NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-23-2025 1AM 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. President Trump says pregnant women and infants should not consume the painkiller acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Trump is citing unproven claims of a link between use of the drug during pregnancy and autism.

The FDA will be updating the label of an existing drug to reflect potential benefits in reducing some autism symptoms. This gives hope to the many parents with autistic children that it may be possible to improve their lives. that's one of the things that I'm very, very happy about. In a statement, Tylenol maker Kenview says the drug is safe to use during pregnancy. Tylenol is just one of hundreds of products on the market currently containing acetaminophen. Top congressional Democrats will meet with President Trump on Thursday, according to a source who is not authorized to speak on the record. NPR's Claudio Grisales reports that the meeting is a last ditch bipartisan effort

to avoid a government shutdown on October 1st. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a public letter over the weekend demanding the meeting. They accused President Trump of allowing a government shut down without bipartisan negotiations. Trump told reporters he would, quote, love to meet with them, but did not think it would have any impact. Republicans, with tight majorities in both chambers of Congress, failed to pass a partisan stopgap bill on their own. so GOP leaders sent members home for the current week-long recess, raising the specter of a government shutdown. Democrats said they won't help Republicans without addressing rising health care costs after major GOP-led spending cuts. Claudio Salis, NPR News.

President Trump has signed an executive order that designates Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. NPR's Odette Youssef reports that Trump is directing his administration. to investigate individuals and groups tied to Antifa. Antifa is shorthand for anti-fascist. It is described as a decentralized far-left movement or ideology. Jason Blasakis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies says the domestic terrorist designation represents a first and that it may run into trouble. First, Antifa is not a structured group.

And the U.S. government has a definition of domestic terrorism, but does not not have the legal authorities to designate entire organizations as domestic terrorist groups. Under U.S. law, groups with foreign operations may be formally sanctioned as terrorist organizations. Blazacus said no such process exists for purely domestic groups because of the risk of infringing on First Amendment freedoms. Odette Yousaf, NPR News. Wall Street stocks closed higher. The Dow Jones industrials gained 66 points.

This is NPR. A prominent Egyptian British activist imprisoned during the Arab Spring protests nearly 12 years ago has been pardoned and released. NPR's eye of the trial report on what the case represents. State media reported that Egypt's president has issued pardons for seven people, among them Al-Abb del Fattah. The activist was first arrested along with thousands of others and years of turmoil following Egypt's 2011 uprising. He was just 29 then. Abdel Fattah, known for his black curly hair, beard, and the glasses he often wears, is now 43 and has a son.

He was added to a terrorism list and was serving a five-year prison sentence on charges of spreading false news for posting on Facebook about torture in Egyptian jails. He'd already spent two years in pretrial detention and had served five years on another charge of protesting without a permit. Abed Fattah gained British citizenship while in jail through his mother, Leila Suaf, a well-known women's rights activist who went on hunger strikes for his release. Ayyabatrawi, and Pierre News, Dubai. Russia is offering a one-year extension of its nuclear arms treaty with the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is willing to honor the New Star Treaty for a year after the treaty expires in February. A new deal signed in 2010, both nations agreed to limit their arsenal of strategic nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers.

Putin says keeping the treaty in force a while longer will ensure, sure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint. U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading on Wall Street on Asia-Pacificing markets, shares are mixed. This is NPR News. 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 Wise.com. T's and Cs apply.