NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-02-2025 5AM EDT

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

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On NPR's Thru Line, witnesses were ending up dead. How the hunt for gangster Al Capone launched the IRS to power. Find NPR's Thru Line wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristin Wright. The FBI is investigating an attack in Boulder, Colorado as an act of terror. Police say people were set on fire at an outdoor mall Sunday afternoon. Eight people were hurt, one of them critically. Emma Vanden Heide from member station KUNC reports one man is in custody.

Local FBI officials identified the male suspect as 45 year old Mohammed Sabri Solomon. He used a makeshift flamethrower and threw it at a crowd. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Doherty says the list of mass attacks in Colorado is too long. But from those experiences we afford really strong working relationships and ensuring that we do everything possible, everything we can do and need to do to secure justice for the victims, their family members, and the Boulder community." Officials say the suspect yelled, free Palestine, during a march in support of releasing Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

They believe he acted alone. For NPR News, I'm Emma Vanden Heide in Denver. The Senate is expected to begin working on that massive budget bill this week. Democrats are concerned about cuts to Medicaid and food and nutrition programs. Some Republicans say the plan would add too much to the deficit. On CBS' Face the Nation yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant discussed what he thinks has to stay in the package. The president has his campaign promises that he wants to fulfill for working Americans.

So it's no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, deductibility of auto loans for American-made automobiles. Meanwhile, China is rejecting President Trump's claims that it violated its trade deal with Washington. China's Commerce Ministry says it's the U.S. that has severely undermined the 90-day trade truce. Right-wing historian Karel Nawrowski has been elected as the new president of Poland, beating his liberal rival of the mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Truskowski, by a slim margin in a runoff

vote. The Electoral Commission confirmed that Nawrowski secured just over 50 percent of the popular vote. The BBC's Adam Easton says the win will continue the political impasse for some of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-EU government policies. The Polish president can veto legislation, mainly obviously put forward by the government.

And over his 18 months in office, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has suffered from the incumbent president, a conservative, Anjay Duda, who has used that veto to block him delivering many of his key campaign promises. Mr. Navrotsky will continue to use that veto. And if that continues for the next two years before the next elections, then that will probably seriously damage his chances of being reelected. That was the BBC's Adam Easton.

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia are meeting in Istanbul, Turkey for peace talks. The negotiations come as fierce fighting continues on both sides. This is NPR News in Washington. The Drama Desk Awards were handed out in New York yesterday. While the awards make no distinction between Broadway and off-Broadway in the nominations, the winners are often predictors of the Tonys, as Jeff London reports. The big winner of the night was the quirky, gentle new Broadway musical about robots falling in love, maybe happy ending. It picked up six awards, including Outstanding New Musical.

It's up for ten Tony Awards. Brandon Jacobs Jenkins' play, Purpose, Already a Pulitzer Prize Winner, was named Outstanding Play, Eureka Day and Gypsy won in the Outstanding Revival categories, and two actors were named for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical—veteran Audra McDonald for Gypsy and newcomer Jasmine Amy Rogers for Boop. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. In Canada, thousands of people are leaving their homes to escape wildfires. They're burning in multiple provinces, and the smoke is drifting across the border, causing

poor air quality in parts of the U.S., especially in Minnesota. It is now Atlantic hurricane season. It started yesterday. Forecasters do expect an above average number of named storms, as many as 19. Weather experts are concerned the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and cut some climate and research programs. I'm Kristin Wright and this is NPR News in Washington.