NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-21-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

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Politics is a lot these days. I'm Sarah McCammon, a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast, and I'll be the first to tell you what happens in Washington definitely demands some decoding. That's why our show makes politics as easy as possible to wrap your head around. Join us as we make politics make sense on the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, Korova Coleman, Israel continues to hit Gaza with deadly airstrikes. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 85 Palestinians have been killed overnight. Israel says it has allowed aid to enter the Palestinian enclave.

But NPR's Hadil Al-Shelchi reports the United Nations says none of that aid has reached any of the Palestinians in need. After much international pressure, Israel said it allowed a quote minimal amount of aid into Gaza after a nearly three month blockade on all food, medicine and fuel. The United Nations said the aid has entered Gaza, but that workers weren't able to bring it to distribution warehouses. It said the Israeli military forced them to reload the aid into separate trucks and they

ran out of time. And they say the amount of aid getting in is wholly inadequate. Aid organizations say that two million Palestinians in Gaza are at a high risk of famine. Ceasefire talks are at an impasse. Hamas wants a complete end to the war. Israel will only commit to a temporary ceasefire. Hadil Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Hamas wants a complete end to the war. Israel will only commit to a temporary ceasefire. Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

House Republicans are working to get a multi-trillion-dollar budget bill ready for a vote by the full House. That could come as early as today. The GOP-led House Rules Committee worked overnight to prepare the bill for a procedural vote. Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern wanted to know why they gaveled in at 1 this morning Eastern Time. It's a simple question that speaks to the heart of what's going on here and one that I'm going to keep on asking. If Republicans

are so proud of what is in this bill then why are you trying to ram it through in the dead of night? Republican committee chair Virginia Fox of Virginia replied. The Rules Committee has a long tradition of meeting late into the evening and reporting legislation long after most of America has gone to bed. Democrats vehemently oppose the bill, but some fiscally conservative Republicans oppose it too. They say it will astronomically increase the U.S. debt. It's not clear if this bill has enough Republican support to

pass the House. Some offices of the National Weather Service are cutting back their 24-hour shifts. That's because of understaffing. The Mountain West News Bureau's Hannah Merzbach reports. Hannah Merzbach, Reporting, Mountain West News Bureau Office, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wyoming are shutting down from 11 at night to 6 in the morning. That's because staff is down by up to 60% in those offices due to federal cuts. The Weather Service Union's Tom Fahey says nearby offices could help pick up the slack. The Weather Service at this particular time is simply doing triage.

It's like battlefield medicine. You have a pop-up hospital that comes in, takes care of people." Fahey says the Trump administration has approved 155 temporary employees, but the Weather Service has lost about 600 workers in recent months. The agency said it continues to meet its core mission. For NPR News, I'm Hannah Merzbach in Jackson, Wyoming. This is NPR. The CEO of chip-making company, NVIDIA, says U.S. efforts to cut China off from American-made computer chips has failed. Jensen Huang told a conference in Taiwan that the Biden-era export controls on the

chips have only made Chinese chip makers stronger. He says NVIDIA has lost billions of dollars to an energized Chinese chip industry. Wong praised the Trump administration for thinking about whether to lift the block. Two major newspapers released a summer reading list, but it included made-up book titles by some famous but real authors, including Isabel Allende and Percival Everett. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports the list was generated by AI and was a piece of fiction in its own right. Percival Everett never wrote a book called The Rainmakers, and Isabel Allende never wrote

a book called Tidewater Dreams. But both of those fake titles and descriptions of them appeared on a summer reading list published in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The list of mostly fake books set off a wave of angry comments on social media. "'This is the future of book recommendations when libraries are defunded and dismantled,' lamented author and editor Kelly Jensen. The list didn't have a byline and came from content licensed from King Features, a unit of Hearst Newspapers. But writer Marco Buscalia has

claimed responsibility for it. Huge mistake on my part, he tells NPR in an email. The fake list got published two months after about 20% of staff at the Chicago Sun-Times took buyouts. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. And I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington. Conductor Robert Fron says a good melody captures our attention. And then it moves you through time. Music is architecture in time.

If you engage in the moment with what you're listening to, you do lose a sense of the time around you. How we experience time. That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR.