NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-29-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

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How are you choosing to live? On autopilot or with intention? The way you think you should or the way you want to. I'm Mariel Segarra, host of the Life Kit podcast. Each episode is like a mini guidebook for your vida. So you can manage time, money, fitness, amor, and other life things on your terms. Listen to the Life Kit podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyvone. At the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump released a new framework for peace, acknowledging the toughness of the challenges ahead, aimed at establishing a de-radicalized region, and the release of hostages taken at the start of the conflict. President Trump promised to stand by Israel. Israel would have my fallback into finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.

but I hope that we're going to have a deal for peace. As part of the talks at the White House, Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone with Qatar's Prime Minister Al-Thani, during which Netanyahu apologized to Al-Thani for Israel's missile strike on Hamas targets in Qatar. The White House said in a statement that he further expressed regret that in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty, and affirmed that Israel will not conduct something. such an attack again in the future. The question remains, though, how will this play politically

among the many and varied parties in the conflict? NPR's Daniel Estrin has more. The political reality in Israel right now is that on the one hand, most of the Israeli public wants the war to end. A new poll says 66% of Israelis want the war to end. And on the other hand, if Netanyahu does end the war, like Trump wants him to, he could lose his government, His key political partners in his coalition are far-right, ultra-nationalists. They do not want the war in Gaza to end, and yet they want the total defeat of Hamas instead. NPR's Daniel Estrin reporting. A White House office is giving federal agencies more time to get in line with changes

to how the government produces statistics about race and ethnicity that are used to redraw voting maps and enforce civil rights protections. As NPR's Hansi Lo Wong reports, the changes to future census forms and federal surveys were approved during former President Joe Biden's administration. The White House's Office of Management and Budget is now giving agencies until March to submit public action plans for complying with the revised standards by September 2029. Those standards require federal forms to ask about race and ethnicity in one question instead of separating the two while allowing you to check more than one box. And there are supposed to be two new checkboxes, one for Hispanic or Latino. in another for Middle Eastern or North African. A category the U.S. government no longer automatically classifies as white.

Research suggests these changes could allow many people of MENA descent and Latinos to more accurately report their identities. OMB has not explained why it's extending deadlines, but said in a statement that the changes, quote, continue to be in effect. Hansi Luong and P.R. News. The probe continues in Grand Blank Township, Michigan, where a gunman killed four people, injured several others, and set a church ablaze on Sunday. The Dow is up three. This is NPR. The defense team for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man charged with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, has asked for and received more time to study the evidence in the case. At a brief hearing today in Provo, Utah, a few miles away from the scene of the killing, Robinson's lawyers asked for more time to review a mass of evidence in the case before deciding if they 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 they plan to seek the death penalty. The battle over next year's federal education budget for grades K through 12 has begun, and PR's Corey Turner has more. The White House Senate and House Republicans have all proposed education department budgets for fiscal year 2026. The bipartisan Senate plan would largely fund the status quo. Not so, the other two. The Trump budget would end all funding to help schools teach English language learners and scale back funding for rural schools and things like teacher training. The House Republican budget would cut $4.7 billion from the pot that directly supports high poverty schools. Multiple data analyses from liberal-leaning think tanks estimate both

proposals would cut more funding from the nation's lowest-income schools than from its wealthiest. Corey Turner, NPR News. Terrestrial rain from tropical storm Imelda has led to extensive. of closings and evacuations in the Bahamas. In Cuba, amid drenching rain, one man is known to have died after a landslide. On Wall Street, the NASDAQ is up 120 points. I'm Luis Giovanni, NPR News, Washington. 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 podcasts.