NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-15-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

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The House of Representatives has approved a White House request to claw back two years of previously approved funding for public media. The rescissions package now moves on to the Senate. This move poses a serious threat to local stations and public media as we know it. Please take a stand for public media today at GoACPR.org. Thank you. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. President Trump says he believes Iran and Israel could work out a truce to end days of intense airstrikes.

But as NPR's Greg Myrie reports, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu appears committed to an extended operation. President Trump said on Truth Social that, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel and end this bloody conflict. But he didn't offer details. Israel's Netanyahu, in an interview with Fox News, vowed to press ahead with attacks intended to knock out

Iran's nuclear program and its stockpile of ballistic missiles. So far, Trump has tried to strike a middle ground. He's supportive of Israel, and the U.S. military is helping Israel defend against Iranian attacks. But the president says the U.S. is not involved in airstrikes against Iran, and he doesn't want the U.S. dragged into another Middle East war. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Washington. A protester has died after a shooting yesterday at a no-kings protest march in Salt Lake City. From Empire Station KUER,

Caroline Ballard has more. The Salt Lake City Police Department says based on preliminary information, two men in high-visibility vests confronted a potential gunman. They allegedly saw 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa separate from the crowd, pull out a rifle, and begin manipulating it. When they approached, he charged the crowd with the rifle raised. One of them fired three shots. One struck Gamboa and the other hit a bystander. The 39-year-old male bystander was taken to a hospital where he later died. Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd says Gamboa tried to hide

among a crowd. The crowd actually pointed him out to law enforcement and their actions were heroic. Gamboa was taken into custody with a minor gunshot wound. Police later recovered a backpack, an AR-15 and a gas mask. For NPR News, I'm Caroline Ballard. Hundreds of rural hospitals are at risk of closing. If the Medicaid cuts Congress is considering, take effect. That's according to a new report as NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports. President Trump's tax bill includes steep cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,

which experts project will mean 16 million people could lose health insurance. Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to analyze how many rural hospitals could be affected by the planned cuts. He spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill. Findings demonstrate that 338 hospitals in rural communities across the country in red states and blue are at an immense risk With these Republican cuts Kentucky and Louisiana each had more than 30 at-risk rural hospitals According to the report Selena Simmons Duffin and PR news. You're listening to NPR news from Washington listening to NPR News from Washington. In San Antonio, the death toll from heavy rains that inundated the area last week has

now risen to at least 13. The National Weather Service says more than 7 inches of rain fell over just a matter of hours Thursday, causing fast-rising floodwaters to carry away more than a dozen vehicles into a creek that left some people climbing trees to escape the water. Firefighters rescued more than 70 people across the nation's seventh largest city. The city's public works department says more than a dozen low water road crossings showed signs of structural damage. Muslims are the fastest growing religious group around the globe. And Pierce Jason DeRose reports the finding is part of a study from Pew Research. The worldwide Muslim population reached 2 billion, adding nearly 350 million people between the year 2010 and 2020, slightly more than a quarter of the overall population. But Christians are still the majority with 2.3 billion people, nearly 29% of all

people. Pew analyzed census data and surveys from around the world to reach its conclusions. Although the overall number of Christians grew, the religion's share of the globe's population fell by nearly 2%. Meanwhile, the number of those with no religious affiliation at all is on the rise. The so-called nuns, that's NONS, now make up nearly a quarter of all people. Jason DeRose, NPR News. JANENE HERPST.

Asian markets are trading higher at this hour than Nikkei. The main market in Japan is up nearly nine-tenths of a percent. I'm Janene Herpst, NPR News in Washington. JANENE HERPST. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. NPR News in Washington.