NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-01-2025 10PM EDT

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Am I a propagandist? A truth teller? An influencer? There's probably no more contested profession in the world today than mine, journalism. I'm Brian Reed, and on my show, Question Everything, we dive head first into the conflicts we're all facing over truth and who gets to tell it. Listen now to Question Everything, part of the NPR Podcast Network. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Trump is replacing his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, announcing plans to nominate him to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations.

It's the first major shakeup of the president's second term, as we hear from NPR's Asmahallah. Amy Quinton Waltz has been under pressure since March, when he inadvertently added a journalist to a text chain about U.S. military strikes in Yemen. But Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News this change had nothing to do with that group chat incident. The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of people.

He doesn't give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterwards. Vance also insisted this move is not indicative of an ideological fight in the administration, though Walz is known as being more hawkish than many others in Trump's inner circle. The president also announced that for the time being, Secretary Marco Rubio will take on the role of national security adviser while also maintaining his job leading the State Department. Asma Khalid, NPR News. President Trump could release an initial partial version of his 2026 budget plan, possibly as soon as tomorrow. That's according to a White House official.

NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben says what many are expecting is a bare-bone spending blueprint, with more details to come at a later date. Details are still sketchy, but it could be what's known as a skinny budget. Now that's a sort of outline that presidents sometimes release before they release those big, thick, full budget books. Often a skinny budget gives us just the broadest strokes of how much money is going to go to each department or agency. X billion dollars for defense, X billion for housing and urban development and so on.

Now these skinny budgets from president Biden and also from Trump's first term, they've only included discretionary spending. So that leaves out the big ticket items like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, not to mention revenue projections. MPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, this year's budget comes as the administration looks to come up with spending cuts to pay for a landmark tax cut. Europe is preparing new sanctions against Russia. NPR's owner Beardsley reports France's foreign minister spoke after discussions with Secretary

of State Marco Rubio. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barreau says America and Europe have converging objectives concerning Russia's war in Ukraine. The only obstacle to peace in Ukraine today is Vladimir Putin, he said, referring to the Russian president. Barot said Europeans are going to join American initiatives to bring peace with the 17th package of sanctions against Russia. He said Europe wants to coordinate on substance and timing with America.

I promised Senator Lindsey Graham we would do so, said Barrow. Eleanor Beardsley in PR News, Paris. Stocks close mostly higher on Wall Street today. The Dow is up 83 points. The Nasdaq rose 264 points. The S&P closed up 35 points. This is NPR. A new study is suggesting hearing loss disproportionately affects white men compared to people who are

black or female. NPR's Yuki Noguchi is more. Nearly everyone, as they age, will eventually lose some hearing. But the study finds hearing loss starts earlier and is worse among white men. In the study, about half of the white people enrolled showed hearing loss, for example, compared to 30% of those who are black. Among men, 56% of them had some hearing loss, and so did 38% of women. The study suggests tailored interventions might address specific needs of demographic groups. There are other factors, such as smoking, obesity, socioeconomic status, as well as

noise exposure, that can also increase the chances of losing one's hearing. The study appeared in the Journal of American Medical Association's head and neck surgery publication. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. The U.S. Army is planning a military parade on June 14th on the National Mall to mark both the Army's 250th anniversary festival and President Trump's 79th birthday. NPR's Tom Bowman, signing a source familiar with the planning, was not permitted to speak publicly.

The plan reportedly would include tanks, armored vehicles, as well as 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 other vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands bands and possibly thousands of additional vehicles. Trump told me the idea of a military parade of the kind found in countries like Russia, China and North Korea during his first term was dissuaded by his national security advisors. NPR News in Washington.