NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-18-2025 10PM EDT

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

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The scary new movie Sinners from the director of Black Panther finds Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers. It's got vampires, it's got great music, and it's a fun one to see with a big crowd. This is the most excited I've been about a movie in a very long time. We'll tell you why you should see Sinners on the biggest screen you can. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. Former President Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, at 82, Biden was America's oldest president to serve. According to a

statement from Biden's personal office, the cancer has metastasized to bone and is a more aggressive form of prostate cancer. But it appears to be hormone sensitive, which means there are options for effective management. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in elderly men. For Biden, the diagnosis came after experiencing urinary symptoms. The statement goes on to say that the former president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians. This comes as media attention has been focused on Biden's decline while in

office as documented in a forthcoming book. Tamara Keith, NPR News. Police in Palm Springs, California have identified a 25 year old man as the suspect in the bombing of a fertility clinic yesterday. They killed one person and wounded four others. The FBI says they believe Guy Barkus is the person who died in the explosion and that the bombing was an act of terrorism. Growers around the country are getting ready for harvest season and the arrival of thousands

of workers through a federal program to help pick the produce. But with rising wages, farmers say they're worried about their businesses. Michelle Jokos-Polo from Michigan Public Radio has more. It's been just over two months since about two dozen mostly Mexican workers arrived at Dutchman Tree Farms, Michigan's largest Christmas tree grower. They've already planted nearly three million seeds. Nursery manager Scott Powles says he relies on the H-2A visa program because it's hard to find local labor. But rising wages are squeezing the farm. When I came back to the farm in 2011 our H-2A wage was $10.02.

In 2024 our wage was $18.50. In Michigan the H-2A rate has jumped nearly $3 since 2022. Two bipartisan bills in Congress aim to freeze those wages, something some say could keep farms afloat. For NPR News, I'm Michelle Jokiszpolo in Grand Rapids. The new company is joining the S&P 500 tomorrow, Coinbase, and here's Rafael Nam reports. The S&P 500 is meant to represent a broad swath of leading companies in the US, and starting on Monday, it will have a new member. Coinbase, a major exchange where people go to trade all kinds of cryptocurrencies

like bitcoin. Coinbase will be replacing Discover Financial Services, which is being acquired by Capital One. The inclusion is a seminal moment for the crypto industry. It's the first time a crypto company joins the broad index. Coinbase shares have gained in the lead up to its inclusion in the S&P 500, and investors will be keen to see how it performs on the first day as part of this broad index. You're listening to NPR News. Cleanup and recovery efforts are underway in several Midwestern states after strong storms and tornadoes slammed the area Friday night, killing more than two dozen.

The hardest hit state is Kentucky, where at least 19 people died. In Missouri, at least seven people died. Some 5,000 buildings in St. Louis were affected by the storms. New Jersey transit officials reached a tentative contract agreement with the engineers, ending a strike that brought rail service to a halt on Friday. The union says it includes a better pay than an earlier rejected proposal. Still has to be approved by the union and the state Transit Board. Scientists have uncovered some secrets about how flamingos eat. NPR's Jeff Brumfield has more. Flamingos are graceful iconic birds until it's about how flamingos eat. And Piers Jeff Brumfield has more. Flamingos are graceful, iconic birds until it's dinner time. This video from

the San Diego Zoo captures just how weird they look when they eat. They bob their heads in and out of the water, chatter their bills, and stomp their feet. Victor Ortega Jimenez is a researcher at UC Berkeley. One obvious question is what are they doing with their feet? People say that they are dancing. It turns out they're not. Ortega-Rimenez worked with a group at Georgia Tech that showed the foot stomping, beak chattering, and bobbing was all designed to stir up and trap tiny shrimp and other food in the water. The food gets swept up in swirling vortices, then the flamingo scoops

it up with its spill. The work appears in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. U.S. futures contracts are trading lower at this hour. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, in.