NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-01-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

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Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life. Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the shortwave podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Amy Held. Days after the FDA limited COVID-19 vaccine. vaccines to those at risk of serious complications, President Trump is now calling on pharmaceutical companies to justify the success of drugs and vaccines used to fight the virus.

NPR's Katlonsdorf reports. The president questioned the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, saying there's a disagreement over whether or not they are a, quote, miracle that saved millions of lives. His post comes just days after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, announced significant limits on who is eligible. for the vaccines. Trump himself hailed COVID vaccines as a modern-day miracle back in 2020 during his first term. But now he's demanded drug companies make more information and results public. It's unclear what information he's referring to. MPR reached out to the White House for clarity.

In response, spokesperson Cush Desai, said, quote, the only driving principle of health decision making in this administration is gold standard science. Kat Lonsdorf, MPR News, Washington. In eastern Afghanistan, at least 800 people are dead and more than 2,500 injured. This, after a 6.0 earthquake, struck around midnight as people slept, and homes collapsed in the Kunar province. Crews are working to find survivors and evacuate the wounded. The BBC's Yogat-Lamaya reports rescue efforts are complicated by the remoteness of the mountainous region.

Rescue and relief operations are going to take time. We have on our way here, we did cross a few trucks which seem loaded with supplies that the Taliban government was trying to move towards the area. We know that they are running helicopters at the moment, trying to get to the epicenter because the road to the worst affected villages that's been cut off because of landslides. That's the BBC's Yogat-Lamaya reporting. Hundreds of news outlets around the world have signed onto an appeal

calling for the protection of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and for foreign press to be let in. NPR's Aibatrawi reports Israeli forces have killed more than 200 Palestinian journalists since the war broke out. Many of the media outlets signed on are blacking out their front pages or, like NPR, are taking part by reporting on the appeal and the risks Palestinian journalists facing Gaza. A similar petition signed in June by the editors and chiefs of major news organizations noted that Israel's ban on independent access to Gaza is without precedent in modern warfare. Moreover, the Committee to Protect Journalists says August was the deadliest month ever recorded for journalists globally. That's due to what Palestinians say is 15 journalists killed in Gaza in August alone. Last week, Israeli attacks killed five journalists at a hospital, including photographers for Reuters and the AP.

Two more journalists were killed since then in other attacks. Aya Batrawi, NPR News, Dubai. This is NPR News. Drug deaths in the U.S. continue a historic decline, according to the latest provisional data from the CDC. NPR's Brian Mann reports fatal overdoses have now reached their lowest level in five years. Fatal drug overdoses rose during the pandemic to catastrophic levels, driven in part according to public health experts by the rapid spread of street fentanyl. The latest CDC data

shows deaths have now plunged nationwide by roughly a third from the peak. The latest 12-month period through March of this year found a total of roughly 77,648 U.S. drug deaths. A report earlier this year appeared to show drug deaths rising again. But revised federal data now shows fatal overdoses have declined steadily without interruption for two years. CDC researchers say revisions are common in complex public health data. Despite this unprecedented decline in drug deaths, President Trump cites fentanyl as justification for a range of policies from tariffs to the crackdown on migrants. Brian Mann, NPR News. President Trump announced today he's awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rudy Giuliani.

In a statement posted to social media, Trump called his political ally, the greatest mayor in the history of New York City and an equally great American patriot. This comes a day after Giuliani was badly injured in a car accident in New Hampshire. In tennis at a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York this afternoon, four-time Grand Slan champion. Naomi Osaka secured her place in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, defeating American third seed Cocoa Gough, winner of the French Open. I'm Amy Held in Washington, and this is NPR News.