NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-08-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dua Lysai Coutel. President Trump is back at the White House after a brief trip to New York yesterday to watch the U.S. Open Men's single championship game where Spaniard Carlos Alcoraz beat his rival Yannick's Center of Italy. Landing at Joint Base Andrews last night, Trump was asked about a new U.S. deal to end the war in Gaza to secure the release of the remaining hostages. We're trying to get it ended, get the last night.

The hostages back, get it ended. We got them all back, but 20. And as you know, we have 20, plus there are a lot of, unfortunately, dead bodies involved. And they want them back. The parents want them back. Trump told reporters that he thinks a deal on Gaza will come very soon. A day earlier, authorities in Gaza released new casualty figures on the 700th day of war between Israel and Hamas, saying more than 64,000 people are dead, and at least 10,000 are still. missing. Wall Street investors are bracing for the latest inflation report out this week. NPR's Rafael NAM reports in the last major economic report before the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting. A disappointing jobs report last week has reinforced expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates for the first time this year when policymakers get together later this month. Yes, inflation is still running a little high, but right now boosting the labor market could become the Fed's bigger priority. Still, a rate cut this month is not guaranteed. A lot will depend

on the inflation report out on Thursday. A number that's still a bit high but manageable will likely cement expectations for a rate cut. But a big surge in inflation could make the Fed's decision a lot more difficult. Rafael NAMM in PR News. The Prime Minister of Japan says he's planning to resign from office. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports that he wants to avoid division within the ruling LDP, the Liberal Democratic Party. Prime Minister Isiba 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 Sanseato. 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. In other news out of Seoul, the government is sending a charter plane to Georgia to bring back hundreds of South Korean nationals detained last week, accused of illegally working in the U.S. This is NPR News.

The Department of Transportation says it will train more than 160 new railroad bridge inspectors to expand federal and state oversight of the country's more than 70,000 railroad bridges. NPR's Lex Doig reports. The announcement follows an Associated Press report produced by the Howard Center for Investigative journalism at Arizona State University that found the Federal Railroad Administration had just six employees overseeing railroad bridge safety. This allowed companies to largely inspect themselves with little oversight. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said his agency will now train existing federal and state track inspectors to also inspect railroad bridges. Those workers

will be able to recommend civil penalties for companies when defects are found. The Rail Union Smart The RTD said on its website the development is a clear step forward in addressing rail workers' safety concerns, saying, though, quote, there is more work to be done. For NPR News, I'm Lex Doyle. The Catholic Church has its first ever millennial saint, a 15-year-old boy from Italy who died of leukemia in 2006. Carlos Acutus was known to many as God's influencer because of his tech-savvy skills spreading the word of God through a website that he'd built and social media. Acutus was canonized at a Vatican ceremony in St. Peter Square on Sunday, presided over by Pope Leo XIV, and witnessed by tens of thousands of Catholic worshippers, many of them appeared to be millennials. I'm Dwa Lisei Kautau, and PR News.