NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-20-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

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We've all been there running around a city looking for a bathroom but unable to find A very simple free market solution is that we could just pay to use a bathroom But we can't on the Planet Money podcast the story of how we once had thousands of pay toilets And why they got banned from Planet Money on NPR wherever you get your podcasts Live from NPR news wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. President Trump will visit Capitol Hill today to talk about a Republican-backed budget bill in the House.

Trump supports it, and he wants full GOP backing, but not all House Republicans have signed on. They're worried about the debt. The Nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the House bill could add well over $3 trillion to the U.S. debt over the next decade. House Speaker Mike Johnson is confident he will gain enough GOP support for the bill. We're almost there and I'm very optimistic we will find the right equilibrium point to get this bill delivered.

He can only afford to lose a couple of Republican votes otherwise the bill will fail. All Democrats are in opposition. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace, describing the actions by Doge as quote, null and void. Employees of the independent think tank are welcoming the news, as NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports. Michael Phelan says his phone exploded with messages about the rolling. Oh my gosh, read it, here it is,

it was available very quickly. There's a lot to interpret from it, but for the time being today is a day of celebration for the institute and the staff. He and about 20 others who had been fired by DOGE in March gathered outside the institute to celebrate. Nicoletta Barbera, an expert on Africa, hopes to get back to work.

If Americans believe in peace and security, they should believe in the United States Institute of Peace. The Institute was created by Congress, but is not part of the executive branch, so the judge ruled that the Trump administration could not fire its board. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. Port officials on the West Coast say they expect to see an uptick in cargo traffic from

China now that President Trump has temporarily lowered tariffs. But NPR's Scott Horsley reports they're not expecting the kind of traffic jam that raised shipping prices during the pandemic. Shipments into the usually busy Port of Los Angeles slumped earlier this month as triple-digit tariffs brought trade between the U.S. and China to a near standstill. Now that those tariffs have been temporarily reduced, importers are hustling to bring in cargo that had been stranded in China. Even with that partial recovery, though, the Port's executive director, Gene Soroka, is not expecting a huge crush of new cargo. What probably comes out of this are lower inventory levels across the board, less selection for American consumers and maybe higher prices.

The tariffs that remain in place are still the highest in nearly a century. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. Retailer Home Depot says its revenue rose in the first quarter of this year. At the same time, Home Depot officials told CNBC today they won't raise prices because of President Trump's tariffs. Walmart has recently warned shoppers that prices will increase there because of tariffs. That has drawn anger from President Trump, who wants them to eat the costs. This is NPR.

The U.S. Supreme Court will permit the Trump administration to pull temporary legal status for 350,000 Venezuelan migrants. This had let the migrants live and work in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons. They did not fear deportation. NPR has learned a jetliner owned by the government of Qatar is now parked at the airport in San Antonio, Texas. Qatar has offered the plane to President Trump, who wants to use it as a substitute for Air Force One. But the jet has not yet been overhauled, and opponents say the plane presents constitutional and security problems. A group of monkeys in Panama is stealing babies from another monkey species that lives nearby.

And Piersnell Greenfield-Boyce explains, researchers believe the kidnappings by monkeys started as a way to combat boredom on an island. 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-Boyce, NPR News.

And I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.