NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-23-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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Politics is a lot these days. I'm Sarah McCammon, a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast, and I'll be the first to tell you what happens in Washington definitely demands some decoding. That's why our show makes politics as easy as possible to wrap your head around. Join us as we make politics make sense on the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. The Trump administration's told Harvard University it cannot enroll any more international students. It's telling current international students they have to find another school or they have to leave the United States.

The Trump administration claims Harvard has an unsafe environment. Harvard claims the Trump administration is threatening the university. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Northern California has ordered a nationwide injunction against the Trump administration's effective cancellation of international student visas. And Pierce Emily Fang reports, nearly 2,000 international students suddenly had their immigration status terminated. Judge Jeffrey S. White ruled in favor of a group of international students who had sued the Trump administration after their immigration status was abruptly erased

from a U.S. database. The administration told NPR that students who engage in criminal behavior or other actions outside the scope of their visa could have their visas pulled. But nearly all of the students affected whose cases NPR reviewed had never been convicted of a crime. Although the students' immigration status has been reinstated, Judge White noted that the court could not rule out the administration might try to revoke their status again, hence

the nationwide injunction. Emily Fang, NPR News. Federal authorities have filed first-degree murder charges against the suspect accused of killing two Israeli embassy staffers. Yaron Lezhinsky and Sarah Milgram were shot and killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. as they left an event. Milgram grew up in a Kansas City, Kansas suburb. From member station KCUR, Celisa Kolokol reports on how Milgram's family is remembering her.

Milgram, who was 26, grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas. Her father, Robert Milgram, told KCUR he thinks education is important to stopping these acts of violence. Many different people living in the U.S., there's no reason to hate one another. This hate cannot divide us. We need to overcome it. The temple where Sarah worshiped said in a statement that her commitment to Judaism was deeply personal and described her as a radiant presence. For NPR News, I'm Salisa Kolakol in Kansas City. The Trump administration plans to stop minting pennies.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports the federal government has been losing money on the one-cent coins because each penny costs nearly four cents to make. 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 dresserer 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. On Wall Street and pre-market trading Dow futures are lower. This is NPR. Scientists have found a way to sample DNA across an entire country right out of thin air. NPR's Ari Daniel explains. A network of stations monitors pollution levels across the UK by drawing ambient air across disks of filter paper. Elizabeth Clare is a biodiversity scientist

at York University. Those same systems have been accidentally capturing airborne DNA at the same time. Little bits of DNA sloughed off into the environment by creatures big and small. When Clare and her colleagues analyzed the filters, they found DNA from heaps of insects, spiders, plants, fungi, birds and mammals. Each filter stored just a morsel of information. But when you have hundreds of them being collected, all those dots coalesce into a picture. The biodiversity of a nation and how it's changing. R.E. Daniel, NPR News.

Sesame Street rock star Kermit the Frog was a commencement speaker yesterday as one of the original Muppets. He spoke at the University of Maryland College Park's graduation ceremony. Kermit made sure to give graduates his best life advice. The show must go on and if you're with your people then you won't have to do it alone because life is not a solo act. No it's not. It's a big, messy, delightful ensemble piece, especially when you're with your people.

This was a kind of homecoming for Kermit the Frog. His creator was the late Jim Henson. Henson graduated from the University of Maryland in 1960. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington. Hey, it's Sarah Gonzalez. The economy has been in the news a lot lately. It's kind of I'm Cora Vickolman, NPR News in Washington.