NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-29-2025 2PM EDT

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

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Is the American dream a scam? Allegated Tears, a new memoir by Edgar Gomez, tackles that question. Who are the people who are benefiting the most from this idea that we need to keep working, that we need to keep, you know, our heads low, that we need to keep going out and risking our lives? You can hear more about that on Code Switch from NPR wherever you get your podcast. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyavone. President Trump meets with congressional leaders later today. If government funding legislation is not passed by Congress and signed into law tomorrow night,

many government offices will be temporarily shuttered. And PR's Barbara Sprott reports. The Trump factor in some ways is unpredictability. You know, we've seen him scrap bipartisan deals and meetings before pretty abruptly. In this case, within the last week, he's blasted the Democratic leaders for what they're demanding and then agree to a meeting. So the question I have is, is this going to be a meeting where everyone comes, willing to compromise and negotiate, or will they leave and just tell their bases, hey, you know, I tried, but the other side is being unreasonable. NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will address hundreds of admirals and generals at Marine Base Quantico in Virginia tomorrow. President Trump will also be there. NPR's Tom Bowman has more.

Secretary Higseth and his staff have said little about the reason for ordering senior officers from around the world to attend the morning. meeting. Sources tell NPR Hegeseth is expected to talk about homeland defense and tell the admirals and generals about the ongoing plan to restore what he calls a worry or ethos, a move that includes toughening physical fitness standards for the troops. Hegseth has repeatedly said the military is too woke and focused on diversity. He has fired multiple senior officers citing these reasons, or suggesting they got their jobs because of diversity. Hegseth has also said the military is top heavy with senior officers and wants to cut their numbers by 20%. Tom Bowman, NPR News.

Food insecurity is a growing issue in the United States, made worse by rising inflation and cost of living increases. NPR's Amy held reports in the D.C. area, sweeping federal job cuts have been stressful. Roda Mathia is CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank. Food insecurity just remains extremely high at 36% of our population. That means limited access to enough good food, and their survey finds it's growing more severe. It goes from not being able to choose the nutritious foods that you might want to eat to actually reducing the size of meals and skipping meals. Then there are thousands of federal workers who lost jobs during mass cuts. 41% of those households are now food insecure.

It's part of a national problem that may soon get harder to assess and address. The USDA says it's ending its survey after it became political. Its last report from January found food insecurity rose by a million households. Amy Held and Pierre News. Meeting at the White House this morning, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Qatar's Prime Minister Althani, during which Netanyahu apologized to Althani for Israel's missile strike on Hamas targets in Qatar. Wall Street, the Dow is down 25. This is NPR. The defense attorney representing the man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk,

today asked a judge for more time to review a massive evidence in the case before deciding if Kirk's legal team will seek a preliminary hearing. The judge has now set the next hearing for October 30th. Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder and plan to seek the death penalty. Today's hearing was held in Provo, Utah, a few miles away from the scene of the killing. Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in February, and PR's Isabella Gomez, Sarmiento, has more. Bad Bunny's latest album, Debitir Mast Photos, is a love letter to Puerto Rican culture and history,

and it's about to take on its biggest stage yet. In a press release, the NFL, Apple Music, and Rock Nation commended the three-time Grammy winner for elevating Latin music to completely new heights. He has released some of the first. the biggest songs and albums of the past decade, breaking streaming and touring records left and right. The 31-year-old is known for his outspoken political activism. Earlier this summer, he said he did not include the mainland U.S. in his upcoming

world tour out of fear that immigration and customs enforcement could target his concerts. Isabella Gomez-Armiento, NPR News. The mayor of New York, Eric Adams, has abandoned his struggling re-election campaign against Democratic Party nominee, Zoran Mamdani, Adam's decision could create a potential route to victory for Andrew Cuomo. The S&P 500 up 12 points. I'm Louise Ciavone and PR News. For world-renowned cellist, Joshua Roman,

long COVID caused an identity crisis. That was probably the lowest point. No confidence in my ability to recover crisis of faith about what music meant. On the TED Radio Hour, how he found his way back to music and a new sense of self. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.