NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-15-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

NPR News: 05-15-2025 1AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, Sam Sanders here with KCRW personally inviting you to check out my new podcast It's an entertainment show that tries to figure out what makes the culture tick and tell the stories behind creators. We love New episodes are out every Friday wherever you get your podcasts Listen to the Sam Sanders show part of the NPR podcast network podcast network. Live from MPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. President Trump is facing growing criticism for accepting a 400 million dollar luxury jet from

Qatar's royal family. Some of that criticism is coming from Republicans, including Texas U.S. Senator Tate Cruz, who addressed the matter on CNBC. I'm not a fan of Qatar. I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah. And that's a real problem. I also think the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems.

So we'll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy says an upcoming vote on U.S. arms sales to Qatar will give fellow Democrats a chance to make Republicans go on record about the plane. President Trump says the luxury jet is being gifted to the Defense Department and not to him personally. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was grilled during two congressional hearings Wednesday on the staff cuts and policy changes at the Department of Health and Human Services. As NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin reports, Kennedy told the House Appropriations Committee that

the restructuring plan for his agency was created by Elon Musk's team. 10,000 staffers at HHS have been fired since Secretary Kennedy began leading the agency with thousands more taking buyouts or early retirement. Here's Kennedy responding to a question about who decided which staff to cut. Elon Musk gave us help in figuring out where there was waste, fraud and abuse in the department. It was up to me to make the decision. Lawmakers of both parties questioned the wisdom of shrinking the size of the National Institutes of Health, which Kennedy described as being corrupt and in need of a new direction.

Selena Simmons Duffin and PR News Washington. A hotline between the Pentagon and the air traffic control tower at Reagan Washington National Airport has not worked in three years. That revelation during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing comes months after a mid-air collision near the airport killed 67 people. Details from MPR's Joe Hernandez. An FAA official confirmed that the hotline between the Pentagon and the airport doesn't work but that the FAA wasn't aware of that before the January collision.

The official said the FAA was insisting it be brought back online before the military resumed flights out of the Pentagon, which were paused after another Black Hawk helicopter got too close to two commercial planes. The FAA says a direct access line was out due to the construction of a new tower at the Pentagon, but that the two facilities coordinate by phone. The Army did not reply to a request for comment. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. U.S. futures are lower in after-hours trading.

This is NPR. The suspect in the attempted assassination of President Trump in Florida last year is seeking a dismissal of some of the counts against him. Ryan Ruth says the weapons charges he faces would violate his Second Amendment rights. Ruth is also facing three other charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate. He's pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. U.S. deaths from drug overdoses were down 27% last year compared to 2023.

That's according to the CDC, which says overdoses are still the leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 44. The findings are based on a review of provisional death records obtained by the National Center for Health Statistics. The MAC streaming service is changing its name again beginning this summer. It'll be called HBO MACs, its original name. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans explains. Two years ago, when Warner

Brothers Discovery dropped the HBO from the name of its streaming service, some questioned the wisdom of discarding a brand name associated with groundbreaking TV hits like The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Game of Thrones. The restoration of the HBO Max title, announced at an event for advertisers in New York, seems to acknowledge that idea, as executives said it signaled a focus on specifically unique, quality content. The name change could also signal a move towards separating some assets owned by Warner Bros.

Discovery, like its cable channels, into an independent company. Warner Bros. Discovery did not provide a specific date for the name change. Eric Deggans, NPR News. On Asian market shares are lower, down 1% in Tokyo. This is NPR News. Sean Diddy Combs could go to prison for the rest of his life if he's found guilty of charges including racketeering and sex trafficking. Keep up with the trial by following Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR. We're covering Diddy's trial, the

rest of the news, and a lot more. Every afternoon on Here and Now Anytime.