NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-16-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

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Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good, watch the movie everyone's been talking about, or catch the show that the internet can't get over? At the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, we chase that feeling four times a week. We'll serve you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, and more. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, catch the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in between, catch the pop culture happy hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. A group of hardline Republicans dealt a setback to President Trump's domestic agenda today. They blocked the House Budget Committee from advancing the legislation of spending cuts, including the Medicaid that they argue are not deep enough.

On Truth Social, president Trump exclaimed, we don't need grandstanders in the Republican Party. Today's outcome dampened supporters' hopes of getting the bill to the Senate by Memorial Day. A Republican congressman and former Trump cabinet member is blasting a House GOP plan to sell close to a half million acres of federal public land. And Piers Kirk- Kirk Sigler has the latest

on the controversial proposal for the Nevada and Southern Utah desert. Montana Republican Ryan Zinke served as Secretary of the Interior during Trump One. He recently helped start a bipartisan public lands caucus. Speaking on NPR's Here and Now, Zinke said selling off federal lands is a red line. The fundamental idea that you're going to sell public land and somehow that's going

to pay off our $36 trillion debt is folly. Backers say the sales would give counties more flexibility for developments like housing. One of the sponsors of the amendments in the House budget bill is Utah Republican Celeste Malloy, whose district includes booming St. George, Utah. She's related to Cliven Bundy, whose family led armed standoffs over control of federal lands in the West. Kirk Ziegler in PR News, Boise. President Trump's touting billions of dollars in new artificial intelligence deals with

United Arab Emirates. In Pierce, Bobbi Allen reports who was part of the president's Middle East tour, where he emphasized investments over foreign policy. Qualcomm says it's developing a new global engineering center focused on AI in Abu Dhabi. Amazon said it will help boost cloud services in the country. And a new AI campus will be built aiming to make the UAE a regional hub for tech. It follows the White House celebrating another flurry of business deals in Saudi Arabia. In both cases, details remain murky and some of the agreements had been in the works before

this week's announcement. Some others predate Trump's presidency altogether. Still, Trump is taking credit. The White House said this week that Trump is, quote, the dealmaker-in-chief. Silicon Valley executives support the agreements with the authoritarian states, hoping the oil-rich countries can help power the next wave of AI. Bobby Allen, NPR News. NPR has learned that the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE,

has attempted to assign a team to the Congressional Watchdog, the Government Accountability Office. However, the GAO has refused. It is an independent agency that's part of the legislative branch, in other words, Congress, not the White House. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes up 331 points, or roughly three-quarters of a percent, to end the day at 42,654. From Washington, this is NPR News. As many as 300,000 daily commuters are waiting for New Jersey's transit rail system to get back online. Unionized, local motive engineers

who are demanding higher pay went on strike after midnight across the state. First time that's happened in more than 40 years. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy blamed the disruption on the Union. It is frankly a mess of their own making and it is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on NJ Transit. Union leader Tom Haas begged to differ. Let's be clear, this rests at the feet of New Jersey Transit. Haas is the general chairman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. The International Chess Federation says it deeply regrets the decision by the

Taliban to suspend ban the game of chess in Afghanistan. News of the suspension emerged this week. NPRC Hadid has more. The International Chess Federation says that it's consulting with international sports bodies to try find a constructive solution. It's unclear if one will be found. A Taliban spokesman says that chess is a form of gambling, which is forbidden in Islam. A former head of the chess federation shared a letter on X that he wrote to the Taliban pleading with them to lift the ban, reminding them that chess spread through the world, through Muslim travellers.

It's just the latest of many Taliban prohibitions. In swaths of the country, televisions are not allowed to broadcast images of living creatures. Music is forbidden. Women suffer the worst banned from all aspects of public life. Dear Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.

When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR News in Washington.