NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-17-2025 8AM 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. Multiple people reported dead in Kentucky after powerful storms ripped through the state

last night. Multiple people reported dead in Pulaski and Laurel counties in southern Kentucky. Stan Engolt reports from Ember Station WEKU. Andy Beshear The towns of Somerset and London have been hit particularly hard with many homes and buildings damaged in the early morning hours. Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Friday morning in advance of the severe weather.

Tens of thousands of power outages are reported throughout Kentucky. Crews are working to evaluate the situation with responders searching homes and buildings for survivors. For NPR News, I'm Stan Engold in Richmond, Kentucky. To St. Louis now, where searchers are also going door to door looking for survivors. A potential tornado struck during afternoon rush hour yesterday. At least seven people were killed in Missouri, as St. Louis Public Radio's Chad Davis reports. St. Louis officials say more than 5,000 homes have been affected and that

several buildings have collapsed. The storm caused damage in areas of St. Louis County and neighborhoods in St. Louis City. St. Louis Mayor Kara Spencer issued a curfew Friday evening through Saturday morning for the northern parts of the city. She says the city will be going through a lot in the next few days. We're going to have a lot of work to do in the coming days. There is no doubt there. in the next few days. We're going to have a lot of work to do in the coming days. There is no doubt there,

but tonight we are focused on life, saving lives and keeping people safe and and allowing our community to grieve. City leaders requested residents stay off their phones Friday so that cell service could be used for critical needs for NPR News I'm Chad Davis. The storms that hit Saint Louis and

Kentucky were part of a severe storm system that left tens of thousands without power from Missouri to Ohio and North Carolina. U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of migrants in Texas under the Alien Enemies Act. That 18th century wartime power was invoked by Trump to quickly deport Venezuelans, it says, are members of a gang. NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran reports. The Supreme Court says the Trump administration did not give the men at a detention center

in Northern Texas enough time to challenge their deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The unsigned order says the Tainis are entitled to more notice than the roughly 24 hours the government gave the Venezuelan men at the center of this case. Conservative justices Samo Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. This ruling did not address the question of whether Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act was legal. The high court did say that this order does not stop the government from removing people

from the US under other lawful authorities. Sergio Martinez Peltran, NPR News, Austin. 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. This is NPR News. Authorities in Louisiana are searching for seven inmates who remain on the loose after escaping from a New Orleans jail. Ten initially broke out yesterday escaping through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a wall. Three have been

caught so far and three jail employees have been placed on suspension pending an investigation. The science magazine Nature has announced the winners of this year's scientists at work photo contest as NPR's Ari Daniel reports. Each winning image is a dramatic intimate portrait of research. In one, a scientist kneels in a forest beaming at eight tiny frogs in her hands. In another, a researcher crouches atop a foggy mountain as he measures the cloud forming around him. And then there's the riveting photo that Emma Vogel, a spatial ecologist at the University of Tromso took, aboard a little boat in a Norwegian fjord. In the center of the photo you see my supervisor and he's in this bright yellow survival suit. Behind him is a large fishing boat and hundreds of seagulls.

Over his shoulder, you can just make out. A killer whale surfacing. It gives me a feeling of a dreamlike state. Vogel studies how whales interact with fisheries. To her, this image captures the patient intensity of fieldwork. R.A. Daniel, NPR News. The Eurovision Song Contest is wrapping up today.

The grand final being held at an arena in Switzerland. Acts from more than two dozen countries will take the stage and a trio from Sweden who perform an offbeat song about saunas is a favorite of bookmakers. I'm Jai Hill Snyder, NPR News.