NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-20-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: May 20, 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 as 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, on K Corva Coleman, President Trump is on Capitol Hill this hour meeting with House Republicans. He's urging them to vote for a GOP budget bill that includes spending for his domestic

priorities that includes extending tax cuts that will expire this year. Trump dismissed criticism that the proposed spending plan will hurt vulnerable Americans. We're cutting three things, waste, fraud, and abuse. We're not changing Medicaid, and we're not changing Medicare, and we're not changing Social Security. But the federal government's own investigations say that only about 5 percent of Medicaid payments are improper. The GOP budget would need a lot more cutbacks to reach its goals, and Democrats claim 8.5 million Americans could lose access to Medicaid under the plan. Separately, a handful of Republican conservative lawmakers don't like the bill either.

They say it would add trillions of dollars to the federal debt over a decade. This hour, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he once served on this panel. Rubio is expected to defend major cuts proposed for the State Department budget, saying America is back. But MPR's Michelle Kellerman reports Democrats disagree and say the Trump administration is seeding influence. The last time Rubio sat before his former committee was in January for his confirmation hearing,

and he was approved unanimously. But this time around, Democrats are expected to raise objections about the way he's dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development. In her prepared remarks, Senator Gene Shaheen of New Hampshire says the Trump administration has, quote,

eviscerated six decades of American foreign policy investments undercutting the nation's ability to compete with countries like China. She says while Rubio cut most U.S. foreign assistance, China has increased its diplomatic budget and is trying to present itself around the world as a more reliable partner than the U.S. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington.

Stocks opened lower this morning as Home Depot reported better than expected quarterly sales. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial fell about 60 points in early trading. Home Depot says its U.S. sales inched higher in the first quarter as customers tackled home improvement projects. The company also says it's working to hold the line on prices despite President Trump's new tariffs. Last week, Walmart warned those import taxes will push its prices up. Other big retailers, including Target and Lowe's, are set to report earnings tomorrow. China's central bank is cutting interest rates for the first time in seven months.

The move is designed to boost spending in the world's second largest economy, which is under pressure from the trade war with the U.S. Stock and Chinese battery company CATL began trading in Hong Kong today. Its shares jumped more than 16 percent. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. On Wall Street, the Dow is now down 50 points. You're listening to NPR. The Department of Homeland Security says it sent a charter flight of migrants from Houston to Honduras and Colombia.

The agency says 64 people voluntarily decided to self-deport back to their home countries. DHS says this was not a federal immigration operation. The migrants received travel help and a stipend of $1,000. But CNN is reporting some of the people sent out of the U.S. were children who are legal American citizens. Today is primary election day in the state of Pennsylvania. Voters are choosing candidates for some top jobs, such as mayor and district attorney. These races are drawing interest in cities

such as Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Pennsylvania. A big barrier for people who want to start biking regularly These races are drawing interest in cities such as Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Pennsylvania. A big barrier for people who want to start biking regularly is safety. NPR's Regina Barber reports on a new device that might help map out safer cycling routes. Cycling can be seen by many as a great eco-friendly way of transportation. But it can be dangerous sharing roads with cars. To better understand which routes were safer than others, a team of computer scientists created a sensor to monitor how close cars get to cyclists.

Over the span of two months in Seattle, Washington, 15 bikes were equipped with the sensor. During that time, the team recorded over 2,000 close passes from cars. These passes were compared to five years of bike collisions in the area, and locations of those close passes matched historically dangerous routes. The researchers hope to deploy more sensors in more cities where all the crowdsourced data can feed into a map that helps anyone find safer bike-riding routes. Regina Barber, NPR News. And I'm Korva Kuhlmann, NPR News from Washington.