NPR News Now - 2am 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. President Trump is back in Washington, D.C., arriving at Joint Base Andrews from San Antonio, where he's ought to rally Texas voters behind Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton in a bid to hold off Democratic gains. Paxton, he prays on Trump when he was invited on stage near the end of the rally. How many presidents have? except we have that is doing what he is doing for us. So, Mr. President, I want to thank you for coming for me,

for coming for us, and for Texas. We are going to win this race. God bless you. Neither Paxton nor Trump made any mention of a recently leaked recording of Paxton, lamenting the war in Iran and rising fuel prices. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988. But the seat is in play with polls showing a tight race against Democrat, Tamarico. Trump's remarks were interrupted by protesters multiple times. ESA is now the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. In its latest advisory, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, says that storm has strengthened into a category one hurricane with top sustained winds of 75 miles per hour. And it's on track toward the Gulf Coast for later this week. The storm expected to bring heavy rain and the

potential for flash flooding. State Department says it has officially requested a information from Russia about the death of a lab worker amid fears of pneumonic plague. But President Trump is downplaying concerns about how this could be linked to a bio-weapons program, as MPRs Michelle Kellerman reports. President Trump says the Russians have given, quote, a little information about the situation in Irkutsk. He was asked whether this could have been the result of work on a bio-weapon. Well, we don't think so.

We're going to find out soon enough, but we don't think so. and if you listen to them, it's under control. Russia's public health agency says the lab worker died of pneumonia and that it was not related to her work at the Anti-Plaug Research Institute in Irkutsk. Michelle Kellerman and PR News, the State Department. Cornell student group staged a seven-hour sit-in at a dining hall on campus Wednesday to protest the university's handling of an alleged 2024 sexual assault. Phoebe Taylor Vuelo, member station WSKG has more.

Kennedy Young is a junior at Cornell studying public policy. She's the co-president of Black Students United, one of the groups which organized the sit-in. Jane Doe didn't have a community to sit with and discuss with the issues that she dealt with are the incident that occurred to her. But here we are sitting with each other for seven hours in community. She says one of the group's demands is changes to Cornell's policy to set minimum sanctions for perpetrators of sexual assault on campus. For NPR news, in Ithaca, I'm Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo.

This is NPR. The state of Texas has carried out the first execution since Krista Pikes failed lethal injection in Tennessee. A 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. Pike's attorney say she is now aware of what happened and is angry and confused. On Wednesday, a judge said she would issue an order

to the state to preserve evidence in the case. The World Wildlife Fund has published its biannual Living Planet Report, which chronicles a 73% drop in the average size of monitored wildlife populations from 1970 until 2022. Here's Imperial. This year's index adds almost 300 species, and the overall global decline in biodiversity doesn't appear to be slowing down. But the report points to a handful of species that have recovered or ticked upwards due to sustained conservation efforts, bluefin tuna, green sea turtles, tigers, and certain populations of elephants. Rebecca Shaw is WWF's chief scientist. This gives us hints into how we should be doing conservation overall to reduce the systems that drive

the degradation of nature. The report says, quote, collective hope is the most reliable predictor we have of whether large-scale change will occur. R.A. Daniel, NPR News. Asian shares declining in Thursday trading. The regional markets losing ground after Wednesday's retreat on Wall Street, oil prices rising, Brent crude back above $102 per barrel. This is NPR.