NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-08-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

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Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life. Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the shortwave podcast from NPR. Live from NPR news, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Trump administration is starting its long problem. deportation campaign in Chicago. Alex Stegman, with Member Station WBEZ reports the Department of Homeland Security announced

Operation Midway Blitz this morning. The effort is targeting Chicago, some of its suburbs and Illinois at large, over policies that protect residents without legal status. Daniel Biss is the mayor of Evanston, a sanctuary city that borders Chicago. Biss says local police officers will be clearly identified, and he's urging residents to trust them. In this moment when people are understandably and appropriately, frightened. They need to know that Evanston Police Department is not going to be participating, and Evanston Police officers can be trusted. DHS says the deportation effort

honors 20-year-old Katie Abraham, who was killed by a Guatemalan immigrant without legal status in a hit-and-run car crash earlier this year. For NPR News, I'm Alex Dagman in Springfield, Illinois. President Trump is pledging to protect prayer in public schools with new guidance from the Department of Education. During remarks at a meeting of Religious Liberty Commission, at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Trump also promise to protect Judeo-Christian values. There is a tremendous anti-Christian bias. We don't hear about it. We don't think about it. You hear about anti-Semitic, but you don't hear about anti-Christian. Now, you have a strong anti-Christian bias, but we're ending that rapidly, I will tell you. Public schools are legally prohibited from leading students in classroom prayer under the First Amendment, but students are permitted to pray alone or in groups, such as part of a club.

as long as it does not infringe on the academic rights of other students. The government of France has collapsed again. The French Prime Minister today lost a vote of confidence in his plans to cut the country's huge budget deficit. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports the Prime Minister will likely resign in the coming hours. The Speaker of the French National Assembly read out the vote on Prime Minister Francois Bayru's deficit-cutting plans, 194-4-364 against. Bayru said he called the risky vote of confidence because he wanted the parliament

behind him and he wanted to alert the French to the gravity of the deficit, which is 114% of GDP. Beiru was President Emmanuel Macron's fourth prime minister in less than two years. None has been able to enact his centrist agenda. The far left and far right who have the biggest blocks in parliament are now demanding that a new prime minister come from their camps. After the vote, the far-left crowed that Macron's policies that favor the rich and his social war against the people had been voted down. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melanchon posted on X that it's now time for Macron to go to. Eleanor Beardsley in PR News, Paris.

U.S. talks have ended the day higher with the Dow closing up 114 points at 45,514. This is NPR News. Israeli forces say they leveled another high-rise business. building in Gaza City, that the military says its Hamas enemies have been using for surveillance. Israel has been warning residents to evacuate South as it pushes ahead with demolitions in Gaza City. PNC Financial is acquiring First Bank in a deal worth more than $4 billion. The deal expands PNC's presence in Arizona. It also makes it the largest bank in the Denver-C Colorado market.

Nearly a dozen artists have removed their music from Spotify since June. It's the largest streaming service in the world, but musicians are leaving the platform in protest of the CEO's investments. NPR's Isabella Gomez-Admiento has details. A wave of artists has left Spotify, an objection to CEO Daniel X ties to the defense company Helsing. The German startup focuses on artificial intelligence for military applications. It also manufactures drones. In June, ex-venture capital firm raised more than 700 million dollars for Helsing. Since then, some artists have criticized Eck for investing in military technology.

Rock bands including Deerhoof, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Shoochoo, have all pulled their music from Spotify. Jamie Stewart of Shushu says Spotify was a large source of digital revenue for their band. It's a noticeable amount that we are no longer making. But Stewart says they morally oppose art as a means to fund war. Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento and PR News. closes up 98, SMP, up 13, and the Dow gained 114 points. It's NPR.