NPR News Now - 1am ET, October 08 | The latest headlines from NPR

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

The latest headlines from NPR at the top of this hour. The stories you hear are written, reported and fact-checked by NPR journalists.  Learn more about the standards of our journalism at npr.org/ethics. Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

This is NPR News Now. The latest headlines every hour. Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. The Northern Gulf Coast bracing for the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. The National Hurricane Center has posted a hurricane watch from the Louisiana-Mississippi State Line to Indian Pass and the Florida Panhandle, as NPR's Debbie Elliott reports. National Hurricane Center Director Mike Brennan says, Esa Es is gaining steam as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

ESA is expected to be a strengthening strong hurricane as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast on Friday into Friday night and Saturday. You can see multiple life-threatening impacts from storm surge, heavy rainfall flooding, and hurricane force winds. The governors of Alabama and Florida have declared states of emergencies, and the impending storm has prompted school closures and event cancellations throughout the region. The Marine Minerals Administration reports about 25% of offshore oil and 16% of natural gas production in the Gulf has been curtailed. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. Attorneys for death row, M.A. Krista Pike say they are trying to get her sentence commuted after her failed lethal injection in Tennessee last week.

We continue to ask Governor Lee to commute Krista's death sentence. After all we have seen and all that we still do not know, it is unamational. that the state would try to execute her again. Attorney Randy Spivey speaking to reporters Wednesday saying Pike has regained consciousness that she is angry and confused and has severe swelling in her hands and arms. A judge has ordered the Tennessee Corrections Department to preserve evidence from the execution. Meanwhile, the state of Texas has carried out the first execution since Krista Pike's failed lethal injection. 46-year-old Jamal Howard was pronounced dead Wednesday evening after receiving the same drug. Howard's attorneys unsuccessfully sought to block the injection, arguing that he was intellectually disabled and faced similar risks, says Pike.

For the first time since 2002, an international democracy partnership will not send election observers to monitor a U.S. election. The group says it has not been invited by the Trump administration. Congressional Democrats say the move is another maneuver meant to undermine public trust in the midterms, as NPR's Eric McDaniel reports. The Trump administration's decision not to invite information, International observers to the United States is, according to Gene Shaheen, top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, quote, deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy, and transparency that defines our elections. The news was first reported by democracy docket. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe regularly dispatches observers to elections across the world. Sheen says she was an election monitor in the country of Georgia in 2012, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022. White House spokeswoman Lauren Biss told NPR in a statement, quote, no other nation has done more to advance the cause of human freedom and representative government. American elections will be administered, participated in, and observed by American citizens. Eric McDaniel and Pierre News, Washington. This is NPR. President Trump is due back at the White House after rallying voters in San Antonio

with Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton. Trump's trip to Texas was his third in less than a month as Republicans tried to blunt Democratic gains in key races. Paxson is locked in a tight battle against Democrat James Tala Rico, his remarks, Trump's remarks, were interrupted by protesters multiple times. A satirical statue of President Trump has been put up at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. The sculpture is meant to criticize the president's policies on climate change and what a stnish creator calls a growing dominance of powerful nations. Here's Terry Schultz reporting. The eight-foot-high statue, titled The Orange Plague, depicts Trump completely naked, holding a golf club and a globe-shaped ball in one hand and scales in the other. He's sitting on the shoulders of another

man who looks frail and the whole thing is covered in 23-carat gold leaf. Danish artist Jens Galschiat says the work is inspired by the emperor's new clothes and asks how long people will allow the powerful to be carried on their backs. He says Trump was chosen as the subject because of his efforts to roll back climate initiatives and to pressure other countries to do the same. The statue was unveiled as part of a three-day exhibit hosted by Danish member of the European Parliament, Per Klausen. It's previously been displayed in Denmark, Germany, and Brazil. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz. Asian shares are slipping in Thursday trading after a down day on Wall Street. Oil prices are rising. Brent Crude, the international standard, back above $102 per barrel. I'm Giles Snyder.

NPR News.