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NPR News: 05-21-2026 11PM EDT

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"Live from MPR News, I'm trial Snyder.

Comic Stephen Colbert is saying goodbye to the late show after 11 years in the host chair.

His final show gets underway on the East Coast shortly.

CBS Paramount plus canceled it, citing financial reasons, but his impairs mentally do barco reports. Colbert's fans say it's because of its criticism of President Trump."

Stephen Colbert has never stopped roasting Donald Trump, though he never directly blamed

the President for getting canceled, but many of his friends and fans have. On the eve of his finale, Colbert invited on some of his famous friends, including Billy Crystal, Amy Sedaris, and Robert De Niro, then he welcomed musical guest Bruce Springsteen. "We're the first guy in America who's lost his shield because we've got a president who can't take a joke."

Springsteen also called out Trump Loyalist, Larry Ellison, and a son David Ellison, who owns CBS Paramount Plus, then he sang an anti-Trump anthem about ICE agents who killed protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretty, who remembered the names of those who didn't. Colbert ends his show tonight with a surprise guest, Monday late then article NPR News. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Trump prefers an negotiated settlement with

Cuba, but he says that likely hit of that is not very high right now.

The administration has been ramping up pressure on the communist government to who changed

its system as impairs Michelle Kelliman reports. "A day after the Department of Justice announced an indictment against former Cuban President Roe Castro, Secretary Rubio kept up the pressure describing Cuba as a national security threat for its connections to Russia and China." "And the other thing that poses the threats of the National Security United States is to

have a failed state, 90 miles from our shores, run by friends of our adversaries." He would not say if the U.S. would try to arrest the 94-year-old Castro as the Trump administration did with Venezuela and later Nicholas Maduro earlier this year, Rubio was speaking on the tarmac in Florida before heading to Sweden for a NATO meeting. Michelle Kelliman and PR News the State Department."

"Also in Washington, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved the design plan for President Trump's 250-foot arch across the National Mall." And Pira's Rachel Treesman reports.

The seven-member Commission, appointed by President Trump, approved an earlier design last

month with proposed changes. The version that the Greenlight was very similar to the original, even keeping the 84-foot gold statues on top that the Commission had suggested mixing. Members of the public shared concerns at the meeting about the arch's scale, tone, and location, near Arlington National Cemetery.

The Commission's Secretary says they got some 600-written comments overwhelmingly against it. Other federal agency, the National Capital Planning Commission, will consider the arch at its next meeting in early June. Rachel Treesman and PR News.

"And you're listening to NPR News." Well, federal judge today sentenced to Minnesota Woman to 42 years in prison for leading what prosecutors say was the nation's largest COVID fraud scheme. Mads Epic Minnesota Public Radio reports Amy Bach among dozens of defendants convicted in the case.

The Bach found at the nonprofit feeding our future, which was at the center of a conspiracy

to steal nearly $250 million from federal child nutrition programs through fraudulent reimbursement

claims. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who was lead prosecutor in the case, says the 42-year term, is justified. "What's a long sentence, and Amy Bach did everything she could to earn it, the judge found what we all knew, which was at feed in her future was entirely fraudulent."

Bach is white, but the majority of her 78 co-defendants are Somalia American. Most are U.S. citizens, but President Donald Trump pointed to the fraud to justify his recent immigration enforcement operation here. For NPR News, I'm Matt Sepick in Minneapolis. "Hey, Seps, as it may try again tomorrow, the private space companies scrubbed a test launch

set for today in Texas of a bigger version of the company's Starship." The countdown clock got within 30 seconds before the decision to scrub was made, a series of problems forced to delay as space experts to go public in what could be the largest IPO ever. The premiere of the Canadian province of Alberta, Danielle Smith, says voters will be

asked this fall, whether it's time to leave Canada. In a prime time, a dress earlier tonight, though, Smith said the referendum will not trigger separation, but rather, it would start the legal process toward a binding vote. She said her preference is to remain. This is NPR News.

News shows, new music, new movies, keeping up with pop culture sometimes feels like a full-time job. Thankfully, over at pop culture happy-hour, it's literally our job. We break down what's actually worth watching, listening to, and pretending you already knew about.

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