NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-20-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. is implementing new guidelines that will require journalists to agree to report only approved and officially released information. NPR's Quill Lawrence has more on the memo issued by the department on Friday. Two U.S. officials who are not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to NPR that the Pentagon will drastically change how journalists have covered the largest department in the U.S. government for decades. Going forward, journalists must sign a pledge not to gather any information, including unclassified reports, that hasn't been authorized for release. The Pentagon says those who fail to obey the new policy will lose their press credentials.

On social media, defense secretary Pete Higsef posted that, quote, the press does not run the Pentagon, the people do. He wrote, the press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility, wear a badge and follow the rules, or go home. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. The top prosecutor overseeing a criminal mortgage fraud, investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James has resigned. The Associated Press says it saw the departure letter that Eric Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District

of Virginia, sent to colleagues on Friday. Seabert stepped down shortly after President Trump called for him to be removed. A federal vaccine advisory committee has recommended changes to how people get COVID vaccines. NPR's Peng Huang reports from Atlanta. The CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee recommends that anyone six months and up can get a COVID booster shot this fall after a consult with a health care provider. But they also asked the CDC to add information about possible risks and uncertainties to information sheets about the shots. Many of the risks presented were speculative or unfounded, but Ratzoff-Levy, a member who chairs the COVID-19 working group, said they should still be shared. Do we know all the

answers, no. Did we hear satisfactory explanations from the companies and the FDA? Absolutely no. It signals a new approach from this committee, one in which rare, sometimes unsubstantiated risks, can sway them to make it harder for the public to get vaccines. Ping Huang and PR News, Atlanta. Russia launched a large-scale drone and missile attack across Ukraine overnight, with strikes continuing into this morning. In neighboring Estonia, tensions are continuing to rise. Foreign Minister Margoos Sokna is urging NATO to respond with stronger sanctions against Russia. It is clear that Putin has started on a new level testing NATO and a new level provocation. Estonia says Russian military jets violated its airspace on Friday, just a week after

Russian drones entered Polish airspace. This is NPR. The Senate has confirmed President Trump's pick to be U.N. ambassador. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports the vote to confirm Michael Walts comes just in time for the United Nations General Assembly meeting this month in New York. Senators voted 47 to 43 to approve the former Florida congressman to serve as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. Mike Walts 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 U.N. and said after 80 years, it has, in his words, drifted from its core mission of peacekeeping. President Trump is expected to address the U.N. next Tuesday. Michelle Kellerman and PR News, the State Department. Police in New York City are on high alert as world leaders begin arriving in New York for the UN General Assembly. Secretary General Antonio Guterres says Monday's high-level meeting will focus on ending the war in Gaza and securing the release of hostages. International cooperation is vital in a moment like this, to come here and, do the negotiations and the mediation that are necessary to at least create hope for peace in some of the situations we are facing. More than 150 heads of state, including President Trump, are expected over the next few days.

I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.