feels like the popular TV show Traitors. You know, the ruling party is divided into those faithful to the prime minister and those who are secretly plotting against him. Here's what it sounded like this week as cabinet secretaries went back and forth in and out of 10 Downing Street. Are you going to resign, health secretary? Are you going to challenge the prime minister?

11:34The health secretary, West Reading, did quit the cabinet. He might challenge Starmer. Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has been cleared of wrongdoing in a tax scandal. that might allow her to run. Polls show the most popular candidate, though, would be Andy Burnham, nicknamed King of the North. He's the mayor of Manchester. Not an MP, so not eligible to run. He first needs to run in a special election for a vacant seat in parliament. That would likely be in late June. He has to win that election, which the far right is contesting, too. And only after that would he be able to challenge Starmer.

12:08So we're looking at a long summer of politics here. So after all that, he could actually stay in office. Yeah. Actually, that special election will test Burnham. This is in an area where Farage's reform party swept municipal elections. And Farage says he's going to, quote, throw absolutely everything at that election. So if Burnham wins, he goes up against Starmer with, you know, ammunition to say, look, I defeated the far right here. I can do it nationally. If he doesn't win that election, Starmer may be left with no challenger. And the country may be back where we started after a whole lot of drama.

12:40And some would say, you know, attention diverted from fixing the cost of living and everything else.

12:45Rachel Martin:That is. And here is Lauren Freyer in London. Lauren, thank you. You're welcome.

12:53Rachel Martin:And that's Up First for Friday, May 15th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Kate Bartlett, Diane Weber, Tina Crya, Mohamed El-Bardisi and John Stolnes. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Van Genhoven, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Hi, Carly. Our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us Monday or Saturday or whenever you'd like.