NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-07-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Amy Held. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the Trump administration may be able to withhold back pay for federal workers, following a threat by the president. NPR's Claudia Grisalas reports Johnson says they're taking another look at a law requiring workers get paid once the shutdown ends. Speaker Johnson said while he has not talked to the White House about the plan, there are some legal analysts who say back pay may not be required under the 2019 law. But there are legal analysts who think that that is not something that. government should do. If that is true, that should turn up the urgency and the necessity of the Democrats doing the right thing here. But atop Senate appropriations, Democrat Patty Murray of Washington calls such arguments by President Trump and other Republicans lawless. Trump doesn't get to

change the rules and rob workers just because he's worried his shutdown is backfiring. President Trump signed the 2019 measure into law after the longest government shut down in history. Claude Riesales, NPR News, the Capitol. Air traffic controllers are among those workers not getting paid, and there's a shortage in the shutdown. The FAA says today flights at Nashville International Airport are being reduced. Ground delays average two hours. Attorney General Pam Bondi testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee for hours today, pushing back on criticism from Democrats that the Justice Department has been weaponized against Trump's perceived enemies.

NPR's Elena Moore reports. Pam Bondi told the committee she's working to depoliticize the. the DOJ from the way things were done in the Biden administration. They were playing politics with law enforcement powers and will go down as a historic betrayal of public trust. This is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people's faith in our law enforcement system. While Republican lawmakers are commending her leadership, Democrats accused Bondi of using the agency to go after Trump's perceived enemies. Her testimony comes weeks after the department secured an indictment against FBI.

director James Comey. Shortly after, Trump demanded the DOJ take action against him. Elena Moore, NPR News, Washington. A new combination of drugs looks promising for people with some forms of advanced prostate cancer. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports about one in four such patients could benefit. The study looked at what happened when a drug called Nirip, which treats ovarian and breast cancer is added to a combination of two other drugs used as standard treatment for prostate cancer. Researchers at the University College of London followed 700 patients with certain genetic alterations in their prostate cancer for over two and a half years. It found adding

the third drug reduced risk of progression by 37% overall and nearly half among those with certain specific genetic markers. The combination also suggests. significantly delayed onset of symptoms. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. It's NPR. The 10th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has formed. Tropical storm jerry is expected to approach the northern Lerwood Islands later this week, and in the Pacific, Hurricane Priscilla has strengthened to a category two storm,

its outer bands spreading over Mexico's southern Baja, California Peninsula. Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Myron says keeping interest rates too high, for too long could pose a risk to the U.S. economy. NPR's Scott Horsley reports Myron spoke to a group of financial managers in New York today. President Trump has been pushing the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates more aggressively, and his latest appointee to the Fed Governing Board has been echoing that view. Stephen Myron, who joined the Fed Board in September, cast the loan vote that month for a supersized rate cut.

He also projected two more jumbo rate cuts by December, a forecast far more aggressive than anyone else on the Fed's rate-setting committee. One reason for why my, you know, sort of dot for 2025 sticks out so much from everyone else's is because I'm more sanguine on the inflation outlook than a lot of other people are. Myron says he expects housing costs to cool, and he doesn't believe Trump's tariffs will cause much of a jump in prices. Scott Horsley and PR News, Washington. The price of gold has topped $4,000 per ounce for the first time. The price surge seen as a warning sign about the health of the broader economy.

That's because investors see gold as a safe haven. They buy it when they're worried about other factors. And on the seventh day of the government shut down, stocks closed broadly lower. The Dow down 91 points, the S&P down 25 points. This is NPR News.