NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-22-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: May 22, 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 in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. The House of Representatives has passed the controversial government budget bill. It squeaked by with just one vote.

Writing online, President Trump cheered the vote and urged the Senate to pass it. House Speaker Mike Johnson is hopeful. All the senators, every one of them had promised me they're not gonna change anything in our bill. No, no, I was honored to be at the Senate Republican luncheon on Tuesday. And you know, I encourage them to remember that we have a very delicate equilibrium that we've reached on here.

A lot of work went into this to find exactly the right balance. And you all saw how perilous that was over the last week as it developed. But several senators have already signaled reservations about key elements of the plan. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects this bill will add well over $3 trillion to the national deficit. Democrats point to another CBO report that says the bill will balloon the national debt so much that mandatory spending cuts will be required in Medicare. They say the Medicare cuts could total half a trillion dollars. The Trump administration has accepted a gift from the Qatari government.

The Boeing 747 luxury jet is worth several hundred million dollars. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports an Air Force spokesperson says the aircraft will be upgraded for use as Air Force One. The spokesperson told NPR that the Department of Defense had instructed the Air Force spokesperson says the aircraft will be upgraded for use as Air Force One. The spokesperson told NPR that the Department of Defense had instructed the Air Force to quote award a contract to modify a Boeing 747 aircraft for an executive airlift, saying further details are classified. They spoke on the condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak publicly. Trump has suggested the plane could be converted quickly for use as a new Air Force One, but experts say it will likely require significant upgrades to meet the high security and communications

requirements, work that could take several years and cost anywhere from several hundred million to a billion dollars. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Washington. Police in Washington, D.C. say two staff members from the Israeli embassy were shot and killed in the city last night. The Israeli government identified the staffers as Yaron Leshinsky and Sarah Milgram. A suspect is in custody. And Piers Becky Sullivan reports, D.C. police say the suspect said, free Palestine, when

he was arrested. The shooting took place shortly after nine o'clock as a museum event hosted by a pro-Israel advocacy group. The American Jewish committee was coming to a pro-Israel advocacy group. The American Jewish Committee was coming to a close. Two people were killed. It's a Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith. The suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun, and opened fire, striking both of our decedents.

Police said they had tentatively identified the shooter as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. It said he was not previously known to police. American and Israeli officials alike condemned the shooting. An FBI official said it would be investigated for ties to terrorism or as a hate crime. Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR News. Weather forecasters are warning that severe thunderstorms are possible today in the southern US plains. The main

threat is hail. Forecasters warn some hail stones could be two inches in diameter or even larger. Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks will appear off Broadway next October in a new play that he co-authored. As Jeff London reports from New York, the play, This World of Tomorrow, is a time traveling romance based on some of Hanks' short stories. The Shed, an off-Broadway venue in Hudson Yards, the chic far westside neighborhood, has hosted some high-profile shows in recent years. Among them, Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of King Lear and Stephen Sondheim's final

musical Here We Are. Now, Tom Hanks will appear in the Center's 550-seat theater in a show adapted from his stories about a scientist in the future who travels back to the 1939 New York World's Fair to find love. Hanks is collaborating with writer James Glossman on the adaptation to be directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. Some artifacts associated with President Abraham Lincoln have been sold at auction in Chicago. These artifacts included the blood-stained leather gloves that Lincoln was wearing the

night that he was assassinated. The money from the sale is being used to pay off an old loan that the Lincoln Presidential Foundation needed to settle. I'm Korva Kuhlman, NPR News.