NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-16-2025 10PM EDT

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

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Support for NPR, and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jail Snyder. Prosecutors in Utah say they will be seeking the death penalty for the 22-year-old man being held in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk County Attorney Jeff Gray. I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made. independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime. Prosecutors unveiled seven charges filed against Tyler Robinson today. They include aggravated murder, a capital crime in Utah. Robinson had his first court appearance late today. He appeared virtually from a county jail where he will remain without bail. Charging documents

show that a note was left under Robinson's keyboard saying he planned to kill Kirk and that he'd been planning the killing for about a week. A Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held a hearing today about children, artificial intelligence, and the harms of AI chatbots. Among those who testified were parents of two kids who died by suicide after extended interactions with AI chatbots. Here's NPR's Retrue Chatterjee. Megan Garcia is a lawyer and a mother of three boys. Last year, her oldest son, Sewell Setzer III, died by suicide after a prolonged virtual relationship with the chatbot on character AI. Garcia says the chatbot groomed and sexually exploited Sewell. When Sewell confided suicidal thoughts, the chatbot never said, I'm not human, I'm AI.

You need to talk to a human and get help. The platform had no mechanisms to protect Sewell or to notify an adult. Garcia has filed a lawsuit against character technology which developed character AI. Tech companies did not testify at the hearing despite lawmakers' invitations. Read through Chatejee, NPR News. President Trump has again extended the deadline for a nationwide TikTok ban, the fourth since he took office in January for his second term. NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports this latest extension comes as the U.S. and China are nearing a deal for the popular social video app.

An executive order from the White House delayed the deadline for a TikTok ban until mid-December. It came just a day after the U.S. said it had a framework for a deal with China to sell the company to American bonds. wires. Speaking at the White House, Trump said the deal was near. You know, the kids wanted it so badly. I had parents calling me up. They don't want it for themselves. They want it for their kids. They say, if I don't get it done, they're in big trouble with their kids. Trump says he expects to finalize the deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. President Trump is overseas in the United

Kingdom. He arrived there this evening for a state visit. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are staying the night at the U.S. Ambassador's home. The two-day visit officially gets underway tomorrow when Trump will be greeted by King Charles at Windsor Castle. And from Washington, you're listening to NPR News. Israeli defense minister Israel Kat said on social media today that Gaza is burning. Israel has launched its long-threatened ground offensive in Gaza City. The military says ground troops began moving deeper into the city today

and that the number of soldiers involved would rise in the coming days. Israel has pledged to seize control of the entire city. UN human rights experts accuse Israel carrying out a genocide. A group of off-duty park rangers, the resistance rangers, says the Trump administration has flagged a photograph of an enslaved man with scars on his back for removal from display in a national park. NPR's Frank Langford as we're on the Trump administration's campaign. The 1863 photo shows scars on the back of an enslaved man named

Peter Gordon, who was wounded by his masters. The takedown notice comes after the government told staff to flag content that might inappropriately disparage Americans or perpetuate what it calls a false reconstruction of the nation's history. Alan Spears oversees cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association. He says taking down the photo would be a mistake. What's behind this is the notion of being able to soften or sanitize history as it's displayed or interpreted at federal sites. The Park Service has flagged other materials, including signs at George Washington's home in Philadelphia, explain how he circumvented laws of the time to avoid having to free his slaves there.

Frank Langford, NPR News, Washington. I had of a decision on interest rates by the Federal Reserve tomorrow. Wall Street ended lower today. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ composite, each slipped a tenth of a percent. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

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