NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-30-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. A government shutdown is less than six hours away, as top Democrats and Republicans in Congress say they're no closer to reaching an agreement to fund the federal government after midnight. A vote tonight on a short-term patch is expected to fail, as NPR's Sam Gringlass explains. Senate Majority Leader John Thune needs a handful of Democrats to help pass a funding bill that will keep the government operating at current levels for the next few weeks. This is totally avoidable. It is a decision they're going to have to make. And if the government shuts down, it is on the Senate Democrats. But Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the funding measure must include an extension of subsidies for health insurance premiums expiring this year.

As Republicans continue to lie, distract, duck, hide. Democrats remain ready to get to work and keep the government funded. Without an agreement, the government will shut down at midnight. Greenglass, NPR News. People would blame Republicans more for a shutdown, according to new polling from NPR PBS News and Marist. NPR's Domenico Montanaro has more. Neither party would get the majority of the blame, but Republicans who control both chambers of Congress would get more of it than Democrats by a 38 to 27 percent margin. Another 31 percent say they would blame both parties equally. Across the political spectrum, people are split on whether it's better to compromise to avoid a shutdown or to stand on principle, even if it means one would occur.

her. Democrats and independents lean toward compromise, while Republicans tend toward standing on principle. The survey of more than 1,400 people across the country was conducted over five days last week. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, meaning results could be three points higher or lower. Domenico Montanaro and PR News, Washington. President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed senior military commanders who came in from all over the world for a meeting outside Washington today. Hegseth told the group of generals and admirals that the Pentagon's new focus would be war fighting. NPR's Joe Hernandez reports. Hegseth has made a warrior ethos central to his view of the military, and he reiterated

that message telling top generals and admirals that the newly renamed Department of War had lost its way and become woke. He added, to ensure peace, we must prepare for war. Heg Seth summoned top U.S. military commanders from around the world for the unusual meeting in Quantico, Virginia, made even more of unusual by the presence of President Trump. The defense secretary has called for reducing by about 20 percent the number of admirals and generals who stand at more than 800. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. The U.N. has authorized more troops to try and stop escalating gang violence in Haiti. The new 5,500 member force will have the power to detain suspected gang members, which the current peacekeeping

effort does not have. Gangs in Haiti have grown in power since the assassination of the president there in 2021. In Washington, this is NPR News. The United States is deporting hundreds of Iranians back to Iran in the coming weeks. That's according to Iran and not yet publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government. It comes as tensions remain high between the two countries following the American bombings of Iranian nuclear sites in June. This summer, Congress and President Trump ended federal support for public media, and that funding officially stops tomorrow.

In South Dakota, NPR's David Fulkenflict says public. broadcasters are making deep cuts as they chart a new course. South Dakota Public Broadcasting owns NPR and PBS stations. Julia Overgard is its executive director. We're not a huge staff. And, you know, it's like a cookie or a pie and you keep trimming around the edges, but $2.3 million, there is no way to trim around that. Certain programs were off the table.

Overguard promised lawmakers, no touching its extensive schedule of high school sports and fine arts activities, nor its gavel-to-gavel coverage of state government. The station had 11 journalists. It's down to four. In the past three months, the station's private foundation has raised $1.7 million more than it did in the same period last year. The foundation is trying to bring back some journalists to pilot new initiatives. David Fulkenflick and PR News, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Police in Northern California pulled over a Waymo self-driving taxi after it made an illegal U-turn. know, police department wrote that officers were conducting a DUI operation when they stopped the vehicle, but didn't give it a ticket because, as they put it, citation books don't have a box

for robot. From Washington, this is NPR News.