NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-07-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Tensions are mounting in Chicago as President Trump ramps up his threats to send the National Guard and immigration officials into the city. NPR's Kat-Lonsdorf reports, state and local lawmakers are strongly pushing back amid widespread protests across the city this weekend. Trump says the National Guard would be deployed to fight crime in the city, which he has called a hellhole, even though police data shows violence. crime is down in recent years. Protesters filled the streets of downtown Saturday evening, marching by Trump Tower, carrying signs and banners against troops coming in. Both Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker are strongly against the plan too. In a post on social media, Pritzker wrote, quote, the president of the United States is threatening to go to war

with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Johnson posted that Trump wants to, quote, occupy our city and break our constitution and urge Chicago residents. to protect each other. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Chicago. President Trump was questioned by members of the press today about whether he was threatening war with Chicago. He told reporters that his administration is not going to war. He says the goal is to clean up the nation's cities, adding, quote, that's not war, but common sense. The Prime Minister of Japan says he's planning to resign from office. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports that he wants to avoid division with the ruling LDP, the Liberal Democratic Party.

Prime Minister Ishiiba had been under mounting pressure to resign to take responsibility for his party's defeat in parliamentary elections this year. Japanese voters, fed up with inflation and LDP corruption, led to the party losing its majority in both houses of parliament for the first time since the party was established in 1955. Voters' dissatisfaction with a political establishment is also evident in the rise of Sanseu. An opposition party espousing nationalist anti-immigrant views. Ishiba is one of eight of the past ten Japanese prime ministers who have only served for about a year, and his resignation may spur anxiety about political instability. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.

A Russian missile strike has damaged the main government building in the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the war broke out more than two years ago. The Ukrainian Air Force has Russia launched more than 800 missiles and drones, at least 11 people were killed, and dozens of others were injured. The BBC, Sarah Rainsford, reports. The fact that the government building was hit, you know, we don't believe there were any casualties, at least not so far as we know yet. But it is symbolic. You know, an attack, a strike right on the heart of government in Kiev,

does matter, because it shows that Russia can get through, it can make it through the air defenses. The BBC, Sarah Rainsford, reporting. This is NPR News. in Washington. The office of former President Joe Biden has announced that his presidential library will be built in his home state of Delaware. The library is expected to highlight Biden's decades of public service and civic leadership. He served in the U.S. Senate for more than 30 years. The discovery of a 400-year-old miniature may have solved a mystery about some of William Shakespeare's best-known poetry. Vicki Barker reports from London. The miniature shows an androgynous young man, glorious copper-colored ringlets cascading over his shoulder.

It turned up in the collection of a family linked to the gorgeous Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend and patron, and it's long been speculated, possibly the fair youth of Shakespeare's sonnets. What's got scholars excited is the reverse of the portrait, where a red heart was stricken out by a black spear-shaped figure. Shakespeare famously incorporated a spear into his family crest, a visual pun on his name. The theory Southampton may have gifted the miniature to Shakespeare, who later returned it when the romance turned sour. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London. Police in London say they arrested nearly 900 protesters outside Parliament on Saturday. The demonstrators defied a ban on the group Palestine Action, which the government has labeled. and terrorist organization.

Authorities say they made arrest within minutes as bystanders chanted and held signs in support. I'm Windsor Johnston and PR News in Washington.