NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-12-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

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This is Ira Glass, the host of This American Life. So much is changing so rapidly right now with President Trump in office. It feels good to pause for a moment sometimes and look around at what's what. To try and do that, we've been finding these incredible stories about right now that are funny and have feeling and you get to see people everywhere making sense of this new America that we find ourselves in. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Donald Trump has begun a week-long trip

to the Middle East with stops planned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Earlier today, he signed a sweeping executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the US or face new limits over what the government will pay. Trump says if no deals reached, costs fall to the lowest price paid by other countries. It's called most favorite nation. We are going to pay the lowest price there is in the world. We will get whoever is paying the lowest price, that's the price that we're going to get.

So remember that. So we're no longer paying 10 times more than another country. The nation's pharmaceutical lobby quickly labeled the president's order a bad deal for U.S. customers. Drugmakers argue threats to their profits will affect research on new medicines. House Republicans are hoping to finish crafting their massive spending bill this week. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, the remaining three committees are set to mark up and advance their portions of the bill, but some internal divisions remain. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, and the Committee on Agriculture will each meet tomorrow. GOP leaders must find a way to meet demands

for deep spending cuts while also working to appease members who want to protect costly programs and tax incentives. One example is over SALT — state and local property taxes. Members in competitive New York, New Jersey and California districts say their support for the bill is tied to a higher cap for SALT deductions. It's crucial for GOP leaders to get these folks on board. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, and they'll need nearly full party approval to get the bill passed.

Alaina Moore, NPR News. U.S. transportation secretary Sean Duffy says he's racing to upgrade decades-old technology that's causing repeated meltdowns and delaying hundreds of flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in recent weeks. Remsi Khalifa of Member station WNYC reports. The terminals used to manage flights in and out of the busy airport rely on copper wires and technology dating back to the 1970s. Duffy says the Federal Aviation Administration will immediately replace those old wires with modern fiber optic cables.

But he warns much more needs to be done. This system is so old that even if you have high speed fiber information coming in to a tower, the information has to be slowed down. It comes in too fast. The Trump administration is planning to invest billions to replace air traffic control systems across the country. Duffy says Newark will be the first to receive upgrades if the plan is funded by Congress. For NPR News, I'm Ramzi Khalifi in New York.

Stocks rallied sharply on Wall Street today after a word of a US-China pause in the two countries ongoing trade tiff. All three of the major indexes were up more than 2%. The Dow closed up more than 1100 points. The Nasdaq rose 779 points. This is NPR. Some level of calm in the ongoing fighting between India and Pakistan, though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said her country has only paused its military action and says it will retaliate on its own terms in the event there are further attacks on

the country. Indian-Pakistan paused fighting over the weekend in a US-brokered ceasefire. Studies between the two nuclear-armed rivals have been ongoing since a deadly attack on Indian tourists in Kashmir last month. India blames Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charges. A new study estimates nearly one in four children in the US has at least one parent with a substance use disorder, and alcohol is the most commonly used substance among parents, it bears redo chattergey as more. The new study used the latest data

from the Household-Based National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and found that nearly 19 million US kids have a parent with a substance use disorder. Study author Sean McCabe directs the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, and Health at the University of Michigan. It makes you realizes the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health at the University of Michigan. It makes you realize that the scope of this issue is vast.

Mccabe says a significant proportion of those children, 7.6 million, have a parent whose addiction is severe or moderate as opposed to mild. The findings are published in the latest JAMA pediatrics. Ritu Chatterjee, NPR News. Former NBA star Michael Jordan is joining NBC as a special contributor to the network's coverage of the 2025-26 basketball season. NBC made the announcement this morning

during a presentation at Radio City Music Hall. NBC returns to carrying NBA games after a 23-year absence. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Does the idea of listening to political news freak you out? Well, don't sweat it. absence. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.