NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-09-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: October 9, 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, I'm Dale Wilman. Israel's cabinet is meeting today and is expected to give formal approval to a peace plan for Gaza. Under the plan, Hamas will release the remaining living hostages, while Israel will return more Palestinian prisoners to Gaza.

President Trump says he's happy with the results. I'm going to try and make a trip over. We're going to try and get over there. And we're working on the timing, the exact timing. We're going to go to Egypt where we'll have a signing, an additional sign, We've already had a signing representing me, but we're going to have an official signing. Not all issues have been settled, though. Uncertainty remains over just how Hamas will disarm and who will eventually govern in Gaza.

When it comes to health information, a new poll finds who and what people believe is diverging along party lines in the U.S. NPR's Yuki Noguchi has our report. President Trump warned pregnant women last month against taking acetaminopin, the ingredient in Tylenol, claiming it causes autism. Doctors say there's no causal evidence for that and say taking Tylenol is safer than a fever in pregnancy. So what's the public reaction? The poll by KFF found nearly 60% of Democrats say the president's statements were definitely false, but an almost equal percentage of Republicans believe the opposite. Ashley Kersinger directed the poll for KFF, a health policy research organization. As people are going to different sources of information to make decisions around their health care,

we're going to see partisanship playing a big role in what people decide to do. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. The execution of Texas death row inmate Robert Robertson has been put on hold. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Robertson a stay today one week before he was set to die by lethal injection. Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies reports. In a sudden turnaround, Texas's highest criminal court ruled that Robertson's execution should not move forward, but they did not grant him a new trial, which is what his attorneys have been calling for. They argue that the new evidence will show Robertson didn't murder his two-year-old daughter, Nikki,

and that she died from an illness. This is the third execution date that Robertson has faced. He was set to be executed on October 16th. I'm David Martin Davies in San Antonio. Federal auto safety regulators have opened another investigation into what Tesla calls its full self-driving technology. The government has received dozens of reports of the electric vehicles running red lights or driving on the wrong side of the road. Sometimes those incidents have led to accidents. In complaints, Tesla drivers said they got no warning about the unexpected behavior.

Stocks remain down at this hour on Wall Street, and you're listening to NPR News. Regulators in China are further restricting the export of rare earth minerals and related technologies. New regulations announced today will require foreign companies to get special approval to export items that contain even small amounts of rare minerals and metals critical for high tech. The elements are a key sticking point in tariff talks between Beijing and Washington. In Germany, Lufthansa is calling on the government to implement a drone deterrent policy as quickly as possible. As Smey Nicholson reports, suspected drone sightings, forced Munich Airways, report to ground flights twice last week.

Lufthansa CEO, Kastenschpour, says closing airports cannot be the solution to drone incursions and is advocating for the speedy installation of drone defence technology at all airports. Speaking to public broadcaster, Deutschland, funk, the airline chief stressed the aviation industry guarantees passenger safety at all times and anti-drome policy must catch up. Chancellor Friedrich Mertz's cabinet has drafted a bill to strengthen police and military powers to shoot down rogue drones. Germany is among a number of European countries that have seen drones fly over airports,

military bases and critical infrastructure. Meertz says he suspects the drones are Russian, something Moscow denies. For NPR news, I'm Esmey Nicholson in Berlin. Islands in the south of Japan were hit with heavy rains today as a typhoon moved on shore there. Officials warned of possible landslides and flooding from what has become record rainfall from that typhoon.

Hundreds of people took refuge at evacuation centers in the region, and one man died after being swept away by waves while he was fishing. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.