NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-25-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

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On the next through line from NPR. People have real ethical and moral quandaries about this. People are uncomfortable from the very beginning. The business of migrant detention. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. The Justice Department has charged. former FBI director James Comey with making a false statement and obstruction in a criminal case.

Comey drew the ire of President Trump for probing contacts between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign through most of the president's first term in office. Trump and his supporters have long derided that investigation as a hoax and a witch hunt, despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow interfered on behalf of Trump's campaign. The indictment comes days after Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute Komi and other perceived political enemies. President Trump signed an executive action that he said would establish an administration-wide response to domestic terrorism and political violence. Trump said his administration would look into the funders of groups who are deemed as threats.

NPR's Deepa Shivaram has more. Trump says the Justice Department, DHS, and Treasury would be involved in the response to domestic terrorism and political violence through a joint terrorism task force at the FBI. He accused people who he said were rich members of the radical left of providing funding to protesters. These are anarchists and agitators, professional anarchists and agitators, and they get hired by wealthy people. Vice President J.D. Vance described a recent anti-ice protest at a federal building in Oregon as an example of organized political violence. The comments came a day after a fatal shooting at an ice building in Dallas and the killing earlier this month of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Deepa Shiveram, NPR News, the White House. Defense Secretary Pete

Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to a base in Northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week. Hegsef didn't provide a reason for the gathering. Vice President J.D. Vance argued that news outlets have spuriously turned the meeting into a big story. As NPR's Tom Bowman explains, a meeting like this is unusual. I've never heard of anything on this scale. At times they'll bring in, let's say, combatant commanders, those who oversee military operations around the world, bringing them to the Pentagon for annual meetings, but this is far different in the numbers. Now, Secretary Hegeseth has talked about reducing the number of admirals and generals, who

stand at more than 800, reducing that number by 20%. And he talked about that during his confirmation hearing earlier this year and also put out a video statement back in May, once again, referring to this. NPR's Tom Bowman reporting. And President Trump has signed an executive order saying video sharing app TikTok can continue operating in the U.S. Trump's order declares that a proposed deal to sell the Chinese associated company to U.S. owners meets national security concerns. Much is still unknown about the actual arrangement, but Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping, quote, gave us the go-ahead

to proceed with the deal. From Washington, you're listening to NPR News. Chicago City Council has approved a $90 million settlement for nearly 200 civil rights violations involving a former police sergeant. Ronald Watts and his unit were accused of framing people for drug crimes. The settlement resolves 176 lawsuits involving 180 wrongfully convicted people who spent nearly 200 years combined behind bars. Watts resigned in 2012 and was sentenced to prison in 2021. Today at the United Nations, world leaders are putting forward a new plan for combating non-communicable diseases. And for the first time, dementia is included in the declaration. NPR's Gabriella Emmanuel has more. Dementia is a leading cause of death in many

high-income countries. But Paola Barbarino, head of Alzheimer's Disease International, says it's often missing from global strategies for addressing non-communicable diseases. So seeing Dementia, twice in today's U.N. document, represents a change. It's historical for us. It's a real watershed moment. Barbarino says this is especially significant for low-income countries where incidents of dementia is growing as life expectancy increases. And yet, a lot of low-income countries are still in denial about the fact that dementia is a big problem.

Dementia is expected to be the third leading cause of death globally in 2040. Gabriela Emmanuel NPR News. The first images from NASA's new mapping satellite show the coast of Maine and farmland and North Dakota in incredible detail. It's part of a joint U.S.-India mission. This is NPR News from Washington. This message comes from WISE,

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