NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-23-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered, that's NPR's music recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week. Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens the Trump administration has revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students as NPR is Alyssa Naproni reports details were spelled out in a letter to the school the letter signed by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says the

administration is terminating Harvard's student exchange certification. That prevents Harvard from enrolling new students and pulls the rug out from under currently enrolled international students. In a statement, Noem says the administration is holding Harvard accountable for, quote, fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. Harvard says the government's actions are, quote, unlawful. The university has nearly 7,000 international students, roughly one-fourth of the student body.

More than a million international students study at U.S. colleges and universities, contributing more than $43 billion to the U.S. economy. Alyson Adworni, NPR News. The U.S. Supreme Court says presidents have the authority to fire the heads of independent federal agencies. As NPR's Nina Totenberg reports, the 63 decision is temporary but significant, and it angered the court's liberals. They were pretty mad. Justice Kagan, speaking for them, quoted Alexander Hamilton as saying, To avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts, it is indispensable that they should be bound

down by strict rules and precedents. Today's order, she said, favors the president over our precedent. And she added, it does this unrestrained by the rules of briefing and argument and the passage of time needed to discipline our decision-making. NPR's Anna Totenberg. Some black attorneys general are resisting the Justice Department's decision to abandon consent decrees with police departments in multiple cities. NPR's Sandhya Dirks has the story.

Consent decrees allow for the federal government to oversee police departments that have been found to be in violation of the law. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford told press and his peers, effectively ending their use is a loss for civil rights. Too many families are still living in fear and too many neighborhoods are bearing the scars of injustice. That's why I'm calling on every state attorney general, on every advocate in this virtual room to seize this moment. Civil rights leaders say in places where state AGs don't take the lead, they'll use the

courts. Hermit Dillon, who leads the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, claimed the agreements were quote, reliant on faulty legal theories. Sandhya Dirks, NPR News. A vigil was held outside of the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. tonight to honor two Israeli embassy staffers gunned down there Wednesday. A suspect identified as Elias Rodriguez of Chicago is facing two counts of first-degree

murder. Authorities say Rodriguez shouted, free Palestine, after being arrested. This is NPR. A small plane carrying six people crashed into a military community in San Diego Thursday. They are believed to be no survivors. The victims were employees of an alcohol-based talent agency, including the company's co-founder. Authorities say the plane went down in foggy weather, igniting a home and numerous vehicles in the community.

The Trump administration plans to stop minting pennies. NPR's Scott Horsley reports that the federal government has been losing money on the one-cent coins, which each cost nearly four cents to make. A Treasury Department spokeswoman says the government has placed its last order for blank pennies and will stop production of the one-cent coins as soon as that's exhausted. The phase-out is expected to save the government about $56 million a year in reduced material costs. Pennies will remain legal tender, which is good, since there are about 114 billion of

them floating around out there. Most don't really circulate, though. Instead they gather dust in dresser-top change jars and forgotten pants pockets. The phase-out of the penny may force businesses to round prices up or down to the nearest nickel. That's less of a hassle, though, now that customers pay cash for fewer than one in five transactions. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. The University of Maryland's 2025 graduating class heard from Kermit the Frog before receiving their diplomas Thursday. A bronze statue of Kermit and its muppets

creator Jim Henson are fixtures on the university's College Park campus. It was Kermit's second commencement address since addressing students at Southampton College in 1996. This is NPR News. Man 1 This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply.