NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-28-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

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Live from NPR news, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Several people, mostly children, remain hospitalized after a shooting that killed two children in Minneapolis yesterday. NPR's Jason DeRose is standing outside Annunciation Church where students and teachers from the Catholic school were praying when they were attacked yesterday morning. Scores of people have been coming all morning, dropping off flowers in front of the church. Others have sent flowers. I noticed a spray of flowers from California all the way from Southern California. Another one said it was from the people of Uvaldi, another place where a school shooting happened. NPR's Jason DeRose referencing the 2022 Uvaldi shooting at Rob Elementary School. The U.N. Secretary General says the Israeli moves to take over Gaza City, will have devastating

consequences for civilians already traumatized by war. Antonio Guterres is again calling for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages. Here's NPR's Michelle Kellerman. Less than a week after UN-backed experts declared a famine in northern Gaza, Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to allow in more aid. He says the starvation of the civilian population must never be used as a method of warfare. No more excuses, no more obstacles, no more law. Israel denies there's a famine in northern Gaza. President Trump has called it a terrible

situation that is coming to a head. He says he thinks there will be a conclusive ending in two to three weeks. He and his aides met with Israeli officials on Wednesday to discuss a post-war future for Gaza. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. House Speaker Mike Johnson is one of the biggest proponents of the legislation the GOP dubbed the one big beautiful bill helping push it through Congress before it was signed by President Trump. The law could have a big impact in his Louisiana district where many residents rely on Medicaid. And as the Gulf States newsrooms, Drew Hawkins reports where community health centers depend on it to stay open. More than a third of residents in House Speaker Mike Johnson's district

are on Medicaid. And Medicaid reimbursements make up more than 40 percent of the revenue for community health centers. Joe Dunn with the National Association of Community Health centers says they're asking Congress for an additional $1.2 billion in funding to make up for anticipated budget shortfalls that could have severe impacts. It certainly could lead to closures and loss of staff and things like that. In a statement to NPR, Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, who chairs the committee that oversees community health centers, says he's committed to reauthorizing funding, but did not indicate whether he would support additional funding. For NPR news, I'm Drew Hawkins in Louisiana.

This is NPR News. Amid reports that Susan Monteraz has been ousted from her role as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her lawyers write on X that she has neither resigned nor yet been fired, and they say she will not resign. Last night, the Department of Health and Human Services posted on its ex-account that Monterez was leaving, only weeks after she was confirmed by the Senate. Her attorneys say the career scientist has refused to, quote, rubber stamp unscientific, reckless directives under the Department led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Today, marked 70 years since the lynching of Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was

visiting family Mississippi, was a watershed moment that galvanizes civil rights movement. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on a new artifact unveiled today at the state's civil rights museum, the murder weapon. On August 28, 1955, white men kidnapped, tortured, shot, and dumped 14-year-old, Mitt Till in the Tallahatchie River after he whistled at a white shopkeeper, one of their wives. Now the state has the gun. Nan Prince is director of collections for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. This is a pistol that we believe is the weapon that was used to kill Emmett Teal. It's been something that I've always wondered about for 70 years. That's Till's cousin,

Wheeler Parker, the last living witness to what happened. happened. I think it gives validity to it. It helps brings closure, as I'm concerned. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Jackson, Mississippi. You're listening to NPR News.