NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-08-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: October 8, 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 Shay Stevens. Air travelers are facing delays as the government shutdown drags on. As NPR's Giles Snyder report, staffing shortages at airport control towers are now increasing. The list of airports reporting staffing shortages is widening the FAA adding Houston and Dallas

to the list that includes Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, as well as control centers in Atlanta and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In Nashville, the FAA implemented a ground stop Tuesday evening due to insufficient staff. According to the flight tracking website, Flight Aware, there were more than 3,000 delays on Tuesday. NPR's Giles Snyder. About 47 million Americans are food insecure as federal funding cuts roll out. More people are turning to pantries for help, but Elaine Appleton Grant reports that funding is not their only challenge. At Neighbors' cupboard, a food pantry in rural Winterport, Maine, Phyllis Allen, has watched USDA food supplies declining just as demand is increasing. Alan's 78 years old. She's been helping to run the pantry for 17 years.

I'm not the oldest. Who's the oldest? One is 88. The other one I think is 89. The volunteers who keep America's food insecure families fed are aging out. Anti-hunger advocates are expecting unprecedented demand this winter, but the labor force might not be up to the task. Volunteerism has been declining for the last 20 years. Younger volunteers are hard to find. For NPR news, I'm Elaine Appleton Grant in Belfast, Maine. The Associated Press is projecting winners for Tennessee's special congressional primary. Mariana Bacchanal from member station WPLN reports on the candidates who are faced off in a special election to replace Congress and Mark Green. Green retired from Congress just six months into his term. President Donald

Trump's pick to replace him, Matt Van Epps, has sailed through a crowded Republican primary. Trump endorsed the former state commissioner just days before the election, and out-of-state groups poured money into defeating his anti-school voucher opponent, state representative Jody Barrett. Van Epps will face Democratic state lawmaker Afton Bain in the general. Since redistricting in 2022 incorporated parts of Nashville into the mostly rural district, Democrats are hopeful that the reliably Republican seat can be flipped blue. For NPR news, I'm Mariana Baca Yao in Nashville. General Pem Bondi clashed with Senate Democrats Tuesday during a hearing on the Justice Department's policies. Bondi deflected questions about whether DOJ is acting as a top law enforcement agency for the American people or for the Trump administration.

She refused to discuss details of a meeting of Republicans the night before former FBI Director James Comey was indicted or the so-called files on late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. You're listening to NPR. Toyota's is recalling almost 400,000 vehicles due to a possible defect in the rearview mirror. The recall affects 2002 through 2025 model tundras and tundra hybrids, as well as 2023 through 2025 sequoias, and the recall affects a rearview camera. French President Emmanuel Macron has given his outgoing prime minister 48 hours to find a solution to the country's political crisis. As NPR's Eleanor Beersley reports, that crisis was sparked by the resignation of France's third premier this year. Sebastian Le Corneux resigned Monday before the far right and left could follow through with a no-confidence vote that brought down the two previous prime ministers.

Both factions are demanding Macron appoint a premier from their party or dissolve Parliament and call new legislative elections. Macron is increasingly isolated a year and a half after he dissolved Parliament and lost his majority. Today, the French parliament is fractured and no party has a majority, though the biggest voting blocks are on the far right and left. There are also calls for the increasingly unpopular Macron to resign a year and a half before his term ends and hold early presidential elections. Eleanor Beardsley in Perno, Paris. Curiosity got the best of a calico cat named Francine last month. The feline whose home is a low store in Virginia hitched a ride on a delivery truck as workers unloaded a shipment. Our surveillance video showed Francine Runny inside the truck.

Two Lowe's employees tracked down the vehicle to Gareesburg, North Carolina, and drove there to pick up the cat and bring her back to Lowe's. This is NPR News.