NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-10-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

NPR News: 09-10-2025 8AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Rachel Martin. I'm the host of Wildcard from NPR. For a lot of my years as a radio host, silence sort of made me nervous. That pause before an answer, because you don't know what's going on on the other side of the mic. But these days, I love it. Hmm. Ah. Gosh. Give me a minute. Yeah, yeah. Think. Listen to the Wild Card podcast only from NPR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korava Coleman. Israel is defending its airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar. This follows international condemnation and additional criticism from President Trump. As NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv, Hamas says none of its senior leaders were killed in the strike. Israel's defense minister said Israel would act against its enemies in any place and warned Hamas leaders to disarm and release hostages or else they'd be killed and Gaza will be destroyed. Israel's military today struck a tower near the Gaza City seaport. Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yehiyah Leiter told Fox News,

Israel would continue to target Hamas leaders because of the October 7, 2023 attack. Hamas terrorists are on notice. They are going to be eliminated. Hamas says the strike came just as its leaders were meeting to discuss a U.S. ceasefire proposal for Gaza. President Trump says he's very unhappy about Israel's strike in Qatar, a U.S. ally. France and the UK also condemned the strike. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Poland wants to invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty. It calls on NATO member countries to meet to discuss a potential threat. Several large Russian attack drones flew into Polish airspace today.

Polish and NATO aircraft shot down of them. The Trump administration has released a broad strategy on children's health. NPR's Alison Aubrey reports the plan includes a wide range of policy reforms aimed at tackling chronic disease. Health Secretary Robert Ave Kennedy, Jr., called chronic disease an existential crisis for our country and says the report's 128 recommendations are historic and unprecedented. The Make America Healthy Again Commission, led by Kennedy, identified four potential drivers, including poor diet, chemical exposure, lack of physical activity and chronic stress, as well as over-medicalization, which the commission describes as a concerning trend of over-prescribing medications to children. Former FDA official Susan Mayne says

there's a wide agreement on the need for action on chronic disease. But the plan for how to execute it and the resource requirements are actually going the opposite direction. She points to cuts in nutrition and the federal health department. Allison Aubrey and PR News. The Justice Department is going to bring federal charges against the man. It says, stabbed a Ukrainian immigrant to death. This happened on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina last month. U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson says these charges are in addition to state murder charges. The maximum penalty for this federal crime is life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Of course, each individual case receives its own sentencing hearing by a federal judge that will decide the sentence based on the individual factors in this case.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the stabbing could lead federal agents to deprive Charlotte, federal money. This is NPR. New Mexico is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer free child care regardless of income. From member station KUNM, Taylor Velasquez, has more. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham says the state will officially remove income eligibility requirements from its child care assistance program, which she says will save families on average $12,000 per child. It's the difference between making it when inflation in this country remains too high, particularly the areas of utilities and food. The program includes incentives for child care programs that boost pay for entry-level staff

and commit to being open at least 10 hours a day. The new expansion is being implemented through the regulatory process, but will require more funding from the state legislature. For NPR News, I'm Taylor Velasquez and Albuquerque. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is appealing his case to the Supreme. Supreme Court. He's been ordered to pay nearly one and a half billion dollars in damages for calling the deadly 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax. Families of victims said that Jones followers subjected them to death threats and threats of rape. Chief Justice John Roberts says that for now President Trump can hold up the distribution of $4 billion in foreign aid. Legal challengers who want

the Trump administration to spend the money have until Friday to file documents with the court. The full court will likely decide soon whether to keep the ban in place. The case is an argument about Congress's role, as defined by the Constitution, to allocate federal spending versus presidential power. It's NPR.