NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-17-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: May 17, 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 in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. St. Louis Mayor Kara Spencer says search teams are still looking for survivors following yesterday's severe storms that hit during the afternoon rush hour, included an apparent tornado.

We are focused on life, saving lives and keeping people safe and allowing our community to grieve on the loss of the folks that have suffered so far through this horrific, horrific storm. Speaking to reporters last night, Mayor Spencer confirmed five deaths and said more than 5,000 homes were damaged. The mayor of London, Kentucky, says he believes at least 14 people were killed in his community from storms that brought high winds, torrential rain, golf ball-sized hail, and suspected tornadoes. The storms knocked out power to tens of thousands from Missouri to Virginia and North Carolina. The Supreme Court has kept in place a temporary block that prevents the Trump administration

from deporting migrants that it accuses of being members of a Venezuelan gang. Empress Adrienne Florido reports that the court says migrants targeted under the 18th century wartime law must get due process. The case was brought by two Venezuelan men at a northern Texas detention center who were set to be deported last month under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The ACLU filed an emergency lawsuit and blocked the deportations. The Supreme Court has rejected the government's request to be allowed to deport the migrants The ACLU filed an emergency lawsuit and blocked the deportations. The Supreme Court has rejected the government's request to be allowed to deport the migrants or any others in northern Texas, saying they must get more time to challenge their deportations. The 7-2 majority wrote that giving them about 24 hours to do that, quote, surely does not pass muster. The court has not yet ruled on whether the government's use of the Alien Enemies Act is legal. Adrian Flaherty, NPR News. President

Trump is back at the White House from his trip to the Middle East. He returned last night as Republicans plan to try again tomorrow night to advance his budget package called that big beautiful bill. It hit a roadblock yesterday in the House Budget Committee. NPR has learned that the Trump administration's Department of Government Deficiency, or DOJ, has attempted to assign a team to the Congressional Watchdog the Government Accountability Office. Here's NPR's Chris Arnold.

Since its inception, DOJ has been strong-arming its way into government agencies, gaining access to sensitive data, and directly or indirectly firing workers. NPR has learned, and a GAO spokesman confirms, that Doge is trying to assign a team to the Watchdog Agency, citing an executive order from President Trump. But the GAO is an independent agency that's part of the legislative branch, in other words, Congress, not the White House. So GAO says it is not subject to executive orders and has therefore declined Doge's request.

Meanwhile, the Watchdog agency has dozens of investigations underway into whether the White House violated the law by freezing funding that had already been allocated by Congress. Chris Arnold, NPR News. And from Washington, you're listening to NPR News. A former Tennessee House speaker has been found guilty on federal corruption charges for running a kickback scheme. Mariana Bacquiao, Member Station WPLN reports. A federal jury found that former House Speaker Glenn Kasada and his top aide, Cade Cawthran,

created a political consulting firm under a fake name to win state contracts. Cassidy received kickbacks from Cothran in exchange for referring other lawmakers to use his company for their mailers. The pair hid Cothran's involvement in the company after he resigned from his position over a series of racist and sexist text messages. The scheme ran from 2019 to 2020, and they funneled around $51,000 in state contracts. Both men face up to 20 years in prison. For NPR News, I'm Mariana Bacallao in Nashville. Iran's president says his country will continue talks with the U.S. over the country's nuclear program. But in a speech in Tehran today, President Mazoum Pesachian says Iran will not respond to President Trump's threats. Trump said yesterday that Iran will need to move quickly or something

bad will happen. Pesachian says Iran will not back down from what he called Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Three Iranian men are due to appear in a British courtroom today after police charged them with offenses under the UK's National Security Act. Police say the three engaged in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service. They're among the eight people arrested in two separate investigations by British counterterrorism police earlier this month, seven are Iranian nationals. I'm Treyl Snyder, MPR News. On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's I'm Joel Snyder, NPR News.