NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-23-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

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These days, with all the information coming at you, it can be hard to know what's accurate, what's not, and what's worth your time. Here to help you navigate it all is 1A. Five days a week, the 1A podcast provides a forum for Curate's Minds to explore different angles on the biggest headlines and give you a more balanced take on what's happening. Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens. The Trump administration is blaming the common drug acetaminophen for increased cases of autism. Medical groups say there is no clear evidence showing any causal link. NPR's NL Greenfield-Boise reports that the National Institute of Health recently awarded more than $50 million to explore the roots of autism.

NIH director Jay Batacharya said the 13 new grants will help scientists consider the effect of environmental and medical factors, everything from nutrition to pollutants. For too long, it's been taboo to ask some questions for fear that scientific work might reveal a politically incorrect answer. He said past NIH research on autism has not given families the answers they want it. The NIH did, however, fund one very large study looking at acetaminopin use in pregnancy and the risk of autism. It analyzed data from more than 2 million children in Sweden and found no connection. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued an emergency order, allowing President Trump to fire the last remaining Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission. Details from NPR, Sina Totenberg.

The court's action is technically temporary, since the justices will hear arguments in the case in December. But by allowing the firing of Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission, the court seems all but certain to overturn a nearly century-old precedent that barred presidents from firing members. of bipartisan regulatory agencies except for bad conduct. Dissenting for the Court's three liberals, Justice Elena Kagan, noted that Congress enacted the bipartisan agency framework. She said the emergency docket should not be used, as it was here, to transfer government authority from Congress to the president, and thus to reshape the nation's separation of powers. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. Following a groundswell of public support, Jimmy Kimmel Live returns to the airwaves Tuesday night.

ABC's parent Disney says it temporarily suspended Kimmel's late night show because the comedian made ill-timed remarks about the suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk. As NPR's Mandelite Del Barco reports, Kimmel's peers in the entertainment industry took a stand on ABC's actions. More than 400 entertainers announced they had signed an open letter condemning Disney's decision to suspend the show. That included actors Pedro Pascal, Selena Gomez, Lynn Manuel Miranda, singer Olivia Rodrigo. All of them have worked with Disney. Well, that letter was issued in collaboration with the ACLU, and it said that regardless of their political affiliation or whether they engage in politics or not, quote, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.

Mandelaide Del Barcoe, you're listening to NPR. The U.S. now recognizes various anti-fascist groups collectively known as Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. President Trump has signed an executive order accusing Antifa of organizing political violence and attacks on law enforcement. The order directs the administration to investigate and dismantle individuals and groups aligned with Antifa ideology. A 2018 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, cited literature encouraging Antifa followers to monitor and expose white supremacist groups. A category four hurricane is expected to continue causing swells along coastal areas of Bermuda and the U.S. Mid-Atlantic over the next few days. As NPR's Giles Snyder reports,

Hurricane Gabrielle is now packing top winds of 140 miles per hour. Although swells began affecting Bermuda on Sunday, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say Hurricane Gabrielle does not pose a direct threat to land. However, the latest advisory warns that Gabrielle is likely to kick up life-threatening surf and rip currents from North Carolina northward to Canada's Atlantic coast. Gabrielle gained strength over the warm waters of the Atlantic, but while the hurricane center expects a storm to gradually weaken, forecasters are advising people in the Azores Archipelago to keep an eye on the storm as it makes its way north and east toward the islands by the end of the week. Trial Snyder, NPR News.

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