NPR News: 05-21-2026 3AM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder.
What charges are being leveled against Raul Castro?
In Miami Wednesday, Cuban-Americans celebrated the criminal charges the Trump administration is leveling against former Cuban President Raul Castro. The Justice Department unsealed an indictment against the brother of the longtime Cuban president Fidel Castro, Raul, now 94. He's charged with murder for his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by a Miami-based exile group. Four people were killed, including three Americans. Lourdes Marjon White celebrated with her father, a Cuban national who stood against Castro's rule.
How are House Republicans and Democrats addressing housing affordability?
Castro remains in Cuba, where the government is calling the indictment a farce.
House Republicans and Democrats passed a bill Wednesday banning large corporate investors from buying more homes. NPR's Stephen Passaha reports the bill is also meant to address housing affordability.
The main idea in the bill to make housing more affordable is to throw a lot of ideas at the problem. The bill is packed with new block grants, updates to old ones, and deregulation.
What is the significance of Samsung Electronics' labor agreement?
Most of these provisions are meant to encourage home building across the country. This is a modified version of a bill the Senate passed two months ago. Both versions ban corporate landlords with at least 350 houses from buying up any more. Investors can build new homes to rent out, but the House version of the bill strips out the Senate's requirement that those houses get sold off after seven years. The bill now heads back to the Senate to consider for final passage.
Stephen Basaja, NPR News. Overseas, semiconductor maker Samsung Electronics has reached a tentative deal with labor unions averting a possible strike.
Why did Colorado Democrats censure Governor Jared Polis?
NPR's Anthony Kuhn is in Seoul.
Management and labor reached a tentative agreement about an hour before the 18-day strike was planned to start. The strike is now suspended while workers vote to either accept or reject the proposed deal. The unions were asking for performance bonuses equal to 15% of the company's operating profits. The agreement is for them to get 10.5% of business performance earnings partly in stock with no cap over at least 10 years. Semiconductors account for more than a third of South Korea's exports and investment in AI data centers has boosted chip demand.
What updates are there on the wildfires in Southern California?
Government concerns about a strike prompted the country's labor minister to step in and mediate between the two sides. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.
For the second time in a week, President Trump said Wednesday that he will speak with Taiwan's leader about an arms sale opposed by China. The conversation between the two would be a sharp departure from the diplomatic norm. U.S. and Taiwan leaders have not spoken directly since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979. This is NPR. The Colorado Democratic Party has voted to formally censure the state's top elected Democrat, Governor Jared Polis, for reducing the prison sentence of a former election clerk allied to President Trump. From Colorado Public Radio, Binta Birkeland reports.
Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters received a nearly nine-year sentence after she tampered with county voting machines to try to prove Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 election. The Democratic governor said the sentence was too harsh. He also agreed with the state appeals court that her election denial beliefs improperly influenced the length of her sentence and ordered her release on June 1st. Colorado Democrats say it's a dangerous and disappointing precedent that undermines the party and democratic institutions. Polis, who leaves office in January, is also banned from speaking at party events or attending as a featured guest. For NPR News, I'm Benta Brooklyn.
Crews are battling multiple wildfires in Southern California, including the Sandy Fire in Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles. Thousands remain under evacuation orders. A Tennessee man jailed over a social media post about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has won an $835,000 settlement. Retired police officer Larry Bouchard spent 37 days in jail last year.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:04
2
What charges are being leveled against Raul Castro?
0:04–0:41
3
How are House Republicans and Democrats addressing housing affordability?
0:41–1:20
4
What is the significance of Samsung Electronics' labor agreement?
1:20–1:55
5
Why did Colorado Democrats censure Governor Jared Polis?
1:55–2:31
6
What updates are there on the wildfires in Southern California?
2:31–5:03