NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-05-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyvone. Employment figures for the month of August were weaker than expected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 22,000 jobs were added last month. The expectation was for more than three times that. Housing is one of the most significant financial pressures on families, and the state of Utah is reimagining the starter home. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports. The goal is 35,000 starter homes in five years, priced underwent.

$400,000. The aim is to help young people like Miranda Pottaker. We'd make jokes like, what was I doing in third grade? I should have been buying a house instead of learning, you know, multiplication. After two years in her grandparents' basement saving up, she and her husband did buy a starter home from developer Jed Nilsen. Yeah, maybe I'll make less money per home, but I'm going to fix a societal problem. Builders get below market loans, but land hears expensive and one year in the state's behind its goal. To give it, a boost. Lawmakers have expanded the program to starter condos. Jennifer Lutton, NPR News, Plain City, Utah.

U.S. immigration officials say they have conducted their largest ever single-site raid at a Hyundai vehicle plant near Savannah, Georgia. Emily Jones of member station W.A.B.E. has more. 475 people were arrested in the raid at a construction site for a battery plant. Homeland Security Special Agent in charge, Steve Shrank, stressed that agents were executing a search warrant. This has been a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents, and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant. South Korea expressed concern and regret over the raid, which a spokesperson for the country's foreign ministry said included the detention of several South

Korean nationals. U.S. officials announced no criminal charges but said the investigation is ongoing. For NPR news, I'm Emily Jones in Savannah, Georgia. The New York Times is reporting that in his first White House term, President Trump authorized a secret mission in North Korea in which Navy SEALs would plant a device to monitor Kim Jong-un's communications. New York Times correspondent David Phillips told NPR's morning edition that mission went awry. They were expecting this shore to be empty. When they reached this area, instead they encountered a boat that started flashing lights down at the submarines. And the seals who were on the shore watching this didn't know what to do. And so they opened fire and killed everybody on the boat.

He reports that publicly North Korea has been silent about the episode. On Wall Street at this hour, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 244 points. The NASDAQ is off. 55 points. This is NPR News in Washington. Health officials in Gaza say at least 27 people have been killed in Israeli strikes today. Among them, a strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City, Israel had advised residents to evacuate. Four Democratic senators are urging the Smithsonian to resist White House attempts to abandon the Smithsonian mission and values. The remarks come in a letter sent to the museum's institution's secretary. As NPR's Anastasia Sulkis reports, three of the authors have ties to the

Smithsonian. The letter was sent to the Smithsonian's secretary, Lonnie Bunch, from Senator Alex Padilla of California. Its co-authors are Senator Catherine Cortez Master of Nevada and Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, who are both on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, as well as Senator Jeff Mergley of Oregon, who's the ranking member on the subcommittee overseeing the Smithsonian's federal funding. The senators assert that Smithsonian oversight rests with Congress, not the White House. They also tell NPR they're working to keep its federal funds flowing. The move comes weeks after President Trump called the Smithsonian and other museums, quote, the last remaining segment of Woke. Anastasia Zulkas, NPR News, New York. U.S. winemakers are getting a trade break on cork.

The material commonly used to seal the top of wine bottles has been deemed an unavailable natural product and will not be subject to a new 15% U.S. tariff on most products from the European Union. It's also good news for Portugal, which is the world's largest producer of cork, which comes from the spongy bark of the cork oak tree. I'm Louise Ciavone and PR News.