NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-02-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. A federal judge in California has ruled President Trump's deployment of active duty Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year was illegal. Steve Futterman reports. In his ruling, federal judge Charles Breyer accuses Trump of creating a national police force with the president as its chief. That the judge said is a violation of the Posse Comitatis Act. The act, which was enacted in 1878 greatly limits the military from being involved in any domestic or civilian law enforcement. The judge ordered the remaining troops still deployed not to take part in any arrests, apprehension, searches, seizures, traffic and crowd control. However, the order does not go into effect until September 12th to allow the Trump administration a chance to appeal. Around 300 National Guard troops remain in the L.A. area while the Marines were withdrawn earlier. For NPR news, I'm Steve Fudderman in Los Angeles.

Congress returns from its August recess this week to once again figure out how to avoid a government shutdown. Democratic Senator Chris Coons is on the Appropriations Committee that, in theory, is supposed to draft legislation for federal spending for the fiscal year that begins October 1st. But he says President Trump and his congressional allies have already been shutting down all parts of government through, as he describes it, unlawful rescissions. If they continue in those efforts, I won't support keeping the government open September 30 because they're already closing it in ways that are illegal and inappropriate. Coons on NPR's Morning Edition, the GOP may face division between those who support a stopgap measure and others in the Republican Party who want to see their priorities dominate a full year bill. Dozens of scientists have issued a joint rebuttal to a recent report by the Department of Energy about climate change.

NPR's Julia Simon reports the group found that the report was riddled with errors. One example of the misrepresentations the climate scientists identified in the DOE report. The report says carbon dioxide benefits agriculture, but doesn't account for how heat and droughts actually harm crops. John Cook, senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne, says it's full of misinformation. The DOE report is basically arguing climate change is no big deal, therefore we shouldn't act. The DOE report was cited by the Environmental Protection Agency in its recent proposal to rollback regulation of planet heating climate pollution, like pollutants from cars, coal power plants, and the oil and gas industry. A DOE spokesperson tells NPR the report was reviewed internally. Julia Simon, NPR News.

On Wall Street, all major market indices are down roughly 1% to 1.5% the Dow falling 436 points. This is NPR News. China is set to stage its biggest military parade yet in the coming hours, widely viewed as a message to the West that it is stronger than ever. China invited more than two dozen world leaders to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan's formal surrender at the end of World War II. World leaders attending include those from Russia, North Korea, India, and Iran. A rebel group in Sudan says a landslide caused by days of heavy. heavy rain leveled an entire village in central Darfur's Mara Mountains on Sunday, estimating as many as a thousand people in Tarasin have died.

Kraft Hines, one of the world's largest food conglomerates, is splitting up, separating hot dogs from ketchup. And P.R. Salina Selyuk reports the breakup effectively unravels a 10-year-old mega-merger staged by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. The merger of Kraft and Heinz in 2015 is considered one of the notable mistakes for Warren Buffett. Kraft Hines spent years cutting costs to combine into one firm, while rivals invested in new ideas to keep up with changing consumer tastes. Now, Kraft Hines executives acknowledge the conglomerates spread its focus too thin across dozens of product categories, and they hope the sum of two separate firms will be greater than the current combined company value. The first company will focus on faster growing sauces and condiments, keeping brands Hines, Philadelphia cream cheese, and Kraft mac and cheese.

The second firm will run the slower. growing grocery business with brands including Oscar Meyer, Maxwell House, Capri Sun, and Lunchables. Alina Selyu, NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, in Washington.