NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-23-2025 5AM 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 Dave Mattingly. A Chicago man is facing federal charges including two counts of murder and the shooting deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC. As NPR's Ryan Lucas reports, the two staffers were shot and killed outside the Capitol Jewish Museum on Wednesday night following an event there. Elias Rodriguez faces several charges including first degree murder, murder of a foreign official

as well as several gun charges. The interim U.S. attorney for Washington D.C. Jeanine Pirro called the shooting horrific and said her office will not tolerate such crimes. We're going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism. And we will add additional charges as the evidence warrants." Officials say they believe Rodriguez acted on his own. According to court documents, he arrived in Washington, D.C. from Chicago on Tuesday, the day before the shooting. He allegedly told police after his arrest that he did it for Palestine and for Gaza.

Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. The Trump administration is revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students. In a letter sent to the Ivy League school, the Department of Homeland Security accuses Harvard of fostering violence and anti-Semitism on campus and of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem goes on to say, it's a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students. Harvard has about 6,800 of them on its campus

in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That's more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students. The US Supreme Court is giving President Trump the power to fire the top leaders of federal agencies. As NPR's Nina Totenberg reports, the move reverses a precedent set some 90 years ago. Nina 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. A Republican spending and tax cut bill passed by the House yesterday now heads to the Senate.

The package cleared the House by one vote. Two GOP congressmen voted against the bill, Thomas Massey of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says President Trump would like to see both face primary challenges when they're up for re-election. Massie and Davidson say the bill doesn't go far enough to rein in the deficit. This is NPR News. The U.S. and Iran are scheduled to hold their latest round of nuclear talks today in Rome. Ahead of the negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,

says he doesn't expect the two sides to reach an agreement, citing the Trump administration's demand that Iran not be allowed to enrich uranium. The Ayatollah has referred to that demand as nonsense and a big mistake. President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is leading the U.S. delegation at the talks in Italy. Authorities in Southern California say multiple people were killed in yesterday's crash of a private jet in San Diego. The FAA says six people were aboard. The twin-engine Cessna went down in foggy conditions. A revival of the Tony Award-winning play Art will debut on Broadway this fall.

As Jeff London reports from New York, the production will feature three well-known TV actors. Three Emmy Award winners will play the friends whose relationships fray over a postmodern painting. James Corden, a former host of The Late Late Show and a Tony winner, Neil Patrick Harris of How I Met Your Mother, who's also a Tony winner, and Bobby Cannavale, recently of The Watcher. The play, written in France and premiered in Paris, was Broadway hit in 1998 when Alan Alda, Victor

Garber and Alfred Molina headlined in it. The Broadway revival opens in September. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington. You're listening to the NPR Network. Live from NPR News. I'm Lachie. A living, breathing record of your neighborhood, the country, the world.

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