NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-20-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, D.C. I'm Dale Wilman. Estonia is calling for urgent talks with its NATO allies after three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace on Friday. Estonia is invoking Article 4, which allows member nations to start formal discussions as security threats. As Terry Schultz reports, the incursion comes just a week after nearly 20 Russian drones invaded Polish airspace. The Estonian government says the three Russian mig planes had filed no flight plans, were flying with their transponders off and made no contact with authorities when they entered Estonian airspace

and stayed for 12 minutes. Finnish Swedish and Italian planes operating as part of NATO's air policing operation escorted the Russians back to their own territory. Eva Ekpayusta is an advisor to the Estonian Foreign Ministry. They are navigating still in quite gray area where you can still deny

that it was intentional. They are pretty good in navigating in these kind of shallow waters. It's unclear when Estonia will schedule its article for consultations at NATO. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Helsinki, Finland. In a high-profile meeting of vaccine advisors on Friday, members voted against recommending a prescription for the COVID-19 booster. And as NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports, it was a dramatic tie vote. This panel of advisors was hand-picked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has a long history of anti-vaccine

activism and called COVID-19 vaccines a, quote, crime against humanity. On Friday, the panel considered whether to require patients to obtain a prescription if they want to get the COVID booster this year. Dr. Amy Middlman of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine urged committee members to reject this idea. If we start asking for prescriptions for vaccines, which are a primary prevention, public health strategy, we are going to overwhelmed physicians' offices. In the end, the vote was a tie, but because the chair voted no, the motion failed. Selina Simmons-Duffin, NPR News. The Trump administration Friday asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its policy requiring U.S. travelers to list their biological gender

at birth on their passports. A federal judge in June blocked that policy, and a federal appeals court left the ruling in place pending an appeal. MPR's Nina Totenberg has more on that story. The Trump administration told the Supreme Court in its brief that private citizens cannot force the government to use inaccurate sex designations on identification documents that fail to reflect the passport holder's biological sex at birth. That is so, said the administration, especially on documents that are on government property and involve the president's constitutional and statutory power to communicate with foreign governments. That's NPR's Nina Totenberg with our story. and you're listening to NPR News.

Search teams in Syria have found at least 25 bodies in a mass grave near Damascus. It's believed the grave could contain as many as 175 bodies. Officials say the dead were killed at a 2014 ambush by forces of then-President Bashar Assad while they were fleeing eastern Ghota. The Civil Defense Group, the White Helmets, says many more undiscovered mass graves still remain across the country. Pampalona, Spain. is known for its annual running of the Bulls, which has become a crowded event each year.

Organizers now say the festival may hold lessons for improving public safety. And Pierre Zaray Daniel reports. During the festival of San Fermin, this little plaza becomes packed with 6,000 people. Iker Thurigel, a physicist at the University of Navarra, and his colleagues have filmed the masses from above for several years. The footage revealed a pattern.

Each person repeatedly traced. out a rough circle on the ground about the size of a car. Thurigel's now exploring the pressure waves that can ripple through this crowd, the kind that have been fatal elsewhere, but never here. If we understand why this happens, I think we will be able to apply some strategies in other places. Thereby translating the jitters of a sangria-soaked crowd into recommendations that may save people's lives. For NPR news, I'm Marie Daniel in Pumplona. Sarah Schmelzel and Japan's Manami Katsu share the lead after one round of the LPGA Arkansas Championship on Friday.

Katsu had a bogey-free round and shot an eight under par 63 at Pinnacle Country Club. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News in Washington. 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. Join millions of customers and visit Washington. wise.com. T's and Cs apply.