NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-18-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janene Hurst. Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. In a statement, his personal office called the cancer a more aggressive form of the disease. NPR's Luke Garrett has more. LUC GARRETT Last week, former President Biden was evaluated after a small nodule was found on his prostate. The 82-year-old was then diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday. The cancer has metastasized to Biden's bone and is a more aggressive case, according to a statement from the personal office of the former president.

The statement says the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, allowing for effective management and that Biden and his family are reviewing treatment options. Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer, according to the CDC, and is treatable. The diagnosis comes days before the publishing of an expose book on Biden and a growing debate over the former president's mental fitness during the latter portion of his presidency. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Law enforcement officials have named a suspect in the bombing of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California yesterday. And here's Jason DeRose reports. The FBI says

it's fairly confident 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus is behind the explosion that badly damaged American Reproductive Center's clinic. Akil Davis is assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office. The subject had nihilistic ideations and this was a targeted attack against the IDF facility. Make no mistake we are treating this as I said yesterday as an intentional act of terrorism. The blast was powerful. It blew out windows in neighboring buildings. Debris is strewn across the five-lane street where the IVF clinic is located as well as

for blocks around. Investigators are combing streets, yards, and parking lots nearby looking for additional evidence. Jason DeRose, NPR News, Palm Springs, California. Danielle Pletka Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says that at least 19 people were killed when what's believed to have been a tornado swept through the southern part of the state. John McGarry of Member Station WEKU reports 17 of the dead were in the city of London.

Mamie Cottle says it was a close call for her and her young grandson. She lives in an area where many homes were destroyed by the severe weather. She says her daughter called to say it's at the nearby London Corbin Airport and to get in the closet. The house started shaking and then the next thing I heard was like rumbling. The next thing was just like glass breaking everywhere and wood breaking. We couldn't hardly open the closet door to get out. Cottle says she and her grandson were uninjured, but she doesn't know whether her home of 10 years can be saved. Governor Andy Beshear says efforts are underway to secure emergency housing. For NPR News, I'm John

McGarry in London, Kentucky. U.S. futures contracts are trading lower at this hour. Dow futures are down just over a half percent. NASDAQ futures down nearly 1%. This is NPR News. Bangladesh has among the worst air pollution in the world, and the brick-making business is partly to blame. But as NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports, new research shows that simple changes to how bricks are fired could make a big difference. Bangladesh produces nearly 30 billion bricks a year. Most of these are made in coal-fired brick kilns, which spew thick clouds of black smoke, says energy systems engineer Samir Matil.

It is essentially a lot of black smoke impacting the workers and the nearby villages and also impacting overall air quality of the region. But a new study in the journal Science shows that tweaking this process can make the kilns much more efficient. A few changes, like leaving more space between bricks, cut pollution from the kilns by about 20 percent. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. The S&P 500 is getting a new company in its mix, Coinbase, where people trade all kinds

of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. It joins the exchange tomorrow, a big moment for the crypto industry. Coinbase will replace Discover Financial Services, which is being acquired by Capital One. At the weekend, box office Final Destination Bloodlines took the top spot with an estimated $51 million in ticket sales. Globally, it made $102 million in its debut. In second place, Thunderbolt with $16 million, and in third place, Sinners with $15 million, bringing its global total to $316 million. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington.