NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-13-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

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These days, there's a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans hoping to finish crafting their massive spending bill this week.

President Trump has called the measure a big, beautiful bill, but there are divisions among Republicans, including on cuts to Medicaid to pay for tax cuts. NPR's Deidre Walsh. Not all Republicans think that they should be doing these major changes to Medicaid. One of them, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, wrote an editorial in the New York Times today criticizing some in his party who he says want to slash health care for the working poor. He called that move, quote, both morally wrong and politically suicidal.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House. They'll need nearly all of the GOP caucus to vote for the plan to advance it. President Trump kicking off his trip to the Middle East, he has arrived in Saudi Arabia and then will also travel to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which has offered him a luxury jet to use as Air Force One. The White House says the plane would be a donation to the Defense Department, but Democrats say accepting the plane would be a clear violation of the Constitution's ban on gifts from foreign heads of state.

The Sean Combs sex trafficking trial resumes today following Monday's opening statements in a packed courtroom as MPR's Isabella Gomez-Armiento reports. Prosecutors alleged that Sean Combs used his businesses to carry out and cover up crimes. His defense attorneys argued that the rapper and music mogul was in toxic relationships that had nothing to do with his companies. After opening arguments, two government witnesses testified. First, a Los Angeles police officer who was working as a hotel security guard in 2016, described how he responded to an altercation between Combs and his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

Video of the incident, which shows Combs kicking and dragging Ventura, has been widely viewed since CNN obtained and released a version of it last year. Then, a man who claims Ventura paid him for sexual encounters that Combs watched took the stand. He said he witnessed Combs violently attack Ventura more than once. Isabella Gomez-Armiento, NPR News. Reports from Myanmar say a military airstrike on a school has left more than a dozen students and teachers dead. Here's Michael Sullivan. The opposition National Unity government says the attack on the school in the village of Depayin also left dozens wounded despite the military's declaration of an extension of its post- earthquake ceasefire last week. The school is in the Sagang region, not far

from the quake's epicenter, and is run by the opposition. A member of a local resistance group told the Associated Press the attack occurred just after 9 a.m. In its evening broadcast, state-run television denied reports of the airstrike, calling them fake news. But the military has used such tactics repeatedly against those opposed to its 2021 coup that deposed a democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai, Thailand. And you're listening to NPR News. Release of the last living American hostage being held by Hamas has not stopped the fighting in Gaza. Israel briefly paused military operations to

allow for Monday's release of Yidan Alexander, but Israel says it still plans to escalate its offensive. The Henyos are a group of female free divers on a Jeju island off of South Korea. They fish in the frigid ocean near Daily. MPR's Ari Daniels has researchers looked into the adaptations that make that possible. When the henos were asked to dunk their faces in cold water, their heart rates dropped more than non-divers due to a lifetime of training. When it came to the genetics, everyone on the island,

Henyos and non-Henyos, basically had the same genes, including two that stood out. One related to cold tolerance, and one related to blood pressure that may offer protection from preeclampsia and other conditions like stroke. Wouldn't it be amazing if we can translate these findings to develop a therapeutic that protects people

from stroke around the world. Melissa Allardo is an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Utah. She says the extreme diving of the jenos has changed not just their bodies, but those of everyone else on the island who are descendants of divers. Ari Daniel, NPR News. Security is expected to be tight in Paris today. Crowds expected at the courthouse where Kim Kardashian is preparing to testify against the men that French police accuse of binding her with zip ties and holding her at gunpoint

in 2016. Ten men are accused of locking her in a bathroom and making off with more than $6 million in jewels. This is NPR News. Does the idea of listening to political news freak you out? Well, don't sweat it. than $6 million in jewels. This is NPR.