NPR News Now - NPR News: 05-28-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

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A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story. But right now, you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes. Because no one story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the Upfirst podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens.

Students and faculty at Harvard University held a rally Tuesday to denounce the Trump administration's decision to cut funding to the school. The gathering was also meant to show support for international students facing possible deportation after participating in protests. Loxi Lam is a graduate student who's alarmed by the government's actions. Our learning or the freedom of learning is under attack, essentially, and so it's worrying, really worrying.

Jacob Miller is a former president of the Harvard Hillel organization that represents Jewish students. The administration's excuse for these policies, that they somehow address anti-Semitism are so absurd. Let's be clear, this has nothing to do with combating anti-Semitism. The Trump administration has frozen over $2 billion in contracts and grants to Harvard and revoked the university's ability to recruit foreign students, citing its response

to anti-Semitism on campus. Washington, DC's Mayor Muriel Bowser says she plans to make sweeping budget cuts in response to a wave of federal layoffs crunching the city's economy. From member station WAMU, Alex Coma has details. Bowser plans to slash nearly $2 billion in spending over the next four years. That includes cuts to the city's Medicaid, food stamp, and paid family leave programs, as well as some new initiatives backed by lawmakers.

These rollbacks are meant to account for the projected loss of 40,000 jobs in the city over the next three years, Bowser says. The impact of that change is 1.1 billion dollars. I also firmly believe that the decisions that we make together can change that trajectory. Nevertheless, Bowser is still pitching some big new projects in a bid to grow the city's economy, most notably a new football stadium for the Washington commanders. The budget now heads to the D.C. Council, which will have two months to make changes to Bowser's proposal. For NPR News, I'm Alex Homa in Washington, D.C.

Police say they have detained a person of interest in connection with a shooting at a mall in Waterbury, Connecticut. There were no fatalities, but several people were injured in the attack, as NPR's Giles Snyder reports. Waterbury police have not released any other details about the person in custody, but earlier Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said authorities believe the gunman knows the victims and that the shooting at the Brass Mills Center mall was not a random act of violence, that it stemmed from a dispute that escalated.

We do know that there was one gunman at this time we've identified that gunman was armed with a semi-automatic pistol. Waterbury police say there is no ongoing threat to the public and that the five adults who were wounded have non-life-threatening injuries. The gunfire prompted an evacuation of them all and a huge police response. Trial Snider, NPR News. U.S. futures are flat in after hours trading. This is NPR.

The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to quickly deport migrants to countries not their own. The administration wants the justices to overturn a lower court order that's blocking deportations without sufficient notice or time for deportees to argue their case in court. NPR and three Colorado public radio stations are suing President Trump over his executive order to ban federal funding to NPR and PPS. As NPR's David Falkenflick reports, the public broadcasters allege Trump's action constitutes clear-cut unlawful retaliation against protected speech.

Trump's May 1st executive order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding NPR and PBS and directs local stations not to use federal funds to pay for the network's programming. The White House has blasted the public broadcasters for what it alleges is liberal bias. CPB has ignored the order. It is a private corporation which distributes a half billion dollars in federal funds each year to public broadcasters, mostly local stations. The three radio stations joining NPR in the lawsuit reflect the disparate audiences served

there Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT, which serves Native American tribes in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. PBS says it's weighing its options. A White House spokesperson says the president is exercising his lawful authority. David Folkenflick, NPR News. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer recommending routine COVID vaccinations for children and healthy pregnant women. Dr. Vinay Prasad, who oversees the FDA's vaccine program, says COVID vaccines will be available as the administration gathers data on whether they

still benefit healthier people. This is NPR News.