NPR News Now - 7pm ET, October 09 | The latest headlines from NPR

Episode Date: October 9, 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 Rylan Barton. Isayas has strengthened into a powerful Category 3 hurricane as it surges toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. It threatens to bring strong winds and potentially life-threatening storm surges to the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama, and southern Mississippi, as NPR's Sergio Martinez-Baltron reports. The National Hurricane Center says hurricane force winds are expected

to spread as far as 100 miles inland from the coast of Alabama. Parts of the Florida panhandle could see as much as 15 inches of rain as the storm moves through. There is also a risk of tornadoes developing in Alabama and the Florida panhandle and tomorrow in Georgia and the Carolina. So here, Kini Sayas, we'll make itself felt and we'll dump a lot of rain across the southeast for the next few days. NPR Sergio Martinez Beltran reporting. President Trump says the U.S. will obtain diesel fuel from Russia,

relaxing years of U.S. pressure on Moscow to combat prices ahead of midterms. The announcement comes after Trump signed a sweeping sanctions law against Russia last month to clamp down on Russia's energy economy over the Ukraine war. President Trump has ordered a White House hearing next month to consider allegations of mortgage fraud against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. NPR's Scott Horsley reports critics have dismissed the move as a kangaroo court. The Supreme Court blocked President Trump's earlier effort to fire Lisa Cook, noting the Fed is supposed to be insulated from political pressure and finding that Trump had not

given Cook an opportunity to defend herself. Now, the president has set up a committee and ordered a hearing to weigh charges from a Trump loyalist that Cook made false statements on mortgage applications. Cook's lawyers say the Fed official welcomes a chance to clear her name, but add they have grave doubts that the quote-unquote hearing will be legitimate. The top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees the Fed labeled the hearing a show trial and called it part of a dangerous quest by the president to illegally take over the nation's central bank. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. The United Arab Emirates has released new details in its investigation of a pilot, they say,

tried to hijack a plane full of Israeli passengers. NPR's Aibatrari reports the UAE says the pilot wanted to crash the plane into the passenger terminal of Tel Aviv's airport. The UAE's Attorney General says the 29-year-old pilot from Oman had drifted toward extremist ideologies when he was around 20 years old. They say that's when he started following online content glorifying suicide attacks while studying in Melbourne. According to his confession, the UAE says this content influenced his decision to become a pilot.

The UAE says the pilot used two previous flights to Tel Aviv on Fly Dubai to familiarize himself with the route before the September 30th attempted hijacking in which investigators say he claims to have acted alone. The pilot, who was hired by Fly Dubai in January, used an emergency axe to attack the captain before the plane's emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Aya Bletrawi, NPR News, Dubai. The U.S. stock market finished its record-setting week with more gains today. This is NPR.

The FBI has arrested an accused co-conspirator of the hacking group Shiny Hunters. The group claimed last month that it breached the FBI's jobs portal, obtaining sensitive data on nearly all employees. Experts warned the breach has alarming national security implications, potentially exposing agents and their families. to extortion and harassment. An Arizona congressional candidate told police she was raped by an unknown attacker in August while repairing a damaged campaign sign.

When she went public with the news this week, she says her world exploded as Cameron Sanchez of member station KJZZ reports. Bernadette Green Placincia initially didn't want to report she was raped. She says she didn't want to think about it. But the Democrat says it was important to speak up on behalf of other survivors of sexual violence, many of whom, she says, have reached out to her this week. Still, Green Placentius says the publicity has been difficult. My world exploded again and now it's kind of come back.

And with that is, you know, the anger and the frustration that, you know, there's not actually anything I can do. I wish I could just go find these people myself and haul them to jail or something. Green Placentia says she hasn't received any updates from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on their investigation. For NPR News, I'm Cameron Sanchez in Phoenix. Thieves have stolen about 30,000 bottles of premium wine worth an estimated $5.6 million from a Marquesi and Tenori winery in Tuscany. And what the company says is the largest wine theft in Italy's history. The company is warning customers to be wary of offers outside official sales channels.

This is NPR News from Washington.