NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-19-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

NPR News: 09-19-2025 6PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. Hours after the House approved legislation on largely partisan lines that funds federal agencies through most of November, the Senate failed to advance the bill. MPIRS-Deirdre-Walsh reports prospects of a government shutdown are increasing. The Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance a stopgap funding bill. Two Republicans and all but one Democrat opposed the bill the House had judged. approved. An alternative Democratic proposal also failed. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the Democrats push to add an extension of health care subsidies to the package was a non-starter and says they should be blamed if the government shuts down. If they choose to vote against this clean,

completely nonpartisan CR, then they will be choosing to shut the government down and they will owe the consequences of what happens following that. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be on recess next week. At last, the two chambers agree on a funding deal, a shutdown could start on October 1st. Deirdre Walsh, NPR News, the Capitol. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke by phone today. A call Trump says was very productive, yielding progress on a number of issues, including the fate of video sharing app, TikTok. I had a great call with President Xi, and as you know, he approved the TikTok deal, and we're in the process.

we have some great investors, some of the biggest in the world, American investors, great people. Trump's speaking there from the Oval Office tonight, but details of the progress on TikTok weren't released. Trump has been trying to get a deal for U.S. companies to take control of the popular app from China, which is the China-based bite dance's owner, to keep it in the U.S. after Congress passed a law last year, saying ownership of TikTok had to transfer into the hands of a U.S. company, or be shuttered. The Senate has confirmed President Trump's pick to be U.N. ambassador, and as Michelle Kellerman reports the vote to confirm Michael Waltz comes just in time for the UN General Assembly. Senators voted 47 to 43 to approve the former Florida congressman to serve as Trump's

ambassador to the United Nations. Mike Waltz was briefly national security advisor until he mistakenly added a journalist to a signal group chat about sensitive information on U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. The scandal followed him to his confirmation hearing where some senators questioned his fitness for a top government job. In the hearing, Waltz vowed to push for reforms at the UN and said after 80 years, it has, in his words, drifted from its core mission of peacekeeping. President Trump is expected to address the UN next Tuesday. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. Wall Street, higher by the closing bell, you're listening to NPR. PR News from Washington.

President Trump is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors. This, after an appeals court refused to go along with his efforts to oust Cook, who participated in Wednesday's Fed vote, cutting its key interest rate. Trump wants to reshape the Fed's seven-member governing board, which could place its independence at risk. He accused his cook of mortgage fraud related to properties in Michigan and Georgia, which she denies. A federal judge in Missouri has ruled that the University of Missouri violated the First Amendment rights of a pro-Palestinian group when it tried to exclude them from a homecoming parade. Salisa Kalakal of member station KCUR has more. The judge ruled that the chancellor of the university denied Missouri students for justice in Palestine because of their viewpoint. violating the group's freedom of speech.

The chancellor says he denied the group's homecoming application this year because of safety concerns, but the judge found that was not legitimate enough to exclude them. Ahmed Kaki, who represented the group in court, said the Constitution protects the group from having their speech restricted. And that's exactly what the University of Missouri attempted to do by preventing them from entering the 2025 homecoming parade. The University of Missouri declined it to comment on the ruling. For NPR News, I'm Salisa Colloquial in Kansas City.

By the closing bill on Wall Street, the Dow was up 172 points. NASDAQ up 160, S&P 500, up 32. You're listening to NPR News.