NPR News Now - NPR News: 07-18-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

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On this week's Wild Card podcast, comedian Mark Maron reflects on being content-ish. I can honestly say there's never been a better time in my life and I'm not even sure this one is that great. I'm Rachel Martin. Mark Maron's on Wild Card, the show where cards control the conversation. Where cards control the conversation. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. The House last night voted to take back $9 billion in already approved federal funding for foreign aid and public media. President Trump is expected to sign the bill soon. The vote was along party lines.

Republican Steve Scalise. Getting spending under control. Does it answer all the problems? No. Nine billion dollars, I would say, is a good start. And hopefully we do more things like this. But Democratic House whip Hakeem Jeffries says it's reckless. It's going to undermine the ability of people in rural America

and in small town America to receive advance warning or necessary information when disaster strikes. The bulk of the money, around $8 billion, was allocated to foreign assistance programs. At $1.1 billion was for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR, PBS, and their member stations. President Trump is threatening to sue The Wall Street Journal and its owner for publishing an article linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As NPR's Stephen Fowler reports, the journal obtained a letter allegedly sent by Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday.

In a truth social post, Trump said the Wall Street Journal was told directly by Caroline Levitt and by President Trump that the letter was a fake. Later, Trump also said in a post, he asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce, quote, any and all pertinent grand jury testimony in Epstein's case. For more than a week, Trump has faced controversy over the so-called Epstein files,

files that Trump once told his supporters he would release, then his administration said didn't exist, and that he now falsely claims is a, quote, hoax pushed by Democrats and, quote, stupid Republicans. Stephen Fowler, NPR News. Danielle Pletka In a social media post, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she will ask the court to unseal some of the grand jury transcripts. A new analysis projects the cost of health insurance will spike next year for people in the US who buy their own plans.

Empire's Selena Simmons-Duffin has more. There's one big reason why insurance premiums are going up next year. The federal money that had been making premiums lower expires in December. Those enhanced premium tax credits began during the pandemic. Cynthia Cox is with KFF, the nonpartisan health research organization that published the analysis

of next year's rates. Individuals on average are going to pay 75% more than they did this year. People who are generally healthy might well decide that's not worth it. They'll go without health insurance and risk it. The people who can't do that tend to have chronic conditions or expensive medications which cost insurance companies more. Cox says that's why health insurance companies are raising rates. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News. U.S. futures contracts are trading flat at this hour. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

Meta investors and company CEO Mark Zuckerberg have agreed to settle a lawsuit currently being tried in Delaware. And here's John Ruehich reports. The case stems from the Cambridge Analytical Data scandal. Investors sued Zuckerberg and other senior executives with what was then Facebook, now Meta. They were seeking more than $8 billion in damages linked to fines and legal costs that Meta incurred after the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Facebook paid a record $5 billion fine to the Federal Trade Commission after being accused of violating user privacy agreements. The bench trial started on Wednesday in Delaware and was slated to last about a week, but on Thursday morning, lawyers for the investors notified the judge that the two sides had reached a settlement in principle, according to a copy of the court document.

The details of the settlement are not yet known. Attorneys from both parties could not be reached for comment. John Ruech, NPR News. Danielle Pletka Meta is a financial supporter of NPR. There's a thief afoot in the Grand Teton National Park. The bounty? Shoes. The National Park Service put

up posters of the alleged thief, a wily fox, with the headline, Wanted for Grand Theft Footwear. The Park Service says the whimsical poster of the sneaker snatcher is an effort to warn campers that shoes have been disappearing. 32 of them so far. It's not clear, though, if it's one foxy thief or more. So far none are in custody, but several campers have deliberately left shoes out for the fox and now the Park Service is warning people to stop, saying that's not safe for the wild animals or the humans who may come in contact with them. I'm Janene Herbst and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Most people have some albums, some movies, some book from when they were young that helped shape

how they came to see the world. That's no less true for the Code Switch crew. It's still really touching and I cried rereading it. So there. Listen as we revisit some of our old faves on Code Switch from NPR or wherever you get your podcast.