NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-21-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: May 21, 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 in Washington, I'm Jack Spear.

The Justice Department is backing away from civil rights cases against police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky. The decision comes just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. Here's Ryan Lucas reports. The head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, announced the moves and said the timing

has nothing to do with the anniversary of Floyd's death, but rather with looming court deadlines. The department is moving to dismiss lawsuits against Louisville and Minneapolis that accuse them of unconstitutional police practices and would impose consent decrees to help ensure accountability. Dhillon says such consent decrees are too expensive, last too long, and have been badly used.

The department is also closing investigations into police departments in six other jurisdictions, including Phoenix, Arizona, Trenton, New Jersey, Memphis, Tennessee, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. President Donald Trump's self-declared big beautiful package of tax and spending cuts remains imperiled despite another late-night session by lawmakers. House Speaker Mike Johnson and some Republican holdouts traveling to the White House today holding last-ditch talks aimed at salvaging the 1,000-plus-page bill. Democrats la- the votes discuttle the measure.

Some GOP conservatives, meanwhile, believe the package doesn't cut enough, adding upwards of 3.8 trillion to the federal deficit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli military will not leave Gaza and will fully occupy it. He made the statement to reporters today at a press conference. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had instructed his Minister of Defense to quote, open another phase of the war in Gaza. By the end of this operation, the entire Gaza Strip will be under Israeli security control, he said.

Netanyahu dismissed harsh words from the United Kingdom and other European countries who called the war in Gaza quote abhorrent and have threatened to review trade ties. He also said without evidence that the images of hungry children from Gaza are, quote, false propaganda and he doubled down on the refusal of establishing a Palestinian state. Hadil Alshalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Confirmation the Justice Department is being asked to launch a criminal probe against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Representative James Comer on

social media linking to an article about a Justice Department investigation into Cuomo. Comer chairs the House Oversight Committee and had asked the DOJ to prosecute Cuomo over his actions during the COVID pandemic. He accused Cuomo of lying about the number of people who had died in New York nursing homes under his watch. Cuomo is currently running for mayor of New York City. Blame Wall Street's worst sell-off in a while on bond market jitters linked to the lack of a budget deal in Washington coupled with continued inflation and recession fears. The Dow plunged today down more than 800 points. Other indexes were also down 1%. This is NPR.

As retailers work to navigate their way through current economic uncertainties, there are signs at least some of their customers may be pulling back a bit in terms of spending. Tariffs inflation and continued fears of a possible recession continue to cloud the economic picture. Target, TJ Maxx and Lowe's all reported quarterly earnings numbers with differing results. That sensation we have in our teeth that causes them to ache or zing. And Burezari Daniels says it appears to have come from ancient fish. Scientists have been reasonably sure our teeth evolved from the bumpy armored exoskeletons of prehistoric fish. Yara Haridi is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago.

It becomes very advantageous to have pointy things around your mouth. But researchers didn't know whether there was more to the bumps than self-defense. Haridi and her colleagues have now shown through experiments on both extinct and living animals that that armor likely allowed the ancient fish to sense the water around them. They lived in mucky, shallow bottom seas. They probably needed every inch of sensation they can get.

Hundreds of millions of years later, our teeth, which originated from that armor, have inherited the ability to sense cold and pain as well. R.E. Daniel, NPR News. NASA's Perseverance rover continues to come up with new and interesting science from the surface of Mars. Its latest selfie taken with one of its robotic cameras, the rover captured a Martian dust devil, twirling dust storm popping up a few miles behind the rover during its latest photo shoot. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.