NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-03-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. President Trump says the U.S. military has destroyed a vessel carrying illegal drugs in the Southern Caribbean, killing 11 people. Trump says the boat was from Venezuela and operated by gang members. The Pentagon recently deployed three naval destroyers off Venezuela to combat threats from drug cartels. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has commented on the matter. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports Rubio is now in Mexico, where drugs and migration are leading topics. says the U.S. strike destroyed what he calls a drug boat that left Venezuela and was operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization. Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane to Mexico, he says this is a sign that drug cartels can no longer act with impunity. Those days are over and out. We are going to wage combat against drug cartels that are flooding American streets and killing Americans. Questions about the legality of the U.S. strikes are likely, to cast a long shadow over his talks here with Mexican president, Claudia Shanebaum. He's also planning to meet Ecuador's president in Quito on Thursday.

Michelle Kellerman and PR News, Mexico City. House lawmakers will hold a press conference this morning on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. They'll be joined by several survivors of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Democrat Roecona and Republican Thomas Massey have introduced a discharge petition. This is a tool to go. around House leadership and bring their bill to the floor. The bill seeks to force the Justice Department to release more files on the Epstein case. NPR's Domenico Montanaro says their efforts have had some effect. I mean, after the petition was filed, the Republican-controlled House

Oversight Committee released some 30,000 more pages of documents related to the investigation, but a lot of that information is already public, it's not new, and those in favor of the release, of more release, are saying, don't be fooled by that. NPR's Domenico, Montanaro, reporting. There's been a major ruling against big tech company Google. A federal judge has issued a series of penalties against Google for acting as a monopoly in the search engine market. And Pierce Jacqueline Diaz has more. It's a ruling that's been five years in the making and one that falls far short of what the federal government sought from federal judge, Amit Mata. In 2020, the Justice Department filed an antitrust case against Google. The DOJ said the tech giant

was operating as a monopoly because Google's exclusive deals with device makers like Apple and Samsung unfairly boxed out competitors. Last year, Judge Amit Mehta agreed. Now he has ruled that Google doesn't have to sell off its Chrome browser, but that the company does have to stop making exclusive deals. Judge Mehta said Google can still pay those device makers to preload Google search and other products. Jacqueline Diaz, NPR News.

Google is a financial supporter of NPR. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A federal appeals court panel has ruled President Trump's use of a wartime power is illegal. The appellate panel says Trump cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans from three states. Trump claims they're members of a gang. The issue has been to the Supreme Court twice, but the High Court has not yet ruled directly on whether Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act is legal. The rescuers in Afghanistan are still trying to reach victims from this week's powerful earthquake. At least 1,400 people have been killed and another 3,000 injured.

Bad weather has slowed down rescue work. A new report from the World Health Organization suggests over 1 billion people around the world have a mental disorder. NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports that most of these people are living in low or middle-income countries. Mental health is a growing problem for the globe. According to the WHO, where the last decade, the number of people living with mental health disorders increased at a faster pace than the population as a whole. Deaths by suicide, however, are down 35 percent since the year 2000, but still claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year. Depression and anxiety are the most common conditions and cost upwards of $1 trillion each year from productivity losses, the report estimates. On average, governments allocate a tiny fraction of their health budgets to mental health.

putting treatment out of reach for many. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. The next drawing for the Powerball is tonight. Lotto officials say the Powerball jackpot is now worth $1.3 billion. You're listening to NPR.