NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-19-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

NPR News: 09-19-2025 9AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. Chinese state media reports that President Xi Jinping and President Trump spoke by phone a short time ago. Earlier this week, Trump shared that he planned to have a conversation with Xi about the future of TikTok. Trump extended this week's deadline for the video app to be sold to a U.S. company. Gaza City's main morgue says at least 50 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. Israeli forces are also operating in the south of Gaza. The military says four soldiers were killed yesterday in Gaza, but gave no further details. NPR's Anas Baba reports.

That's the sound of Israeli warplanes bombing Gaza City with at least 16 missiles back to back. The intense bombardments came without warning, rattling the skies and causing widespread destruction on the ground. Israel has ordered all of Gaza City's residents to leave Saas. as its troops make a push for the center, but hundreds of thousands of people remain. Many say they have no place to go. Others do not have the thousands of dollars it coast to move south. And some families fled but returned to Gaza City, citing any humane conditions in the south. The offensive on Gaza City comes as 14 countries at the UN Security Council voted in support for an immediate ceasefire.

The United States, however, vetoed the resolution. Anas Baba and PR News, Gaza City. administration is rushing to find space for immigration officers conducting raids across the country. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports. According to three sources working for the General Services Administration, the agency recently assembled a team to rapidly find a fully furnished office space for immigration officers. The sources requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal operations. The move would give the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency a more permanent foothold in the cities where it operates.

shortly after Congress authorized billions in additional funding. However, polls suggest those efforts are increasingly unpopular among Americans. Jen McLaughlin, NPR News. Washington, D.C.,'s mayor, defended her policies on crime at a congressional hearing yesterday. WAMU's Alex Coma reports now. Congressional Republicans used Thursday's hearing to simultaneously claim that crime in the city is out of control, but also that Trump's recent actions made it safer than it's ever been. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said crime was falling long before Trump stepped in.

It is true that we experience, like many places, a spike in 2023. I can say unequivocally, this is not 2023. While federal control of the city's police force has expired, National Guard troops and federal agents remain for now. Trump, meantime, is threatening to send troops into other Democrat-led cities. For NPR News, I'm Alex Koma in Washington. On Wall Street and pre-market trading, all indices are trading higher. This is NPR News from Washington. The State Department has released a new strategy for how the U.S. will engage in global health.

Officials say the aim is helping countries reduce their dependency on foreign aid. NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel has more. For years, the U.S. paid billions in foreign aid dollars to non-governmental organizations to set up and maintain aid programs. With the new strategy, officials plan to largely skip over and NGOs and work directly with individual governments, integrating programs into their national health systems. Elisha Dungeorgio heads the Global Health Council. She says the strategy lacks details. How does it get implemented?

Who are the partners? Do you have the structure to do this? Or do you all of a sudden have to kind of rebuild what you just tore down? The Trump administration has already shuttered billions of dollars worth of global health programming. Gabriela Emmanuel NPR News. The Republican-led Congress is expected to vote on dueling stopgap measures today to try to keep the government from shutting down at the end of the month. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he's confident he has the votes,

but some hard-line Republicans and Democrats say they won't support the measure unless it addresses rising health care costs. Lawmakers are scheduled to go on recess next week. L.A. Dodger Clayton Kershaw is retiring. The two-time World Series winner will make his sense. final regular season start tonight against the Giants. Kurtzaw is walking away from the game after 18 years. He says he's going to spend more time with family.

I'm Kristen Wright, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.