NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-03-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The public is hearing from a group of women who say they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein. Six years after the one's powerful financier was found dead in a New York jail cell from an apparent suicide, his accusers have joined bipartisan calls in Congress for the Trump administration to release all the files it has on the convicted sex offender, his imprisoned associate Ghuline Maxwell, and any others who have yet to be identified. Today, reporters heard from Lisa Phillips, who says Epstein introduced her to the owner of Ford modeling. Epstein's reach went to the very top of fashion, arts, and entertainment. This did not just happen to underage girls in Florida.

In New York City, hundreds of young, ambitious women were abused by him. Epstein was not just a serial predator. He was an international human trafficker. And many around him knew, many participated, and many participated. and many profited. Yesterday, Republican Congressman Thomas Massey filed a discharge petition to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files.

Vice President J.D. Vance is in Minneapolis to meet privately with family members affected by the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church last Wednesday, which left two children dead and 21 people injured. In the wake of the shooting, some mayors in Minnesota urging Governor Tim Walz to call state lawmakers into special session to consider a ban

on assault-style weapons. Claymasters with Minnesota, public radio reports. The mayors of some of Minnesota's most populous cities are calling for a statewide ban on assault-style weapons. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry says if the state legislature doesn't pass a ban, it should let cities act. We see the aftermath and how communities are broken apart by gun violence. We have the ability to change, and so give us the authority to do it. Change the law that preempts cities from acting if you are not able to do it yourself. Democrats have slim control of state government here in Minnesota. Some Republicans in the state legislatures say city-by-city ordinances would intrude on gun rights.

For NPR news, I'm Clay Masters in St. Paul. Secretary of St. Marco Rubio's meeting with Mexico's president as he vows to wage war on drug cartels. The U.S. military struck a boat from Venezuela ahead of his latest trip to the region. Here's NPR's Michelle Kellerman. In Miami, as he boarded his plane to Mexico, Rubio described the attack on the boat as a signal to all drug cartels. The president is going to be on offense against drug cartels and drug trafficking in the United States. It destabilizes not just the country, but the entire Caribbean basin.

He brushed off a question about the legality of the strike. The Trump administration's crackdown on illegal migration is another big theme of Rubio's visit to Mexico and Ecuador. Mexican president, Claudio Scheinbaum, says the U.S. and Mexico have been working on security arrangements that respect Mexico's sovereignty. Michelle Kellelman, NPR News, Mexico City. It's NPR. Russian President Vladimir Putin says everyone with him or with whom he has spoken during his trip to China supports his recent summit in Alaska. That's where he and President Trump discussed prospects of a ceasefire with Ukraine.

This week, Putin has been invited to China for a massive military parade stage for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. leaders from North Korea, Iran, and India were also on hand for the pomp and pageantry. The U.S. and other Western powers aligned against China's growing influence around the globe were absent. As more patients turned to chatbots to answer medical questions, researchers say, they examined the accuracy of one chatbot answering questions about blood cancer. NPR's Yuki Noguchi has details. AI has a lot of uses in medicine. is especially good at scouring data sets or identifying cancers in images. But in a new study,

looking at how chat GPT performed in answering questions about blood cancer, physicians just barely agreed with its responses. The chatbot received a 3.3 accuracy rating out of 5, with 3 being neither true nor untrue. The study, published in the journal Future Science, says AI answers general questions better than specific ones about newer therapies or specific treatments. Yuki NPR News. The Dow is down 186 points. The NASDAQ is up 178. This is NPR News.