NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-02-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

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In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. Police are being deployed to synagogues across the U.K. after an attack on one in the city of Manchester in northern England. Impears Lauren Freyer reports, at least two people are dead, several others were injured in a car ramming and stabbing before the suspect was killed by police. Manchester police say the attacker drove his car into a crowd outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue and stabbed one person before being shot by police.

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham notes the attack took place on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar. Obviously, what we would all want to recognize is how people in our Jewish community will be feeling. Burnham told the BBC the immediate danger is over, though. Prime Minister Kier Starrmer posted on social media that he's appalled and that the timing of the attack on Yom Kippur makes it, quote, all the more horrific. He cut short a visit to Denmark and rushed home to chair an emergency meeting in response. response. Lauren Friar and PR News London. It's day two of the federal government shutdown. NPR's Mara Liason says, amid it, the White House is threatening to fire thousands of federal workers. The president has said that a lot of good can come from shutdowns. He says he may use this

shutdown, which he blames on Democrats, as an excuse to take, quote, irreversible actions, such as cutting programs Democrats like and trimming the budget to a level he couldn't do any other way. In past shutdowns, government workers have been furloughed. but then return to work after the government reopens. This time, the White House is talking about permanent layoffs. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says no final decision about permanent layoffs has been made, but that, quote, we have to put a plan in place. Mara Liason, NPR News, the White House.

And the shutdown means the country won't get a new monthly jobs report and other key statistics this week. But as NPR's Hansi Lo Wong reports, Federal employees continue to work on a key step in preparing for the next national headcount. The Census Bureau has stopped collecting, processing, and releasing new data on the U.S. economy and disaster recovery. But the shutdown has not stopped work for next year's major field test for the 2030 census. What's called the 2026 census test is set to take place in parts of Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. Bureau says it's a, quote, mission-critical priority that is supposed to help develop better ways.

of getting a count of every person living in each state in 2030. Those numbers will be used to determine each state's share of congressional seats, electoral college votes, and federal funding in the next decade. But the Commerce Department Inspector General's office has raised concerns that the Bureau may not recruit enough workers for next year census test. Hansi Luong, NPR News. U.S. futures contracts are trading in mixed territory at this hour. Dow futures are down a fraction.

NASDAQ futures are up about a half percent. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Hundreds of celebrities have relaunched a committee to defend free speech that was first formed during the post-World War II Red Scare. As NPR's Anastasia Silucus reports, the group is spearheaded by actor and activist Jane Fonda, whose father, Henry Fonda, stood against the Hollywood blacklists of the McCarthy era. Pedro Pascal, Mark Ruffalo, Billy Elish, and Spike Lee are among the nearly 600 entertainers to join the newly reformed committee for the First Amendment. The group says the federal government is engaged in a, quote, coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry. The Committee for the First Amendment first launched in the

1940s when the House on American Activities Committee accused many Hollywood actors and writers of being communists or communist sympathizers and derailed their careers. Other members of the newly reformed group include TV show creator Quinter Brunson, musicians Barbara Streisand and Janelle Meney and actors Anne Hathaway and Ben Stiller. Anastasi Azea Zilkes and PR News, New York. Famed British primatologist Jane Goodall has died. She was 91 years old. The Institute she founded says she died from natural causes while she was on a speaking tour of the United States. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 with offices around the world. to better understand primates through public education and legal representation.

I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.