NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-08-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The Department of Homeland Security is launching a new deportation operation in Illinois. The agency says it was prompted by the death of a woman who was killed in a hit and run involving a Guatemalan national. The operation is targeting what the administration calls criminal illegal aliens who moved to Illinois under the state's sanctuary policies. NPR's Kat-Lonstorf reports Governor J.B. Pritzker has yet to weigh in. Pritzker hasn't said anything about this DHS announcement yet. In Evanston, that's a sanctuary city that borders the north of Chicago. Mayor Daniel Biss said that local police officers there will be clearly identified, and he's urging residents there to trust those officers. He says that Evanston police officers will not be participating in ICE activity, and he acknowledged that people in his city are understandably frightened right now. And to be clear, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor Pritzker have been strongly against,

both this move and Trump's threats to send in the National Guard to Chicago for what Trump says is out-of-control crime. That's NPR's Katlonsdorf reporting from Chicago. A federal appeals court has rejected President Trump's appeal of a defamation verdict, leaving him on the hook for millions. NPR's Jacqueline Diaz reports the case stems from remarks Trump made in 2019 denying assault allegations made by writer E. Jean Carroll. In 2019, a jury found that President Trump defamed. writer E. Jean Carroll and owed her more than $80 million in damages. Trump said Carol was a liar after she went public with her story that the president sexually assaulted her in a dressing room of a Manhattan store in 1996. Trump appealed the jury verdict, claiming he is entitled to presidential immunity, or at least a new trial. He also claimed the jury's damages were

excessive. But an appeals court rejected these claims, saying the jury verdict is fair and reasonable. NPR News. The trial of the man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump last year began today in Florida. NPR's Greg Allen report, jury selection got underway with Ryan Ruth, representing himself in the trial. A secret service agent says he spotted Ryan Ruth holding a rifle near where Trump was golfing at his West Palm Beach Club in September and fired on him. Ruth was arrested a short time later. After Ruth became dissatisfied with his federal public defenders, U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon granted his request that he represented and himself. But in court, as the jury selection process began, she told him questions he wanted

to ask about Palestine and a proposal that the U.S. purchased Greenland were politically charged and would not be allowed. She asked him about another question he wanted to ask jurors. If you saw a turtle in the road, would you stop and move it? Ruth agreed to withdraw it. Greg Allen, NPR News, Fort Pierce, Florida. At the close on Wall Street, the Dow was up 114 points. The NASDAQ up 98. This is NPR News. More than a thousand Hollywood figures, including a number of well-known actors and filmmakers, have pledged not to work with some Israeli companies in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. NPR's Neta Ulibe has more.

The Open Letter was signed by such stars as Emma Stone, Gail Garcia, Bernal, Alyssa Milano, Brian Cox, and Alana Glazer, among many others. Filmmakers included Ava DuVernay, Adam McKay, and James Seamus used to run focus feature. The signatories pledge to avoid working with Israeli film institutions, meaning festivals, broadcasters, and production companies that are, quote, implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The letter defined such complicity as, quote, whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, or partnering with the government committing them. The letter was organized by a group called Filmmakers for Palestine. It was modeled after efforts against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. Netta Ulibe, NPR News. President Trump says the Department of Education will be issuing new guidelines on the right to prayer in public schools. He didn't say what the new guidance will include.

During his first term, Trump required local educational agencies to confirm that their policies did not prevent students from expressing their religious beliefs as a condition to receive federal funding. While religious expression is not banned in public schools, the Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that state-sponsored prayer in public schools violates the First Amendment. I'm Windsor Johnston, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.