NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-11-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. The assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University yesterday has raised concerns about security and free speech on college campuses. NPR's Martin Kosti reports. Security experts have focused on the fact that the Charlie Kirk event was open air with no screening of spectators to get in. There's been speculation that whenever contentious ideas are involved, these open air events may no longer be feasible on college campus.

campuses. But Rodney Chapman, vice president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, says campus police chiefs are not strangers to handling controversial visits. I think outdoor events typically have greater risk. Does that mean that these will be impossible to have going forward? I don't think so. But another former campus police chief tells NPR that this shooting may be, quote, a game changer when it comes to the degree of security that campuses bring to politically charged events. Martin Kosti and PR News. Some 300 South Korean citizens are on their way back to Seoul today after being detained in Georgia

last week by federal immigration authorities. As WABE's Sam Greenglass reports, the South Korean workers were helping to open a massive electric vehicle battery plant that has been championed by top Georgia Republicans. Republicans in Georgia spent years building ties with companies in South Korea. culminating in Hyundai, locating a multi-billion-dollar electric vehicle plant near Savannah. But the raid last week at the battery facility has put some Republicans like Governor Brian Kemp in a tricky position, says GOP strategist Brian Robinson. He's got to, on the one hand, consider his politics in Georgia, but also he's got to make sure

that the South Koreans feel appreciated and make sure that bridges don't get burned. The raid is highlighting some tensions between President Trump's immigration crackdown and is pushed to reinvigorate American manufacturing. For NPR news, I'm Sam Greenglass in Atlanta. Inflation rose last month as consumers paid more for gasoline and groceries. NPR Scott Horsley reports on the latest cost of living index. Consumer prices in August were up 2.9% from a year ago. That's a sharper annual increase than the previous month. Prices rose 4 tenths of a percent between July.

in August, fueled by rising costs for rent, groceries, and gasoline. Americans also paid more last month for clothing, airfares, and new and used cars. August was the month when President Trump imposed higher tariffs on many U.S. trading partners, which may have contributed to higher prices for imported goods like coffee. The Federal Appeals Court has ruled most of those import taxes are illegal, but they remain in effect pending a review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The High Court said this week it would hear arguments in the tariff case in early November. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. And this is NPR News.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and education secretary Linda McMahon, argue against school-based mental health screenings. They write that schools need to, quote, offer natural sources of mental health well-being, close quote. NPR's RETU Chatterjee has more. The two secretaries argue that schools must turn to things like,

quote, strong families, fitness and nutrition, and hope for the future, close quote, to help kids. They say mental health screens, diagnoses, and talk therapy create stigmas that stay with children. Psychologist Benjamin Miller chairs the advisory board for the mental health nonprofit inseparable. He says mental health screens are like those for physical health intended for early detection so someone at risk can get help before it develops into a health crisis. We screen all the time in schools for things. like vision and hearing. So it makes a lot of sense that we would just continue to screen for things that are equally as important, like our mental health, which is so foundational. Read through Chatterjee and PR News.

The United Kingdom's foreign office has fired its ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, over his alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The British newspaper of the Sun published private emails Mandelson engaged with with Epstein in 2008, encouraging Epstein to continue the legal fight to stay out of prison after he was indicted by a grand jury on sex-related charges. In an interview Wednesday before he was fired, he called Epstein a charismatic liar and says he regrets he ever fell for his lies. I'm Dan Ronan, NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR.