NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-30-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump is delivering remarks at a rare gathering of top military leaders in Virginia at this hour. Speaking at Quantico, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to service members and pledged to bolster the armed forces. We're a team, and so my message to you is very simple. I am with you, I support you, and as president, I have your backs 100%. you'll never see me even waver a little bit. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth opened the address with a strong defense of the U.S. military, saying America must be ready for war.

Hegset also criticized diversity initiatives, arguing that past promotions based on identity rather than combat readiness had hurt the force. Military leaders were summoned to Quantico on short notice last week, with many of them traveling from military command posts from around the world. A federal judge has put a stop to the mass layoffs of most of the workforce at the Voice of America and its federal parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media. NPR's David Fulkenflick reports the judge ruled that Trump administration officials are violating the law repeatedly. The White House and Acting Agency CEO, Kerry Lake, have been intent on dismantling Voice of America.

Hundreds of journalists there had been on indefinite paid leave for months before the layoff started. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth is pausing them for now. For the moment, Lambert is demanding that officials show how they are meeting Congress's requirement that Voice of America serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. He noted the network was not running radio programming in many languages despite legal requirements. Lambert questioned Lake's integrity and competence calling the administration's conduct egregious. Lake has previously and repeatedly accused the judge of trying to run Voice of America from the bench. David Fulkenflick and PR News. Stocks on Wall Street opened mixed this morning as the federal government moves toward a possible shutdown at midnight.

NPR, Scott Horsley reports the Dell rose about 28 points in early trading. Investors have largely shrugged off the possibility that many government functions will be temporarily halted overnight unless lawmakers can reach a stopgap funding agreement. The economic fallout from previous shutdowns has been limited, although the costs start to pile up. a shutdown drags on. The Trump administration has also threatened large-scale layoffs of government workers, which could cause more lasting effects. The federal government's already cut about 100,000 workers this year. The Labor Department is scheduled to issue its monthly jobs report on Friday, but that won't happen if the government's number crunching bureau is temporarily

shut down. A lengthy shutdown could also delay the upcoming inflation report. Scott Horsley-MPR News, Washington. Stocks continue to trade mixed on Wall Street at this hour, the Dow up 46. points the NASDAQ composite down 51. This is NPR News. Communities across the United States and Canada are marking orange shirt day today. It's an annual day of remembrance for the attendees of Indian boarding schools, which attempted to forcibly assimilate native children in the 18 and 1900s. NPR's Kaden Mills reports. People across the country will don their orange shirts to honor the native children who attended Indian boarding schools, who were often subjected to abuse and forbidden to speak

their languages. The University of Minnesota Morris sits on the grounds of a former federal Indian boarding school. This was a genocide. We survived. We are resilience. 21-year-old Nani Makakumann is a student leader at Morris. She's Menominee and Winnebago. Honoring them is a way for us to heal and to help us understand what our parents, grandparents, all our relatives went through. The orange shirts, they honor one Canadian survivor whose new orange shirt was taken on her first day of school in 1973. Kaden Mills, NPR News.

Prosecutors in New York are urging a federal judge to sentence music mogul Sean Diddy Combs to more than 11 years in prison. They filed their sentencing recommendation this morning, along with letters from some of his accusers. Combs has remained jailed since he was convicted, on prostitution-related charges back in July. On Wall Street, the Dow up 64 points at this hour, the NASDAQ down 35, the S&P down two points.

I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.