NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-09-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. A grand jury has indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud. It's the latest case brought by federal prosecutors after Trump called on the Department of Justice to target his perceived political enemies. Staffing shortages are leading to more flight delays at airports across the U.S. today as the federal government shutdown continues. The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing problems at airports in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. and at its air traffic control centers in Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth. Air traffic controllers are among those required to work during the shutdown without pay. Some have called out sick. On Fox Business, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy suggested workers who call in sick could be fired. If we have a continual small subset of controllers that don't show up to work and they're the problem, children, listen, we need more controllers, but we need the best and the brightest, the dedicated controllers. and if we have some on our staff that aren't dedicated like we need, we're going to let them go.

Labor unions warn the situation is likely to get worse. President Trump says he's planning to leave for the Middle East sometime on Sunday and hopes to be there in time for the return of hostages held by Hamas back to Israel. NPR's Deepa Shiverum reports the first steps of a peace plan are moving forward. During a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump thanked his own staff and international partners like Indonesia, Turkey, and Qatar for helping bring about the ceasefire deal. He also said wealthy Arab nations would step up to help with the rebuilding of Gaza. You can't live right now in Gaza. You know, the place is a horrible situation.

Nobody's ever seen anything like it. So, yeah, we're going to create better conditions for people. It's unclear where Palestinians will be able to live during the reconstruction process. But the president later said that nobody would be forced to leave Gaza. He has previously suggested redeveloping the Gaza Strip into the, quote, Riviera of the Middle East. Deepa Chivaram, NPR News, the White House. A federal appeals court is expressing skepticism about an order blocking President Trump from deploying the Oregon National Guard to Portland. As Oregon Public Broadcasting's Conrad Wilson reports, the deployment was blocked last weekend.

The Justice Department argues the president has sweeping authority to federalize and deploy the guard over Oregon Governor Tina Kotech's objections. Trump wants 200 federalized National Guard members to help protect the U.S. immigration facility in Portland. Federal law allows the president to deploy the National Guard if there's an invasion, a rebellion, or if the president cannot enforce federal laws with regular forces. But the limitations of that authority were fiercely debated during this hearing. Attorneys with the state of Oregon and city of Portland acknowledged occasional violence at some ice-building protests, but argued that sending in the military is an overreach of executive

power. For NPR News, I'm Conrad Wilson in Portland. Stocks closed down today. This is NPR. PR News from Washington. Pope Leo is urging Chicago union leaders to advocate for immigrants and welcome minorities into their ranks during a meeting in Rome. He weighed in as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration in the Pope's hometown. The administration says the crackdown is for public safety and national security. The U.S. purchased $20 billion worth of Argentina's currency, the peso, in a currency swap with the South American nations, with the South American nation's central bank today.

The move comes as Argentina's economy continues to spiral into turmoil. U.S. farmers and democratic lawmakers are criticizing the move as a bailout as Argentina has benefited from sales of soybeans to China amid President Trump's tariff war. The administration says it's not a bailout. Argentina's president, Javier Malé, is a personal friend of Trump's and is facing a critical midterm election next month. The Nobel Committee in Stockholm has announced the winner of this year's Literature Prize, as NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.

Hungarian author Laslo Krasnohorkai has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The 71-year-old is known for the novels The Melancholy of Resistance and War and War. The Nobel Committee says it's honoring Krasnohrkai for his compelling and visionary body of work that in the midst of apocalyptic terror reaffirms the power of art. His first novel, published in 1985, was about a pair of swindlers and a nearly abandoned collective farm. The book was later made into a seven-hour movie. Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature include Doris Lessing, Alice Monroe, Bob Dylan, and Derek Walcott. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

I'm Rylan Barton. This is NPR News from Washington.