NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-15-2025 5AM EDT

Episode Date: May 15, 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 as 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 in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly. President Trump is in Qatar for a second day. NPR's Aya Batraoui says the president is meeting with US troops stationed at a base there

after having announced the Gulf state has signed a large contract with Boeing. The White House says Qatar's order of up to 210 Boeing airplanes could support a million jobs in the U.S. It's business deals like this that brought Trump to the Gulf this week, where big defense and tech deals were also inked in Saudi Arabia. But looming over the trip is also what Trump has yet to achieve—a ceasefire in Gaza that

ends Israel's offensive and releases hostages held by Hamas. Arab states have rejected plans to permanently displace Palestinians outside the territory. Meanwhile, Israel is planning a major ground offensive to take territory and push Palestinians south. Aya Batraoui, NPR News, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not taking part in today's peace talks in Turkey. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Istanbul in hopes that Putin would attend direct talks about ending their war. Here's NPR's Michelle Kellerman.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Turkey where there had been hopes for a high-level meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. But President Putin is avoiding a face-to-face meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, sending instead a low-level delegation headed by a former culture minister named Vladimir Medinsky. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gene Shaheen, had predicted Putin would be a no-show and says it's time for the U.S. to put more pressure on him to end Russia's aggression in Ukraine.

Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today on the Trump administration's push to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. As NPR's Joel Rose reports, a new poll shows a majority of Americans oppose the change. The NPR Ipsos poll finds that fewer than a third of Americans want to end birthright citizenship.

The long-standing principle that any child born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen. But the poll also finds that other parts of the White House's immigration crackdown do have broader support. For example, President Trump's push to quickly deport alleged gang members without giving them a chance to contest those allegations, under an 18th century wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act. Almost half of poll respondents say they're in favor of that. 40% of Americans support President Trump's push for mass deportation of everyone in the country without legal status, a slight drop from 44% support

three months ago. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. A judge in Wisconsin is expected to enter a plea of not guilty today at her arraignment. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with helping a man who's in the U.S. without legal status to evade federal immigration authorities at her courthouse. She's filed a motion to dismiss the case. This is NPR News from Washington. Congress is moving closer to allowing families across the U.S. to use federal tax dollars to pay for private school tuition. NPR's Cory Turner has more. The federal school voucher plan has been included in Republicans' reconciliation bill. And if it becomes law, it would work like this. would work like this. A private citizen could make a charitable donation to a nonprofit third party known as an SGO or scholarship granting organization. The SGO

would then distribute the money to families in the form of scholarships to pay for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses. The person who donates the cash would also get a generous tax credit. Every dollar they donate would cut their federal tax bill by a dollar. Families would be able to use the money even in states where voters have fought back vouchers. The measure will soon move, with the rest of the reconciliation bill, to the full house. Corey Turner, NPR News. Baristas at dozens of Starbucks coffee shops in the U.S. have been striking this week to

protest the company's new dress code. It restricts what employees at company-operated and licensed stores in the U.S. and Canada can wear under their green aprons. Baristas must now wear a solid black shirt along with bottoms that are black, khaki, blue or blue denim. The union representing baristas at Starbucks says more than a thousand employees have been protesting. The union says address code should be negotiated as part of contract talks.

Scientists in the U.S. and Europe say a NASA rover has detected the first aurora at Mars that's visible to the human eye. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News in Washington. These days, with all the information coming at you, it can be hard to know what's accurate, NPR News in Washington.