NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-18-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Tennessee will be allowed to continue barring transgender youth from accessing certain gender-affirming treatments in the state under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling today. The conservative majority upheld the ban by a vote of 6 to 3. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that Tennessee's law is not discriminatory. The voices in these debates raise serious concerns and the implications are all profound. But the court's role, he said, is only to ensure that the law does not violate the equal protection clause.

And having concluded that it does not, we leave questions regarding this policy to the people, their elected representatives and the democratic process. And I should add here that there are 25 states that have similar bans. NPR's Nina Totenberg, in a rare oral dissent from the bench, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said that because Tennessee law expressly classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status, the Constitution and settled precedent require the court to subject it to a higher level of scrutiny,

not the low rational basis test. Doctors in Georgia have taken a brain-dead woman off life support after delivering the baby for whom she was being kept alive following a medical emergency. That's according to the woman's mother. Here's NPR's Katie Riddle. Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant

when blood clots in her brain caused brain death. according to the woman's mother. Here's NPR's Katie Riddle. Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant when blood clots in her brain caused brain death. She was kept in a Georgia hospital for several months on life support while her pregnancy progressed. Hospital staff said they were complying with the state's abortion law. Her mother, April Newkirk, told local NBC affiliate station 11 Alive that the baby was delivered

by C-section last week. And he's expected to be okay. He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. Newkirk said her daughter has been taken off life support. Previously, Newkirk said she feels the family should have had a choice about whether to keep Adriana Smith on life support. Katie Ariddle, NPR News. The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady this afternoon. Fed policymakers had been in a holding pattern as they wait to see how President Trump's tariffs and other policies affect the U.S. economy. President Trump's made no secret of his displeasure with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. This morning he addressed reporters flanked by people hired

to raise flagpoles on the White House grounds and vented. He's not a smart person. I don't even think he's that political. I think he hates me, but that's okay. You know, he should. Trump suggested maybe he should take over the central bank. The Fed is set up to be independent of White House or congressional interference. The Israel-Iran conflict stretches into a sixth day.

President Trump meanwhile weighing whether the U.S. should engage militarily. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today his country, Iran, will not surrender. The Dow is up more than 100 points at last check. This is NPR News. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is facing another lawsuit this time for allegedly hiding assets from the Sandy Hook families they won more than a billion dollars in damages for defamation and Piers Tovia Smith reports a federal trustee overseeing the settlement calls Jones financial dealings quote textbook

fraud Jones has long claimed he didn't have the money to pay the families who sued him after he accused them of faking their children's deaths in 2012. Now, the trustee in Jones' bankruptcy case is trying to prove that Jones at least used to have it, but tried to hide it by giving it to his father, his ex-wife, and his kids' trust. The trustee wants the federal bankruptcy court to undo $5 million worth of last-minute sales and transfers of cars, condos, cash, and a ranch. Lawyers for Jones did not respond to requests for comment. Chris Maddie, attorney for the family, says it's no surprise Jones would lie to hide his assets but added, quote, he won't get away with it.

Tovia Smith, NPR News. Astronomers are sharing an out-of-this-world panoramic shot of the NGC 253 galaxy, aka Sculptor, that's 11 million light-years away from Earth. Scores of exposures make up the brilliance of a star-packed photo nearly the entire galaxy. The Associated Press reports scientists observe the nearby galaxy from Chile through the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and that is what it's called the Very Large Telescope. More details are expected to be published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.