NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-09-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Israel's attack on a Hamas political headquarters in Doha is drawing swift condemnation. Qatar has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and houses the region's largest U.S. military base. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says today's attack was entirely justified. On this day, as in previous day, Israel actually wholly independently, and we take full responsibility for this action. And this action can open the door to an end of the war. Video footage from Doha showed a large cloud of smoke

rising over the city. Israel says the strike targeted Hamas leaders responsible for the deadly October 7th attacks. Qatar is condemning the bombing as a cowardly attack on residential buildings. International activists leading a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza say one of their boats was hit by a drone. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports it was hit while docked in Tunisia. Members of the global Sumud for Tila movement say a drone struck a ship known as the family boat that is carrying some of the most famous members of the group, including the Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg. An activist on board the ship says he clearly saw a drone hovered just a few meters above his head before dropping a bomb that caused a fire on board.

Tunisian security forces say the claims about a drone attack are unfounded and that they are investigating what caused life jackets on board to catch fire. Israel has not responded to NPR's repeated requests for comment on the incident, but the activists say they're convinced this was an attack intended to try to discourage them from their mission to sail onto Gaza. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. Revides government data show the U.S. job market is looking far weaker than expected. NPR's Maria Aspen reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics

published its annual update today. U.S. employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than initially counted during the 12 months ending in March. The updated figures are preliminary and routine, but still sobering. They show the labor market was likely weakening far more than expected under the last year of President Biden's term and the first months of President Trump's second presidency. The federal government regularly revises its monthly jobs numbers as more complete data comes in. But this year's revision comes as Trump has increasingly politicized the data and the agency that tracks it, even firing its commissioner, all fueling concerns over the integrity of the country's economic data. Maria Aspen, NPR News, New York.

Stocks are trading higher on Wall Street at this hour. The Dow was up 197 points, the NASDAQ up 50. This is NPR News in Washington. Norfolk Southern has agreed to give Amtrak passenger trains priority over its own freight trains. NPR's Joel Rose reports the settlement announced today resolves a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit last year accusing Norfolk Southern of causing chronic delays on Amtrak's crescent line between New York City and New Orleans. Federal law says that Amtrak passenger trains are supposed to get priority when they use tracks owned by freight railroads.

But in practice, Amtrak has complained for years that freight lines often prioritize their own trains, which can be difficult to pass because they are frequently a mile or even two miles long. Under the settlement, Norfolk Southern agrees to train its employees to give Amtrak crescent trains the highest priority and to provide records when those passenger trains are delayed. Joel Rose, NPR News. The elusive street artist Banksy has claimed responsibility for a new mural that appeared this week on the side of a judicial building in London.

NPR's Lauren Frere reports the mural was quickly covered with black plastic and a judge has ruled it will be removed. The mural is on the outer wall of London's Royal Courts of Justice. It depicts a judge in a traditional wig and robe using a gavel to beat a protester. There's no reference to any particular. incident, but it comes amid free speech concerns as police arrest hundreds of protesters across the country weekly for expressing support for a banned pro-Palestinian group. That's NPR's Lauren Frere reporting from London. On Wall Street, the Dow up 199 points. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.