NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-13-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: September 13, 2025

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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. Oh, gosh. Give me a minute. Yeah, yeah. Think. Listen to the Wild Card podcast, only from NPR.

Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Duhli Psychial. Utah Governor Spencer Cox delivered a message for young Americans about political violence after he announced there was a suspect in custody for the assassination of a conservative activist Charlie Kirk. NPR Sage Miller reports. Governor Cox spoke to a crowded auditorium at Utah Valley University. To my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option. Cox, a Republican, encouraged young people to choose a different path, referencing a comment Kirk made before his death about how society has to get back to having

reasonable agreement where violence is not an option. Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now. Not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations. While Kirk could be a divisive figure, Cox and others have applauded his willingness to engage with those that disagreed with him. Sage Miller, NPR News. Ice agents fatally shot a 38-year-old man in a suburb of Chicago yesterday, alleging that the Mexico native Silvio Villegas Gonzalez resisted arrest when federal officers pulled his vehicle over. The death

has outraged local leaders and immigration advocates, including Lawrence Benita with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. While we are still uncovering the details of this particular incident, we know the increasingly aggressive tactics of ICE do not keep our communities safe. Ozzie Lopez lives in the Franklin Park neighborhood. It's just crazy that this is what is getting to. You know, this is for someone had to flee for their lives and then in the process, lost their life and then someone else got hurt in the process where, you know, it doesn't look good

in either side. President Trump says he's sending the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, and Piers Franco Ordonez reports. In an interview with Fox and Friends, President Trump says his administration would next target Memphis, after hearing concerns raised by business leaders. We're going to Memphis. I'm just announcing that now, and we'll straighten that out. National Guard? National Guard and anybody else we need. And by the way, we'll bring in the military, too, if we need it. Trump said he would have preferred his next target to be Chicago, but he's faced resistance from the mayor and Illinois governor. Last month, Trump sought to use emergency powers

to take over control of the Metropolitan Police Department. He deployed National Guard soldiers and sent hundreds of federal law enforcement officials to the capital. Trump's also floated the idea of sending troops to New York and Baltimore. Franco, Ordojouz, NPR News, New York. And you are listening to NPR from New York. Paramount is rejecting a pledge circulated five days ago and signed by thousands of directors and actress

to boycott Israeli film institutions that they say are, quote, complicit in the abuse of Palestinians by Israel. It is the first major studio to address the latest boycott intended to stop what the UN says has repeatedly said is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Paramount said silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding.

standing or advance the cause of peace. We need more engagement and communication, not less. But filmmakers for Palestine, the group that organized a pledge, said it has a profound moral duty to stand for equality, justice, and freedom for all people, writing we must speak out now against the harm done to Palestinian people. Whether radars in the mid-Atlantic are picking up swarms of an invasive bug species this week, and appears Nate Rot has that story. The spotted lantern fly is a colorful insect native to Asia.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it was first found in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 2014. It's since spread to 19 states in the District of Columbia, where weather radars, as they did this week, will sometimes see swarms of them appear as if they were rain. The flies are deemed a pest. They can damage hardwoods, fruit trees, and other native plants. So people are encouraged to squish them and to check their cars and outdoor equipment. to keep from transporting their eggs any further. Nate Rot, NPR News.

And I'm Doaulis, I count tell, NPR News in New York City.