NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-19-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

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A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story. But right now, you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes, because no one story can capture all that's happening in this big crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the up first podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump's disclosing gains from the latest round of diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. NPR's Mara Leysen reports on Trump's effort to get Russia and Ukraine to end their war. After the phone call, President Trump posted that Russia and Ukraine would begin talks

about a ceasefire. Ukraine has already agreed to a US ceasefire plan, but Russia has not. Trump said the tone of the conversation was excellent and that Russia wanted quote large-scale trade with the US. But there was no indication that the call had produced a breakthrough. After the call, Putin repeated his view that the root causes of the crisis needed to be addressed. The reference to root causes means that Ukraine would return to its former status as a satellite of Russia with a reduced military capacity of its own. Trump has shown increasing frustration with the lack of progress between Ukraine and Russia.

And before today's call, Vice President J.D. Vance repeated that the U.S. was willing to walk away if they made no headway. That's one outcome Russia would welcome and Ukraine would not. Mara Eliasson, NPR News, The White House. Former President Joe Biden's office says he's reviewing treatment options for an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spread to his bones. Dr. Ben Davies, a professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine says, the field of cancer research has made major gains

in helping people with prostate cancer live longer. It could include hormonal injections, which should kind of calm it down and take away some of the testosterone levels in his body so that the disease stops growing quite as fast and can kind of almost melt away from the bones. He also can get chemotherapy, which is a great study that happened just a few years ago,

which could extend his life if he qualifies for it. And radiation therapy too is definitely in play. Biden lost his son Bo to brain cancer. The former president and vice president spearheaded big cancer fighting initiatives aimed at more quickly and significantly reducing cancer death rates. China says it respects Denmark's sovereignty over the territory of Greenland, an implicit dig at President Trump's repeated request to control Greenland. Here's NPR's Emily Fang.

Emily Fang, NPR News, NPR News China has been on a diplomatic blitz in the last few weeks, meeting first with officials across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and now Europe, casting itself as a stable partner in a country that respects international rules. This week, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing fully respected Denmark's claim on Greenland, and in turn hoped Denmark would support, quote, China's legitimate position on issues concerning China's sovereignty. Wang Yi made those comments during a meeting with his Danish counterpart in Beijing, a meeting that occurred just after Taiwan's former president met with Danish officials in Copenhagen during

a summit. China claims Taiwan as its territory, and it criticized Denmark for hosting the former Taiwanese leader. Emily Fang, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR News. The New Jersey Transit Rail System is expected to resume service tomorrow. Hundreds of unionized locomotive engineers reached a tentative labor agreement with management, ending their strike.

The deal is still subject to union ratification. The engineers went on strike last week for higher pay, leaving many commuters to scramble for alternative ways to get to their destinations. A group of monkeys in Panama has started stealing babies from another monkey species that lives nearby. NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boys reports researchers believe the kidnapping started as a way to combat boredom on an island that has a lot of food and no predators. This island group of

capuchin monkeys is known to be inventive. They use stone tools to break open hard food items. Researchers were studying this tool use with wildlife cameras and the cameras saw a young male capuchin carrying around a baby from a different species. It was a howler monkey. This capuchin did this repeatedly, carrying several howler babies until they died. And then other immature males in the group started snatching howler babies too. Researchers say they can't see a reason for these kidnappings,

but this shows how this species has a strong urge to try new things and to copy each other. Nell Greenfield-Boice, NPR News. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down, rather up 90 points at 42,744. This is NPR News. Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good, watch the movie everyone's This is NPR News.