NPR News: 07-16-2025 9AM EDT
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What is the Senate debating that could cut funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. The Senate is expected to begin debate this morning on a bill to take back billions of dollars of previously allocated federal funding. This includes over a billion dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides money to NPR and PBS. Nearly eight billion dollars earmarked for foreign aid programs is also on the line. NPR Scott Newman has more.
Well the clock is ticking. The Senate debate is expected to begin this morning, followed by a vote. If it passes, the corporation for public broadcasting will lose the funding that Congress appropriated for it for fiscal years twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven.
If the bill fails, the government is required to release the funds, Congress faces a midnight Friday deadline. The US government says a deportation flight carrying five migrants has landed in the small southern African nation of Etsuatani Eswatini.
How are recent U.S. deportations of migrants to Africa and South Sudan being justified?
Michael Colochi has more.
The Department of Homeland Security, in a post on X, says the five men are from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen. It indicates the men have criminal convictions ranging from child rape to murder. A ruling by the US Supreme Court last month granted the Trump administration's request to lift a judicial order, requiring that those deported to countries where they are not from and have no connections get a quote meaningful opportunity to show. Sure they could face harm. Soon after, eight migrants who had been held in US custody in Djibouti were deported to South Sudan. Some rights groups have challenged the Trump administration's deportations, arguing migrants are not given a chance to plead their cases.
For NPR News, I'm Michael Kaloki in Nairobi.
Emergency officials in central Texas say it could take years for the region to recover from catastrophic flooding that's killed at least one hundred and thirty people and destroyed hundreds of homes. NPR's Kat Launstorf visited a town in Kerr County where people are still rebuilding from a major flood that happened over a decade ago.
What are the long‑term impacts of the 2015 Texas flood on communities still rebuilding today?
On Memorial Day weekend 2015, the Blanco River in Wimberley, Texas, suddenly rose more than forty feet overnight, wiping out nearly everything in its path. Resident Natalie Meeks said it's been hard to watch the news out of Kerr County since it all feels eerily similar. She says she and her husband were cleaning up for years.
It took us almost a year just to have the debris and trash cleaned up to where it didn't look like a war zone.
Ten years later, they're still rebuilding. But she says it's more than just the physical damage. It's emotional for a long time. It's just a long process. She calls it a recovery marathon and not a sprint. Katlonsdorf MPR News, Wimberley, Texas.
Why is Apple investing in rare‑earth magnets made in Texas and how does it affect U.S. tech supply chains?
The National Weather Service says the Gulf Coast may see serious flooding in the coming days as a tropical disturbance moves over the south. It's already dumping rain on Florida and the Louisiana coast is under a flood watch, forecasters say through the weekend. You are listening to NPR News from Washington. Apple says it's planning to use more rare earth magnets for its products like iPhones, MacBooks, and gadgets here in the US, NPR's John Ruich reports.
Apple says it entered a $500 million agreement with the rare earth mining and processing firm MP Materials. Apple will buy rare earth magnets produced in Texas by MP, and the two companies will jointly develop a facility in California to recycle rare earths. Rare earths are critical to modern electronics. The magnets are used in parts like the tiny motors that make iPhones vibrate. President Trump has been pressuring Apple to make more of its products in the United States, and at the same time, China, by far the biggest global producer of rare earth magnets, put export controls on them as part of the trade war. Apple says the deal is part of plans to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years.
What new trade deal did the Trump administration announce with Indonesia and how is the Iceland volcano eruption affecting travel?
John Ruich, NPR News.
President Trump says the US has reached a trade deal with Indonesia to impose a nineteen percent tariff on exports.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the Senate debating that could cut funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid?
0:01–0:57
2
How are recent U.S. deportations of migrants to Africa and South Sudan being justified?
0:57–1:59
3
What are the long‑term impacts of the 2015 Texas flood on communities still rebuilding today?
1:59–2:41
4
Why is Apple investing in rare‑earth magnets made in Texas and how does it affect U.S. tech supply chains?
2:41–3:50
5
What new trade deal did the Trump administration announce with Indonesia and how is the Iceland volcano eruption affecting travel?
3:50–4:38