NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-26-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted former FBI director James Comey on two criminal counts. NPR's Kerry Johnson reports Comey faces obstruction of justice and false statement counts. 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, Lindsay 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, NPR News, Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak at the United Nations General Assembly this morning. Earlier this month, the U.N. Commission declared that he and other Israeli officials are responsible for inciting genocide in Gaza. NPR's Emily Fang reports Netanyahu's speech will be broadcast in Gaza. NPR confirmed that Israel's military is preparing to blast Netanyahu's speech. on loudspeakers in Gaza, where Israel has just started a new ground offensive. On his flight to New York, Netanyahu took a slight detour to avoid much of European airspace because he also faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. Now Netanyahu is

set to walk into the UN headquarters and deliver a speech that Israeli media says will lambast Western countries which have recognized Palestinian statehood in recent days. Emily Fang and Peer News, Tel Aviv. President Trump says he will not allow Israel. to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Trump would not say whether he had discussed this issue with Prime Minister Netanyahu, although Trump did say the two spoke yesterday. Trump and Netanyahu are supposed to meet on Monday. The Defense Department says it is summoning hundreds of U.S. military generals and admirals to meet in suburban Virginia next week. No information has been provided about this meeting. The agency says only that Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth will be addressing

his senior military leaders. NPR's Tom Bowman says this will be an operational challenge and could create issues for U.S. national security. 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, bring them to the Pentagon for annual meetings, but this is far different in the numbers.

Now, Secretary Hague-Seth has talked about reducing the number of admirals and generals who stand at more than 800. NPR's Tom Bowman reporting. You're listening to NPR. President Trump says he'll impose a raft of new tariffs next week. That includes a 100% tariff on pharmaceuticals that are not made in the U.S. Trump says the only exception for pharmaceutical makers is if they're building a plant in the U.S. Last night in Dallas, several advocacy groups held a vigil for the victims of this week's shooting at a local immigration and customs enforcement facility.

Organizers are calling for ICE reforms after one detailed. was killed in the attack and two others hospitalized. From member station KERA, Dylan Duke has more. The vigil took place outside the hospital where organizers believe one of the victims is being treated. Tony Rodriguez is an organizer for the vigil. He said the focus should be on the victims. The truth is that we want the story to be told about the people being hurt. This story is not about ICE being attacked.

It's about our community being attacked. He said ICE should be more transparent and give information about who the victims are. Federal investigators say the suspected shooter planned the attack for months and was targeting ice officers. The shooting came just a month after a bomb threat was made at the same field office. For NPR news, I'm Dylan Duke in Dallas. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Umbarto is now a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. It developed very rapidly this week. Umberto is expected to become a major hurricane this weekend with winds of more than 111 miles per hour.

The Philippines is getting its second typhoon in a week. Typhoon Boulogh is hitting the country only days after Typhoon Ragasa killed at least 25 people in the Philippines and Taiwan. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.