NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-20-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

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Is America sliding towards authoritarianism? Hundreds of academics say yes. It is certainly reversible, but we are no longer living in a liberal democracy. Where is American democracy heading? Listen now to the Sunday story on the Up First podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump is putting pressure on House Republicans to pass his budget bill. He went to Capitol Hill today to personally rally lawmakers to unite. And Piers Dipashivaram reports they met for more than an hour. Trump called it a quote, meeting of love and pushed back on reporters who asked if Trump was losing patience with Republican lawmakers who have been divided about the bill.

Trump said they are ahead of schedule, but Republicans have been divided over the legislation in recent weeks. The bill includes major pieces of Trump's agenda like funding border security and several tax cuts. But some moderate lawmakers have concerns over things like protecting Medicaid, while some fiscal conservatives are concerned with how much the bill would add to the deficit.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he wants to pass the bill by Memorial Day. Deepa Sivaram, NPR News. Home Depot says it does not expect to raise its prices because of President Trump's tariffs. Unlike the home improvement giant's projections, other major retailers, such as Walmart, say they have raised prices as a result of the US's levies on foreign goods. French President Emmanuel Macron and other allies are condemning Israel over its actions in Gaza. And here's Eleanor

Beardsley with more. Eleanor Beardsley In a joint statement with Canada and the UK, France condemned the quote, outrageous actions of the Israeli army, the intolerable level of suffering of Gazan civilians, and the appalling language of members of the Israeli government who have called to continue the 11 week humanitarian and food blockade that is pushing the enclave towards starvation. Macron, Keir Starmer, and Mark Carney threatened concrete action, including targeted sanctions, if Israel does not end its offensive and allow sufficient humanitarian aid back into the Gaza Strip. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris.

More severe weather is expected to hit Kentucky this afternoon and into the evening The towns of Somerset and London that were just hit with tornadoes Friday night are in the crosshairs again Standing gold of member station w e KU reports officials have ordered a temporary evacuation for parts of London Governor Andy Beshear announced the mandatory evacuation for two communities in Laurel County that were hit in Friday night's deadly storm Beshear says the damage from the previous storm is what prompted this evacuation plan. It is simply unsafe to be around that much debris with this level of wind. There's also a dangerous risk for hail and there is another risk for tornadoes. The governor said the highest risk for tornadoes is once

again in the western part of the state. Laurel County has also implemented a curfew for the tornado damaged areas of the county that is expected to be in place for at least a week. For NPR News, I'm Stan Engold in Richmond, Kentucky. From Washington, this is NPR News. A new blood test for Alzheimer's is likely to change the way the disease is diagnosed and treated. NPR's John Hamilton has more on how the test will be used.

The test detects sticky amyloid plaques in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer's. Last week, it became the first test of its kind to receive clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Howard Fillett, Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, says the move gives primary care doctors a better way to evaluate patients with memory problems. I think the blood test is going to really revolutionize the way people with Alzheimer's are cared for and diagnosed. It's a really big breakthrough. Fillett says right now, primary care doctors correctly diagnose about 60 percent of patients

with Alzheimer's. Adding the blood tests promises to boost that to more than 90 percent. John Hamilton, NPR News. The hospital network Kettering Health says it suffered a cyber attack and system-wide outage. In a statement on its website, the faith-based company, Basin, Ohio, disclosed the breach took place this morning. Kettering Health says it has taken steps to contain and mitigate the situation. The statement said that elective inpatient and outpatient procedures scheduled today were canceled, and at this time only elective procedures are being rescheduled.

Emergency room and clinics are still seeing patients though. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 90 points at 42,701. The S&P has fallen 20 points and the NASDAQ is down 64 points. This is NPR News.