NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-30-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

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This message comes from Snap Judgment. Their new series, A Tiny Plot, follows a group of homeless people in Oakland as they fight to create their own encampment run by their own rules. It's a bold experiment in freedom and community. Listen to Snap Judgment wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. It's just four hours until a likely government shutdown after Congress failed to pass a pair of bills that would have kept federal agencies open past midnight tonight. The White House is blaming congressional Democrats for it. But as NPR's Tamara Keith reports, President Trump also says it may present an opportunity to lay off workers and cut programs.

White House staff put a video on loop in the press briefing room with old clips of congressional Democrats talking about what a bad idea government shutdowns are. President Trump said the last thing he'd want to do is shut it down. But a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things, but they want open borders. They want men playing in women's sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stopped.

The White House has also threatened mass firings of federal workers. Democrats are pressing the White House and Republicans to negotiate with them on health care. Tamara Keith, NPR News, the White House. Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth told a gathering of top generals and admirals that he's overhauling military standards and gender rules. As NPR's Tom Bowman explains it could lead to a dramatic drop of women in combat. What he said about toughening physical fitness standards for those in combat jobs who are talking armor, artillery, infantry. And he said he wants men and women to achieve, quote, the highest male standard in such things as, you know, lifting weights, dragging a sled that stands in for a wounded comrade, carrying an ammo box, running.

So in general, more weight, more pull-ups, faster times. There are some 600 female Marines in those jobs, roughly 3,000, 4,000 Army women in combat jobs. One Marine officer I spoke with who's well-versed on fitness tests. Estimated you could lose more than 20% of women in those jobs if they have to meet the highest male standard. The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak publicly. NPR's Tom Bowman reporting. President Trump says that the National Institutes of Health will invest in data sharing to boost the use of AI. in detecting and treating pediatric cancers.

NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports this comes amid massive cuts in federal funding for scientific and medical research. The Trump administration says it's committing an additional $50 million to an NIH program to build on ways to apply AI to fighting cancer. Michael Kratios directs a White House office of science and technology policy. Using artificial intelligence, researchers will be able to, for example, build scalable models to predict how it's, child's body responds to therapies, letting doctors forecast cancer progression and minimize treatment side effects. The 50 million investment comes on the heels of billions in federal cuts to various health agencies involved as cancer prevention and research.

Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. This is NPR News from Washington. Turning Point USA's college tour is returning to Utah for the first time since founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated. His death at Utah Valley University galvanized followers of his right-wing conservative politics. The event at Utah State tomorrow will feature podcaster Alex Clark, Senator Mike Lee, and Governor Spencer Cox. President Trump's ambassador to the U.N. is criticizing Rwanda and the rebels it backs in eastern Congo. As NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports, that's a conflict President Trump has repeatedly said he's resolved.

Peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is so far mostly a promise. That's how the head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Binto Keta, described the situation at a UN Security Council meeting. There are discrepancies between the progress we see on paper and the reality we observe on the ground, which continues to be marred with violence. That violence is fueled by a thorny mix of competition over precious mineral resources and decades-long ethnic tensions. Kata says 1,000 civilians have been. killed since June. U.S. Ambassador Mike Walsh says the Trump administration backs the UN peacekeeping force, and he blames M23 rebels and the Rwandan defense forces of prolonging the suffering in Eastern Congo. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. The cost of home repair is

rising faster than inflation, according to a new report. Data analytics company Verisk says labor costs, especially for projects like tile flooring and bathroom remodeling, are driving the increase. I'm Rylan Barton. This is NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and Cs apply.