NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-27-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

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Life is a mystery for those of faith or no faith. Ye gods with Scott Carter is the podcast that makes sense of how we make sense of life. Each week we talk to celebrities, scholars, and mere mortals to unearth what on earth we believe and what we don't. Listen to Ye gods with Scott Carter, part of the NPR Network wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. After sending National Guard troops to police the streets of Washington, D.C., President Trump is now suggesting he'll do the same for other Democratic-led cities, including Chicago.

But Georgetown University law professor Steve Lattick says the situation with National Guard troops in other cities is more legally fraught than using them in the nation's capital. In D.C., the National Guard has much broader power than it has almost anywhere else in the country because in D.C. it is always federal. It's always acting under the command of control of President Trump. Right. In other states, in California, in Illinois, in New York, the only way President Trump could directly command the National Guard would be to formally federalize it. And that depends upon President Trump finding various things to be true on the ground that also don't appear to be true on the ground. And that would expose whatever he would try to, I think, a significant risk of litigation.

The Press Freedom Group Reporters Without Borders is called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting after the Israeli Army killed five more journalists in Gaza this week. As NPR Zellender Beardsley reports, the organization accuses Israel of trying to eliminate information from Gaza. Reporters Without Borders Director General Chibo Bruton says the Israeli army is flouting international humanitarian law and a UN resolution which protects journalists in times of conflict. How far will the Israeli armed forces go in their gradual effort to eliminate information coming from Gaza, he asked? Five Palestinian journalists were killed Monday in a direct. hit by Israeli tank fire.

Bruton says more than 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past two years and that concrete measures must be taken to end the impunity for crimes against journalists to protect Palestinian journalists and to open access to the Gaza Strip

to all reporters. That's Ellen PIRS, Eleanor Beardsley, with our report. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is doubling down on plans to remove street murals, including LGBTQ rainbow crosswalks across the state. From member station WMNF, Chris Young reports that this comes after a rainbow crosswalk near the Orlando Pulse Nightclub Memorial was painted over in the middle of the night.

Governor DeSantis backed the removals at a press conference on Tuesday in Tampa. We're not doing the commandeering of the roads to put up messaging. Earlier this summer, the Florida Department of Transportation sent the removal notice to quote, ensure the safety of the traveling public. Various cities across Florida have responded in different ways. Del Rey Beach in Key West have challenged the removal. After a request for an appeal was denied by FDOT, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch encouraged, quote,

good trouble, but no legal action was taken against the removal of five of the city's murals. For NPR News, I'm Chris Young in Tampa. And this is NPR News. Police in the German city of Dresden have arrested a suspect in the knife attack early Monday morning that wounded a 20-year-old American man. Police say the American intervened when two men were harassing a woman on a train. He was then attacked himself and slashed in the face. A 21-year-old Syrian is now an investigative custody. The Food and Drug Administration has suspended the license for a chicken gunya vaccine citing safety concerns. As NPR's Jonathan Lambert

reports, the decision leaves the U.S. with just one vaccine against the mosquito-borne illness that's on the rise globally. Chicken-gunia disease is very. very rare in the U.S. but causes severe joint pain in hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year. In 2023, the FDA approved vaccine called Ixchik, manufactured by Valneva. In the U.S., it's given mostly to travelers. In May, FDA and the European Union equivalent recommended a pause in the use of the vaccine in older adults after reports of the vaccine causing symptoms of the disease itself. Both agencies reversed the pause in early August. But last week, the FDA pulled the vaccine's license. In response, Valneva said the adverse events are in line with

what was reported before approval. Jonathan Lambert and PR News. Cracker barrel officials have a bit of egg on their faces today after a week of protests over a new logo for the restaurant chain, which just had the company name, they've relented and returned to the old logo. That one features an older man in a rocking chair with the text Old Country Store. Officials say the change was part of an effort to appeal to a younger audience. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News. This message comes from Wise,

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