NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-16-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

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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 News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The Supreme Court has ruled the Trump administration will not be allowed to deport a group of Venezuelans while their case is being litigated in the courts. Justices today blocking Trump from deporting people under the Alien Enemies Act and sending

the matter back to a federal appeals court. Justices acted on an emergency appeal to a request from the Trump administration to be allowed to quickly resume the fast-track deportations of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members. High Court had already called for a temporary halt to those deportations. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, descended. China is criticizing new American export controls on semiconductor chips, calling it, quote, abuse the controls impact one of China's most important

artificial intelligence chips just days after temporary trade truce. Here's NPR's Emily Fang. The export controls prohibit the export of several kinds of AI computing chips from the Chinese company, Huawei. The US says it can control these chips because they use a bit of American technology and how they were made and designed. The US publicized the new controls the same week President Trump announced that UAE and

the US would jointly build a huge AI data center in the Middle East. China's foreign ministry said the measures on Huawei were quote, protectionism and unilateral bullying. Huawei has been hit hard by US export controls before over its 5G telecom networks and has since pivoted to technologies like semiconductor chips and is even exploring building its own chip factories. Emily Fang and Pure News. President Trump's so-called big beautiful bill appears to have hit a major bump in the road for GOP fiscal conservatives moving to block the package

of tax breaks and spending cuts out of committee. They want further cuts to Medicaid and green energy programs as lawmakers look to find a way to offset some of the cost of proposed tax breaks. Coming in at more than 1,100 pages, the bill appears to be teetering at a crucial time. Some Republican lawmakers from high-tax states are also calling for an expanded state and local tax deduction be part of the package. The Department of Justice is considering dropping a criminal case against Boeing over two fatal crashes of 737 MAX jets. MPR's Joel Rose reports lawyers for family members of the crash victims say they were notified by prosecutors. The Justice Department is

considering a deal that would allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution according to family members of the crash victims. Boeing agreed last year to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud regulators about the safety of its planes after the crashes of two 737 MAX jets that killed 346 people. But a federal judge rejected that plea deal. Now prosecutors under the Trump administration say they are looking to drop the criminal case and push instead for a non-criminal settlement with Boeing that would include about $440 million for a crash victims fund. Lawyers for some of the family members say they are

outraged by the quote backroom deal and plan to fight it in court. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR. Once it became clear Russian President Vladimir Putin would be a no-show at peace talks with Ukraine and Turkey, the outcome was predetermined. Officials taking part in the discussion say a pair of low-level delegations met for less than two hours today. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called on Putin to meet face-to-face but once the offer was rejected also failed to participate. Zelensky had called on Putin to meet face-to-face, but once the offer was rejected, also failed to participate. Zelensky has called for tough sanctions against Moscow if it rejects

a full and unconditional ceasefire and an end to the killings. President Trump has said he wants to meet with Putin soon to discuss how to end Russia's war against Ukraine. A transit strike is shutting down commuter rail service across New Jersey today, forcing more than 100,000 riders to find other ways to work. Ramsey Khalifeh of member station WNYC reports on the disruption. Riders are scrambling to find the best way to get to and from New York and New Jersey on the first day of a locomotive engineer strike. Thursday night, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and New Jersey Transit

couldn't finalize a deal, sparking one of the state's biggest transportation disruptions in decades. Nermin Ayubola is a professor at the City University of New York who lives in New Jersey. She's a regular commuter rail rider and took a bus instead. It's much longer, it's uncomfortable, and many people were standing in the bus. The Union and NJ Transit planned to meet with federal labor mediators on Sunday, which means the strike is slated to last through the weekend. For NPR News, I'm Remzi Khalife in New York.

Stock screened Gound on Wall Street today, the Dow is up 331 points, the NASDAQ rose 98 points. I'm Jack Spear in PR News in Washington. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. I'm Jack Spear in PR News in Washington.