NPR News: 05-22-2026 7PM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
Ignition.
SpaceX has launched the latest version of its massive Starship rocket from South Texas a day after it canceled a launch because of mechanical issues. This Starship flight is uncrewed, but a later version could return astronauts to the surface of the moon. The launch comes as the company prepares an initial public stock offering. SpaceX says Starship is key to launching more satellites for its Starlink wireless internet network
What recent developments have occurred with SpaceX's Starship launch?
and it plans to use the rocket to lift cargo and eventually as many as 100 people at a time into orbit as part of its goal of colonizing Mars. Popular prediction markets are under congressional investigation. The House Oversight Committee is probing Kaoshi and Polymarket after multiple reports of military and political insider trading cases.
NPR's Luke Garrett reports. Prediction markets host billions of dollars worth of bets on sports, politics, and in some cases, war. In April, the DOJ charged a U.S. soldier for making $400,000 using classified information to bet on the capture of Nicolas Maduro. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer tells CNBC this case and other reports of insider trading prompted the probe.
We want to not only launch an investigation to see how widespread this has been thus far, but also to prove a case that we've got to pass some type of legislation.
Kalshi and Polymarket have two weeks to turn over their documents on insider trading. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates prediction markets and does prohibit insider trading. But there's growing concern that current laws haven't kept up with these new financial exchanges. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington.
A bipartisan group of senators is pushing back on delays by the Department of Defense in sending roughly $600 million in security aid to Ukraine and other allies in Eastern Europe. They sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that calls for the funding to be dispersed. Friction has grown between Congress and the Trump administration in recent weeks as lawmakers push for updates on what's happened with $400 million in Ukraine aid that was allocated by Congress last year. and $200 million more for defense programs in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is playing up President Trump's endorsement heading into the final days of his U.S. Senate primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn.
The race is the latest campaign where Trump is encouraging voters to oust a politician who's displeased him and elected a challenger that's more aligned with him, as NPR's Tamara Keith explains.
It took him an incredibly long time to endorse in the primary runoff between Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. When he finally did, Trump put his weight behind the challenger, Paxton, who has an opposition research file thicker than a phone book, but who made it clear that he would be a loyal soldier for Trump.
NPR's Tamara Keith reporting. The U.S. stock market closed out its eighth straight week of winning finishes. The S&P 500 climbed more than a quarter percent. It's NPR News. Waymo has suspended driverless car services in Atlanta and Texas after one of its vehicles was stranded by flooding during heavy rains that will likely affect much of the U.S. over the holiday weekend. A Waymo vehicle got stuck during a downpour in Atlanta that flooded streets and even part of a downtown highway earlier this week. Google is changing what it means to Google. The company is integrating AI more deeply into its core internet search function. But as NPR's John Ruich reports, critics say it could mean fewer choices for users and less web traffic for businesses.
What is the congressional investigation into prediction markets about?
At its annual developer conference this week, Google said it's making its iconic search box more dynamic so it can expand with longer searches. Users can also put pictures or documents into it for new kinds of searches. And it's folding more AI into its search. The company has put AI overviews on some searches for about a year, and it sees the integration of the two as the way forward.
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