NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-12-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

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Hey, everybody, it's Ian from How to Do Everything. On our show, we attempt to answer your how to questions. We don't know how to do anything. So we call experts. Last season, both Tom Hanks and Martha Stewart stopped by to help. Our next season is launching in just a few months. So get us your questions now by emailing how to at NPR.org or calling 1-800-424-2935.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The video showing Senator Alex Padilla of California being forcibly removed from a Los Angeles press conference thrown to the ground and handcuffed is generating outrage in Washington. It happened at a news conference on immigration being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, why Senator called it, or for chats called it outrageous. This is the stuff of dictatorships. It is actually happening. A United States Senator was manhandled, shoved to the ground and cuffed. He identified himself. I'm Senator Alex Padilla.

That should be enough. Noem did meet with Padilla for about 15 minutes after the ejection. Questioned about the incident, House Speaker Mike Johnson said it merits immediate attention. We're not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators charging cabinet secretaries. We got to do better, and I hope that we will.

Johnson said the incident could warrant censure on the part of the Senate. As the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown, President Trump seems to be backing down a bit when it comes to the agriculture and hospitality sectors. Following his earlier remarks on social media, Trump cited the impact on farmers and hotels as a reason to order changes even as the administration continues deportations. Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great.

And we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have, maybe not. However, there were no details about what the promised order might look like. Nearly two-thirds of farm workers in the US are immigrants, some of whom are in the country illegally. 241 passengers and crew are dead, along with dozens on the ground after the crash of an Air India flight that went down in Ambalwad, India shortly after takeoff. As NPR's Dia Hadid reports, there were victims on the ground.

They were mainly from India. More than 50 were from the UK, a few from Portugal, one from Canada. But the victims aren't just passengers on the plane. They appear to include at least four students who were in the cafeteria of a hostel that belonged to this medical college, it seems the plane or at least parts of it slammed into that building.

India's Home Minister has confirmed a single passenger aboard the plane survived the crash. The House on a 214-212 vote has approved a package of funding cuts that among other things would slash 1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a move aimed at cutting off funding for NPR and PBS, which President Trump has called Ideologically Based. The move, known as a rescission, would also seek to take back more than 8 billion in funding for foreign aid through agencies like USAID. On Wall Street, the Dow was up 101 points today. You're listening to NPR.

President Trump has signed a resolution today that would block California's first in the nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars in that state by 2035. California quickly challenging the move in court. The resolution to block California's strict emission standards was approved by Congress last month. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks. Today marks the nine years since 49 people were killed in a shooting at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando.

Plans are underway for memorial of what was once the LGBTQ Plus venue. Joe Burns with Central Florida Public Media reports. The city of Orlando began busing small groups to the Pulse site Wednesday and the visits will continue through Saturday. Christine Leinenen was one of those visitors. She says her 32 year old son Christopher Andrew Leinenen was shot nine times and died on the dance floor. I needed to see where my son took his last breath. It's as simple as that and as painful as it is, it's nowhere near as painful as what my son experienced that month.

She remains critical of the police response and the FBI. The gunman was killed that night by police. Now the FBI is in the process of closing its case. For NPR News, I'm Joe Burns in Orlando. A chartered space flight for India, Poland and Hungary's first astronauts in decades has been placed on indefinite hold. There are concerns about a leak at the International Space Station. NASA said today it wants to monitor the cabin pressure on the Russian side of the orbiting lab before accepting any visitors. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.