NPR News Now - 5am ET, October 16 | The latest headlines from NPR

Episode Date: October 16, 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 in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingley. Police in Bend, Oregon say it was a 16-year-old who opened fire inside an elementary school yesterday, killing three children and a teacher. The attack ended when the armed teenager was shot and killed, as Amanda Linares with Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. The children were 5, 8, and 11.

years old. Ben Police said they found the students dead inside Silver Rail Elementary School, along with a teacher and the suspected shooter. They say he was shot by a bystander who saw him entered a school with a long gun. Here's Ben La Pines School's superintendent, Dr. Stephen Cook. We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places and pray that it never happens here. A seven-year-old and 54-year-old teacher were hospital. official said, the shooting remains under investigation. For NPR news, I'm Amanda Linares in Portland, Oregon. The Trump administration is suing the state of California over its voter rolls ahead of the November midterm elections. Laura Fitzgerald with member station KQED reports. The lawsuit attempts to block California

from counting the ballots of thousands of voters the Trump administration suspects are non-citizens. David Becker heads the non-partisan Center for Election Innovation and Resource. He says the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed. We are 19 days away from the last day of voting. Six million ballots have already been cast. This is not a good faith effort based on the timing. Governor Gavin Newsom also denounced the lawsuit, saying it was a politically motivated attempt to suppress California votes.

The state's attorney general Rob Bonta called the administration's demands, quote, meritless in a post on social media. For NPR News, I'm Laura Fitzgerald in San Francisco. Tech Giant Anthropic says next month it will formalize new rules governing how people treat its AI chatbot. As NPR's Windsor Johnston reports, the policy is sparking debate over artificial intelligence and the concept of feelings. Starting November 12th, Anthropic will explicitly prohibit extreme sustained abuse toward Claude. But the move is raising questions about why a chatbot needs protection from cruelty when there's no clear evidence it can feel. Jeff Sebo is the director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at NYU.

This concern for AI consciousness and welfare is not coming from a place of certainty or confidence that the models have feelings and emotions, but is instead coming from curiosity and open-mindedness. Sebo warns that certainty in either direction carries risks, encouraging unhealthy attachments to chatbots or overlooking the possibility of AI suffering. Windsor Johnston and PR News. Anthropic is a financial supporter of NPR. This is NPR News from Washington. President Trump will travel to Georgia today to campaign for Republican candidates ahead of November 3rd. The president is expected to appear at a rally in Dalton with Senate candidate Mike Collins and GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson.

Collins is challenging incumbent Democratic Senator John Oshoff. Jackson is competing against Democrat and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in race for governor. The Milwaukee Brewers are advancing to Major League Baseball's World Series for the first time in 44 years. Last night in Los Angeles, the Brewers beat the Dodgers to complete a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series. Chuck Kornbach reports on the celebrations in Milwaukee. When Brewer's left-fielder Jackson Churio caught the final out of his team's 6-4 win over the Dodgers, the patrons of O'Donohue's Irish pub were overjoyed. Bartenders wave brooms to symbolize Milwaukee's four-game sweep over Los Angeles in the NLCS.

Customer Aaron Schmidt says he's stunned. I did not expect us to sweep the Dodgers in this series. Like, it's amazing. Colleen Lukich says the Brewers can next win the World Series. Look at how they played tonight. Look at how they played this season. The Brewers will face the winner of the American League pennant, either the Cleveland Guardians or Tampa Bay Rays.

For NPR News, I'm Chuck Kwormbach in Milwaukee. The Guardians lead the ALCS two games to one over the raise. Game four is tonight in Cleveland. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News, in Washington.