NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-22-2025 10PM EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's Throughline podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity. On Throughline, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism. Time travel with us every week on the Throughline podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The Supreme Court today gave President Trump the power to fire key federal agency leaders

contrary to a 90-year-old court precedent. More from NPR's Nita Totenberg. The decision is technically temporary, but its tone is pretty final, allowing President Trump broad leeway to fire key independent agency leaders at will. What's more, it all but outright reverses the Supreme Court's unanimous decision 90 years ago, holding that a president cannot fire agency leaders just because he disagrees with them. In a two-page, unsigned order, the Sixth Justice

Conservative Court majority clearly forecasts the eventual outcome of the case when and if it is argued before the court likely next year. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. Authorities today raided the Chicago home of the man suspected of killing two people outside a Jewish museum in the nation's capital last night. Police say the man chanted free Palestine as he was detained. NFUHR's Jennifer Ludden reports the two people killed were a young couple about to become

engaged. Gerron Lyshinsky and Sarah Milgram both worked at the Israeli embassy in D.C. A friend of Milgram's, Ayelet Razin Bet-Orr, says she started the job after Hamas attacked Israel a year and a half ago, determined to combat rising anti-Semitism. Not with violence or shoutings or verbal abuse, but in diplomacy with love, with intelligence. Lishinsky was an Israeli citizen and devout Christian. The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. says he'd bought a ring and planned to propose to Milgram during a trip to Jerusalem next week. Jennifer Lutten, NPR News, Washington.

This suspect now faces federal murder charges. Officials say the shooting is also being investigated as a possible hate crime. Addiction experts say deep cuts to Medicaid approved by House Republicans and the massive tax bill passed early this morning would mean a lot of Americans will lose the health insurance that helps them recover from fentanyl and other street drugs. NPR's Brian Mann reports. The House bill aims to trim hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid spending over the next decade.

The Congressional Budget Office found millions of Americans would lose health insurance under this plan. Keith Humphrey, a drug policy expert at Stanford University, says additional bureaucracy and work requirements mean people suffering drug addiction would be most vulnerable. In that situation where you have a struggling, troubled group of people interacting with a hard to deal with bureaucracy, it is inevitable that some people will fall through the cracks. This comes as drug deaths plummeted 27 percent last year, driven in part by more spending on Medicaid under the Biden administration.

The House spending bill still faces hurdles in the Senate. Brian Mann, NPR News. Stocks ended the trading session on a mixed note today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a point. The Nasdaq closed up 53 points. The S&P 500 was down 2 points. You're listening to NPR. The rapper Scott Meskite, who records as Kid Cudi testified in the

sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Shawn Combs today. Meskety told the court about his relationship with Combs ex Cassie Ventura in Piero's Isabella Gomez Sarmiano reports. Scott Meskety testified that he grew close to Cassie Ventura in 2011. The singer allegedly confided in him that Combs was physically abusive and they were taking time apart. Meskety said that's when he and Ventura started dating. The musician said that after Combs found out, someone broke into his house. Meskety told the court that about a month later, his car was set on fire in his driveway. Meskety filed police reports for both incidents. During cross-examination, Mesquite acknowledged that no one was ever charged for the arson,

but he told the court he believes Combs was responsible for both incidents. Isabella Gomez-Armiento, NPR News. Words of wisdom from a puppet at the University of Maryland tonight, where Kermit the Frog addressed this year's graduating class of 2025. You're all here to listen to a frog in a very tiny cap and gown give a commencement speech on what's actually turned out to be a pretty beautiful evening. Kermit telling the graduates tonight that life is better when we leap together. The late Jim Henson is a Maryland graduate.

He created the Muppets franchise. Graduates sported Kermit t-shirts. Some held stuffed animals during the ceremony this evening. NPR News in Washington.