NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-12-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. The man accused of killing right-wing conservative activist Charlie Kirk is now in custody. Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced a 22-year-old was arrested 10 p.m. local time for allegedly assassinating Kirk as he was addressing a big crowd, including large numbers of young people, on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Steve Futterman has the latest. Tyler Robinson was arrested without incident. He turned himself into authorities just hours after officials released more detailed pictures of the man they said was their suspect. Utah Governor Spencer Cox says Robinson's interest in politics had recently increased. Investigators interviewed a family member

of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years. And a family member described a conversation they had about Charlie Kirk. Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked about why they didn't like him and the viewpoints that he had. One of the bullet casings recovered had the inscription, Hey, fascist, catch. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Orem, Utah. Governor Cox says the alleged shooter was living with his family in Washington County

and was not a student at UVU. Missouri lawmakers have answered President Trump's call to help maintain the Republican majority in Congress by redrawing the state's voting map for the midterm election. next year. The state Senate voted 21 to 11 to pass a map that would help a Republican candidate win a seat currently held by Democrat. The move is part of a nationwide race prompted by the president's call on Republicans to make more winnable voting maps. Usually states redraw their district maps early in the decade after the national census shows how many house seats each state has. Opponents in Missouri have vowed to block it in court or with a public referendum. More than 300,000,

South Korean workers detained last week by U.S. immigration authorities are now back home. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul. The group was in Savannah, Georgia, to set up a Korean-invested electric vehicle battery plant. The workers arrived by chartered flight at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul, where they were met by crowds of family and friends, officials, and journalists, and a few demonstrators protesting U.S. treatment of the workers. The workers were accused of working illegally, many were in the U.S. on short-term visas that don't allow employment. To avoid a repeat of this problem, U.S. and South Korean officials say they'll discuss creating new visa categories and quotas for skilled Korean workers. Images of Korean workers detained

in handcuffs and shackles shocked South Korea and threatened to chill relations with a major U.S. ally and trade partner. Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Seoul. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was down more than 200 points. This, This is NPR News. If you're feeling more anxious about the economy, you are not alone. A new survey from the University of Michigan shows consumer sentiment is at its lowest level since May. Mike Regan Managing Editor at Bloomberg News describes the impact on consumer behavior. If you're worried about your job prospects in the near future, you're probably not going to take on some big ticket purchases, plan a big vacation, that sort of thing.

that sort of discretionary spending that really fuels the economy. That said, we're not really seeing that sort of dire follow-up in the actual consumer spending numbers just yet. But that certainly is a concern when consumer confidence is this week. Mike Regan on NPR's here and now. A new way to monitor a rise in blood pressure is set to be released next week on Apple Watches. NPR's Alison Aubrey reports that the company's hypertension notification system will use data. from the watch's heart sensors. The optical heart sensor on Apple watches

will analyze how a user's blood vessels respond to heartbeats and contract this data over 30 days, then notify users if it detect signs of high blood pressure. An Apple spokesperson says the feature will be rolled out in 150 countries and says it's been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. More than half of Americans 40 and older

have high blood pressure, which can be effectively treated with changes to diet, exercise, and medications. Many adults don't know their risk of hypertension, which is a leading contributor to heart disease and also increases the risk of dementia. Alison Aubrey, NPR News.

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