NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-23-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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This is Ira Glass, the host of This American Life. So much is changing so rapidly right now with President Trump in office. It feels good to pause for a moment sometimes and look around at what's what. To try and do that, we've been finding these incredible stories about right now that are funny and have feeling and you get to see people everywhere making sense of this new America that we find ourselves in. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts. Shea Stevens. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Federal authorities say they're investigating the double slayings of the

Capitol Jewish Museum as a hate crime and act of terrorism. Two Israeli embassy staffers were gunned down there late Wednesday after attending an event by the American Jewish Committee. DC Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith says authorities are beefing up security in the area. Around DC, you will see an increased presence of law enforcement officers around the community. You will find us around our faith-based organizations. You will see an increased presence around our schools and places like the D.C.

Jewish Community Center. The suspect in the slayings, Elias Rodriguez, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, but the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. says that's just the beginning. Investigators are reviewing his social media accounts and postings, while also interviewing Rodriguez's relatives, coworkers, and associates. The Supreme Court has given President Trump the power to fire key federal agency leaders, but outright overturning a 90-year-old court president. As NPR's Nina Totenberg reports, the vote was 6-3 with the court's liberals in angry dissent.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News While the court's two-page order is technically temporary, its language is pretty final. For instance, it carves out the Federal Reserve Board as different, knowing that the idea of enabling the president to fire Federal Reserve Board members has repeatedly spooked the markets.

The court majority thus made a point of saying that the Fed is different and is insulated from at-will firing. Writing for the three dissenters, Justice Kagan blasted the majority for taking the extraordinary step of overturning a nearly century-old precedent, quote, by Fiat, without full briefing and arguments. What matters most here, she said, is that Congress provided for these leaders

to serve full terms protected from a president's desire to substitute his political allies. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. The FDA Commissioner Marty McCary discussed her agency's proposed spending plan at a Senate hearing Thursday. NPR's Sydney Lupkin reports. Commissioner McCary told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday that the 2026 budget

request for the FDA would be $6.8 billion. There was one problem There was no detailed budget document to discuss Vice Chair Senator Patty Murray told him that the committee hadn't seen a full budget request yet. That is unacceptable You are now testifying that the budget Proposes to slash FDA by more than 11 percent That's actually news to all of us and I'll tell you right now, it is not going to fly." She called it reckless and said her office was already hearing reports of drug approvals getting delayed and inspections being canceled because of mass FDA staff cuts last month.

Sydney Lupkin reporting. This is NPR. There have been numerous killings of high-profile people linked to Moscow and Kiev since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Most recently, NPR Spolina Litvinova reports that a former Ukrainian politician was fatally shot in Spain this week while taking his children to school. According to media reports, Andrey Portnov was killed Wednesday near the American School of Madrid.

In Ukraine, Portnov was known for his work for ex-president Viktor Yanukovych's administration. The pro-Moscow president was ousted in a 2014 popular uprising. Portnov also fled Ukraine, where he faced investigations over accusations of treason. The U.S. government sanctioned Portnov in 2021 for engaging in what it called corruption. Spanish police have not yet made any arrests in Portnov's shooting deaths. Polina Latvinova, NPR News. Kyiv. The UN Children's Agency says more than 9,000 children in Gaza have been treated for malnutrition this year.

Relief experts predict the territory could plunge into famine if the war there continues and Israel's blockade is not fully lifted. Until this week, deliveries of food and medicine and other supplies had not been allowed into Gaza since March. Forecasters are predicting a busy Atlantic hurricane season this year because of warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is estimating there will be 13 to 19 named storms this year, with 6 to 10 of them becoming hurricanes.

NOAA says the 2024 hurricane season was the third costliest on record. This is NPR News.