NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-25-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

NPR News: 09-25-2025 9PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted former FBI director James Comey. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, Comey faces charges of obstructing justice and making false state. The charges against Jim Comey come after days of pressure from President Trump, who urged the Justice Department to hurry up and build a criminal case against him. The statute of limitations had been set to expire next week. The charges stem from Senate testimony Comey gave in September 2020 about the FBI

investigation into Russian election interference and a leak to the news media. The White House recently forced down a longtime prosecutor after he cast doubt on the strength of any case against Comey. This week, Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer with no experience as a prosecutor, but who had earlier ties to Trump, became U.S. attorney in Virginia. The president posted, quote, Justice in America after the indictment became public. Carrie Johnson and PR News, Washington. President Trump has given his blessing to a deal for a group of mostly U.S. investors to take over the short video app, TikTok. Trump signed an executive order saying the proposed deal meets congressional requirements and will protect national security. NPR's John Rewich has more.

The executive order paves the way for a framework agreement on the sale of TikTok to be finalized. It would see TikTok's Chinese parent company, BightDance, divest to less than 20% ownership while U.S. investors step in and take control. A law passed last year requires BightDance to divest or see the app go dark in the United States. The law arose out of the fear that, under Chinese ownership, TikTok could be used by the Chinese government to collect data on Americans or manipulate U.S. users with propaganda or disinformation. After Trump signed the executive order, Vice President J.D. Vance said the deal values TikTok at around $14 billion. He said the deal safeguards U.S. users data and ensures that Americans are in control of TikTok's prized

content recommendation algorithm. John Rewich, NPR News. Today, dozens of migrants showed up to the Dallas ICE facility where three detainees were shot yesterday. They all had mandatory check-ins with ICE that, if missed, could lead to detention and deportation. NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran reports. 53-year-old Nicaraguan migrant Benjamin Bejorin drove more than two hours to get to his appointment with ICE in Dallas. But he found police officers outside telling him that the facility was closed. No appointments today.

Bejorin expressed he was worried, saying, I just wanted them to see that I showed up, he says. He does not want to get in trouble. Bejurin did not know the appointments have been postponed. Authorities say the gunman who opened fire this week was targeting ICE agents, but the people he shot were all detainees. ICE has said this week's check-ins have been moved to next week. Sergio Martinez Beltran, NPR News, Dallas.

This is NPR. A brazen heist at a San Francisco Bay Area jewelry store led to some two dozen people wearing masks, smashing glass cases with pickaxes, and making off with bags full of a million, dollars worth of jewelry. Police say the robbers fled in cars waiting in a nearby lot. Officers tracked the vehicles

from the air and were able to arrest several suspects. A violent squirrel is on the loose in the Bay area. Katie D. Benadetti with member station KQED reports that at least three North Bay residents have gone to the emergency room with injuries

from the rodent. Joan Heblack was out for her morning walk when she felt something strange grabbing on her leg last Sunday. It was very heavy and I look down, and it was a squirrel. Neighbors say five people have reported attacks around the same street in San Rafael this month that go a bit like this. It wouldn't get off. It just clung more, and I was swinging my leg around and screaming.

Luckily, the odds of getting rabies from a squirrel are extremely low, and Heblock was back out on her usual walk that same afternoon. But disquieting posters warning people of, quote, a very mean squirrel are still up in the neighborhood. For NPR News, I'm Katie de Benedetti in San Francisco. Crabs, worms, and fish are thriving on discarded World War II explosives in the Baltic Sea, thought to be toxic to marine life. At a former weapons dumpside off the coast of Germany, scientists found more creatures living on top of warheads than in the surrounding seabed.

Researchers filmed networks of anemones, starfish, and other underwater life. From Washington, this is a... 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.