NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-10-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

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The news is saturated with coverage of President Trump, but it is easy to get overloaded. So on Trump's terms, we bring you short, digestible stories, five minutes or less, about the 47th president. Listen for same-day developments on tariffs, the economy, and all of the ways that Trump is governing like no president ever has before. Trump's terms. Listen on the NPR app wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. Turning Point USA says Charlie Kirk is dead. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, the 31-year-old conservative activist, a close Trump ally was a driving force in the MAGA movement. He was shot dead while speaking at a college campus in Utah. In a post on truth social, Trump says, quote, the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. Trump adds he was loved and admired by all, especially me. The president also offers his sympathies to Kirk's wife and the couple of two young children. At 31 years old, Kirk was a popular right-wing influencer who helped galvanize young voters in support of Trump. Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University when he was shot in

the neck. It was to be the first on a 15-stop college tour for his organization, Turning Point USA. Republicans and Democrats alike have taken to social media to condemn the shooting, saying political violence has no place. Tamara Keith and PR News, the White House. administration's federalization of policing in the nation's capital expires today. But as NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, the Washington D.C. National Guard has extended its deployment, assisting law enforcement in the district. The D.C. Guard's encampment has been extended through at least November 30th, which should guarantee the troops will qualify for uninterrupted benefits and pay, according to National Guard rules. In a Facebook video, Brigadier General Leland Blanchard notes

that they're spending time away from their families and their normal day jobs. Thank you to all of our soldiers and airmen. Thank you to the families. Thank you to our employers. Without you, we couldn't do this. It's not clear if the other eight states that have sent almost 1,400 additional guard will also extend. The White House says crime is down, but the D.C. mayor's office says violent crime had already been falling for months. Quill Lawrence, NPR News.

NASA scientists say it's one step closer to learning whether Mars once hosted forms of life. NPR's Bill Chapel reports. NASA researchers say they found potential signatures of life in a rock sample from an ancient river valley on Mars. Nikki Fox is an associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate. This finding by our incredible perseverance rover is the closest we've actually come to discovering ancient life on Mars. The rock sample has patterns of what researchers call leopard spots made of minerals. Fox says that on Earth, such patterns are often linked to biological processes. It's kind of the equivalent of seeing left over fossils, you know,

leftovers from a meal, and maybe that meal's been excreted by a microbe, and that's what we're seeing in this sample. NASA wants to bring the samples back to Earth for more analysis, but right now, there's no plan or money to do that. Bill Chapel, NPR News. It was a mixed day on Wall Street. The Dow declined 220 points. The NASDAQ had six. The S&P had a gain of 19. This is NPR News. Nearly one in five children younger than the age of 13, say, they're spending up to four hours every day on social media. NPR's Ritu Chatterley reports that's according to a new study by the digital security company, Aura. Researchers at Aura looked at data of phone use among 8 to 17-year-olds who have the company's

software on their phones. Prolonged use of social media by those 13 and under suggest kids either override age verification or use social media excessively with parental consent. They also found that many kids start their mornings by checking their phones repeat, The psychologist Scott Collins, chief medical officer of ORA, says use of AI chatbots is common among teens. The average message length is 10 or 12 times longer than the message length that they're just sending a text message to their parent or their friend or even on Snapchat. He says more than 36% of these conversations involve sexually explicit or romantic scenarios. Rithu Chateji and PR News. Three college basketball players from Fresno State University and Scipation, and Sucson.

San Jose State have been permanently banned by the NCAA, this for betting on their own games. The NCAA says two of the players did not cooperate with investigators, but one and did. The three reportedly shared thousands of dollars in payoffs from the scheme. The players manipulated their performances during the games to impact the outcomes during the 2024-2020-5 season. The bets at the time were flagged by a Nevada sportsbook operator. All three are no longer at that. the schools and the university in these cases were not punished.

I'm Dan Ronan, NPR News in Washington.