NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-22-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

NPR News: 05-22-2025 4AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. Two Israeli embassy staffers have been shot to death at a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith says a man was seen pacing outside of the building where the American Jewish Committee had held an event. Smith says that individual is in custody. Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon and that weapon has been recovered and he implied that he committed the offense.

The suspect chanted, free, free Palestine while in custody. The suspect has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Illinois. Authorities are trying to determine whether anti-Semitism was a motive for the attack. The massive Republican tax and spending bill has cleared a final procedural hurdle. Lawmakers are working through the night as GOP leaders try to get the measure through Congress before Memorial Day.

A revised proposal includes Medicare cuts, higher state and local tax deductions, and new work requirements for Medicaid recipients. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has arrived in St. Louis to assess damage from last week's tornado. St. Louis Public Radio's Chad Davis has more. A huge part of the left side of Patrice Robbins' St. Louis house has been destroyed. We have cracks in the foundation.

We have leaks that we didn't have before. Floor tiles are moved in there. Some of the roof is missing. There's a notice on her door prohibiting her from entering the house. Four FEMA teams have been dispatched in the city and one in the county. Ryan Lowry-Lee is a spokesperson for FEMA. The more information that we're able to gather in these next few days, the better that information is the governor to make the determination on whether to request the declaration.

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe says he'll ask for a major disaster declaration for federal funding. For NPR News, I'm Chad Davis in St. Louis. The Justice Department is closing its civil rights investigations of the nation's police departments. That includes backing off a review prompted by a state police cover-up following the death of Ronald Green. Kat Stromquist of the Gulf States Newsroom has the story. Kat Stromquist, The Gulf States Newsroom In the Biden administration's last days, an investigation into Louisiana state police showed a pattern of excessive unconstitutional force. police showed a pattern of excessive unconstitutional force. Now the DOJ says it will retract those and other findings. Michael McClanahan is the head of Louisiana's NAACP. He says taking the findings back

doesn't mean they didn't exist. We saw with our own eyes and so it's a slap in the face because the DOJ stands for the Department of Justice. Kat Stromquist A state police spokesperson says they'll continue to work on community relationships. For NPR News, I'm Kat Stromquist in New Orleans. NPR News U.S. futures are flat in after-hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR. North Korea says its second naval destroyer was damaged Wednesday during a failed launch attempt.

According to state media, the 5,000-ton destroyer slid off the ramp and became stuck, crushing its bottom. The report said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un blames military leaders, scientists, and shipyard operators for the mishap. Two Indian women, an author and a translator, have won the International Booker Prize for the book Heartlamp. The prize is awarded for works of fiction that are translated into English. NPR's Diya Hadid reports from Mumbai. The win for author Bano Mushtaq and translator Deepa Basti was greeted with wild applause.

Mushtaq told the International Booker Prize audience that she felt like a thousand fireflies had lit up the sky. Mujtah is the first author to win for a collection of short stories rather than a novel. The work plunges into the lives of Muslim women in a corner of southwestern India where the language, Kannada, is spoken. One story sketches out the despair of a woman abandoned by her husband, but who finds strength in her daughter. There is casual, brutal misogyny.

A woman is ignored as she begs for help for her dying daughter. Mushtaq says her inspiration was listening to women she represented as a lawyer. De Harid, NPR News, Mumbai. Robotic cameras aboard the Mars rover Perseverance are still sending images back to Earth. The latest one captured a twirling dust storm. Perseverance has been collecting rock samples since its mission began in March of 2020. This is NPR News.