NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-19-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

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Live from NPR news, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump says he will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping this fall and travel to China early next year as relations appear poised to break out of a rut. The two leaders had a phone call today that Trump said yielded progress on a range of thorny issues. Here's NPR's John Rewitch. Trump says the call with Xi was very productive, and Chinese state media call it pragmatic, positive, and constructive. It's unclear, though, how far the two got in negotiations over a pivotal issue. issue, the fate of the short video app TikTok. The Trump administration has been trying to broker a deal for U.S. companies to take control of the app from Beijing-based Bight Dance and prevent it from going

dark in the U.S. in line with a law passed last year. Trump said on social media, the talks yielded progress on, quote, the approval of the TikTok deal. An official Chinese readout of the meeting was ambiguous, though, as was a statement from bite dance that thanked Trump and Xi for their efforts to preserve of the app in the U.S. John Rewich, NPR News. Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, tells NPR is here and now the FCC does not have the constitutional authority to revoke the license of a broadcaster that airs content President Trump does not like. Gomez says the First Amendment prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcasters at way, as does the Communications Act. This comes in the fallout of ABC's decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel's

late-night show from air over remarks he made about Charlie Kirk's assassination last week. President Trump applauded ABC's action and suggested broadcast licenses be withheld from any entity that speaks badly of them. The European Commission is proposing another round of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. Terry Schultz has a latest. European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen notes that in the last month, Russia's attacks on Ukraine have intensified, with an airstrike even damaging the EU's own diplomatic mission in Kiev. So we are banning imports of Russian-LNG into European markets. It is time to turn off the tap. She says since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine,

Moscow's oil revenues from sales to Europe have been reduced by more than 90%. Other measures in the package include blacklisting more tankers that transport Russian fuel. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz. The music industry is remembering songwriter Brett James. The North Carolina State Highway Patrol says the Grammy Award-winning country, Songwriter was among three people who died in a plane crash yesterday afternoon. The Associated Press quotes the patrol and reporting the other two people on the plane were Melody Carole and Merrill Maxwell Wilson. It's unknown what caused their small plane to crash in the woods in Franklin.

James wrote a string of top hits, including Jessica Andrews, Who I Am. Brett James was 57 years old. This is NPR News. In a surprise move today, a panel of vaccine advisors to the federal government tabled their proposed change to the vaccine schedule. That schedule would have dropped the current recommendation that all children receive the hepatitis B shot at birth. The panel, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stacked with people who have long questioned the safety of vaccines, are also now saying that the vaccine for children program should not cover a country. combined shot known as MMRV, measles, mumps, rebella, and chicken pox.

The Taliban government of Afghanistan has released an elderly British couple who had been detained for the past eight months. The couple lived in Afghanistan for decades and ran a charity in central Afghanistan, and PRSD Hadid has more from Mumbai. Barbie Reynolds, 75 years old and her husband, Peter, 80 years old, had been held without charge since February. The Reynolds' children said their parents, Parents were mistreated in detention. They said their mother was only fed one meal a day and their father was shackled and chained.

They were released following mediation by the Gulf State of Qatar and a British envoy. Their release came hours after President Trump said Washington was hoping to regain access to a key military air base near Kabul because it allowed the US to keep an eye on neighbouring China. The Taliban's Deputy Foreign Secretary, Zakhad Jalal Ali, said Afghans throughout their history

had never accepted a foreign military presence in their country. Dear Hedid, NPR News, Mumbai. U.S. stocks trading higher this hour with the Dow up 153 points. This is NPR News. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR NewsNow Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.