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

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

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When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's Throughline podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity. On Throughline, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism. Time travel with us every week on the Throughline podcast from NPR. Live from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. In California, officials say one person is dead after an explosion damaged a fertility clinic in Palm Springs today.

The police department says the blast from a vehicle near the clinic appears to be an intentional act of violence. Maher Abdullah, who runs the clinic, tells the AP that the clinic's office was damaged but that the IVF lab and stored embryos were not. Several buildings, though, are damaged and the debris extends four blocks. Officials say they don't know the identity of the deceased and it's unclear if or how they were connected to the blast. The FBI has joined the investigation. More than two dozen people are dead in severe storms and tornadoes that hit the central U.S. last night. Officials say 18 people died

in Kentucky, two in Virginia, and NPR's Sandhya Dirks reports seven people died in Missouri. The city of St. Louis is assessing the damage from the storm, and recovery and rescue efforts are underway. Teams are out still looking for people who are missing, injured, even trapped, according to St. Louis Police Chief Robert J. Tracy. It's still not over. We have our officers doing grids. We're going up and down the blocks. Even when we get back into darkness, we want to make sure that if you see something, say something, if you haven't heard from someone, you got to call 911. City officials say with many downed power

lines and damage to buildings, it is still dangerous in many parts of the city. They've set a curfew between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday at Dirks, NPR News. After Walmart became the latest company to warn that it would have to raise prices because of President Trump's tariffs, he blasted the retail giant today, saying it should stop blaming his tariffs for price hikes. On social media, Trump says Walmart should eat the tariffs and not pass the fees on to consumers, adding he'll be watching. The company's CEO tells CNBC he's pleased with the trade progress, but that the tariffs

are still too high, making it a challenging environment. Walmart's also the big country's biggest grocer and is often seen as a bellwether for consumer health. A panel of appellate judges says President Trump's executive order ending union rights for most federal workers can't go forward for now. And Piers Andrea Shue reports. Back in late March, President Trump signed an executive order ending collective bargaining rights at agencies including the IRS, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many, many more.

The White House argued Trump had the power to do so because these agencies have national security as a primary mission. The National Treasury Employees Union sued, arguing Trump's interpretation of national security was too broad. Last month a lower court halted the order. Now in a two-to-one ruling, a panel of judges at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals says the lower court's pause harms the president by impeding his national security prerogatives. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

The country's lone black governor, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, has vetoed a bill to study reparations. It would have required the state to define the economic harm to black American descendants of enslaved people. It would have also called for recommended remedies. This was one of 23 vetoes Moore issued this week. He says he's focused on laws helping the state recover from President Trump's federal spending cuts as the state

deals with the economic fallout. Critics of his veto held a rally outside his official residence in Annapolis this week, saying there will be backlash from the black community. Moore has said he's not running for higher office, though he's widely seen as a White House contender. A new poll by the American Psychiatric Association shows the two-thirds of adults are anxious about events unfolding around the world. MPR's Ritu Chatterjee has more. Around 60 percent of poll respondents also said they're anxious about paying their bills

and their health. And among employed adults who participated in the survey, 40% are somewhat or very worried about job security. About 8% had lost a job, and nearly a quarter knew someone who had recently lost a job. And two-thirds of employees are very concerned about their financial well-being.

Ritu Chatterjee, NPR News. The 150th running of the Preakness Stakes gets underway in about an hour at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore. Journalism, the horse, is the favorite, and sovereignty, the Kentucky Derby winner, is sitting out this race, which means there will be no Triple Crown this year. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington. World news is important, but it can feel far away. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington.