NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-19-2025 11PM EDT

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

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This is Ira Glass, the host of This American Life. So much is changing so rapidly right now with President Trump in office. It feels good to pause for a moment sometimes and look around at what's what. To try and do that, we've been finding these incredible stories about right now that are funny and have feeling and you get to see people everywhere making sense of this new America that we find ourselves in. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky

says he's awaiting Russia's proposal on how to end the war. From Kyiv, NPR's Polina Litvinova reports on Zelensky's remarks today after speaking with Donald Trump. Zelensky said he spoke with President Trump twice, before and after Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian president said his country is willing for peace, but won't agree on territorial concessions.

No one will withdraw our troops from our territories, he said. There will be no ultimatums and no one will surrender their land, their territory, their people, their homes. Zelensky also asked Trump about sanctions if Russia doesn't agree to end the war, adding that American banking and energy sanctions would cause significant economic challenges for Russia. Polina Latvinova, NPR News, Kyiv. The Trump administration is preparing to restrict use of public assistance to buy soda and energy drinks.

Nebraska's governor says his state will be one of the first to adopt the policy, as NPR's Katie Heddle reports. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, has signed a waiver that she says will remove soda and energy drinks from the list of things people can buy with their SNAP benefits in certain states. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It's the primary federal food subsidy program in the U.S. Rollins calls the waiver the first of its kind and says it is, quote, a historic step

to make America healthy again. While many food policy experts acknowledge that sugar is a contributor to chronic disease, they argue people need more choices, not fewer. Rollins said governors of at least six other states will participate. She called them, quote, pioneers in improving the health of our nation. Katie Riddle, NPR News. Katie Riddle. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says her city's recovery from January's deadly wildfires is on pace to be the fastest in modern California history.

As NPR's Kirk Sigler reports, Bass came under scrutiny over budget cuts to the city's fire department and for her handling of the disaster. Mayor Bass toured a new home under construction in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where the Palisades fire that ignited January 7th destroyed close to 7,000 homes and killed 12 people. She spoke to mark the milestone that 2,000 properties here had now been cleared of all debris, meaning more building permits will be issued soon. They're moving at lightning speed, expediting the timeline to get families home. City officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are calling the speed of the debris

removal historic, namely far ahead compared to the aftermath of the deadly Camp and Woolsey fires in California in 2018. Kirk Sigler, NPR News, Los Angeles. On Wall Street, stocks closed higher. The Dow gained 137 points. This is NPR. National Weather Service forecasters are predicting more severe thunderstorms on Tuesday, but forecasters say the storms will shift to the southeast and

mid-Atlantic regions. Thousands of people from Texas to Kentucky are cleaning up from multiple tornadoes that claimed more than two dozen lives in the past few days. Severe weather advisories were posted over the weekend from areas from Dallas to Omaha and from Tulsa to Kansas City. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of adults in the United States report having a disability. That's compared with less than 3% of the people in the medical field. NPR's

Kristen Wright reports on a California woman who filed a civil rights complaint to change that. Taylor Cardy's complaint to the Justice Department alleges Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit accepted but then denied her admission because of her disability. Cardy has cerebral palsy. Limited mobility in her hand made it hard to meet the med school's technical standards. These are required skills set by each school. Cardi asked for modifications to perform CPR and suture a wound, but Wayne State said her request for accommodations wasn't reasonable.

She's focused on changing the rules. I know there is a young child who is putting on that stethoscope and I want to make that accessible for them. Since 2021, the Association of American Medical Colleges has encouraged med schools to make their technical standards more inclusive. Wayne State declined to talk to NPR. Kristen Wright, NPR News. U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading. This is NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate.

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