NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-13-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

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Rhinoplasti, the humble nose job. It's one of the most common facial plastic surgeries performed today. But it's been around for over 2,000 years. If you're wondering, why on earth would doctors thousands of years ago need to reconstruct noses? That's a great question. And on NPR Shortwave podcast, we dive into that answer. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiavone.

President Trump has now arrived in Egypt where President Abdel Fata al-Sisi will host talks about the next stage in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. The day's historic events opened early with the release of all living Israeli hostages held by Hamas, 20 men in all. With those hostages released, Trump addressed the Knesset, Israel's parliament, with a note of optimism. And as the dust settles, the smoke fades, the debris is removed, and the ashes, clean from the air, the day that breaks on a region transformed, and a beautiful and much brighter future appears suddenly within your reach. This is now a very exciting time for Israel and for the entire Middle East. An invitation to the day's talks in Egypt was extended to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but his office said he was turning down the invitation due to time constraints

ahead of a Jewish religious holiday this evening. As part of the exchange in ceasefire deal, Israel is releasing more than 1,700 Palestinians taken from Gaza who'd been imprisoned during the war. NPR's Ayabitrawe reports. Dr. Hussam Abel Safaya, Director of the Kamal-Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, is on the list of detainees set to be released back to Gaza, according to a person briefed by Israeli officials

who spoke anonymously in order to discuss the matter. Dr. Abel Safaya was detained 10 months ago after weeks of sustained Israeli attacks on his hospital that killed patients and staff and wounded him. He became a prominent figure in the war for refusing to leave his patients or the hospital grounds, even after his son was killed in an Israeli drone strike and buried in the hospital's courtyard. Israel had been holding him without charge after raiding the hospital, which is among several now destroyed. The World Health Organization and prominent rights groups had called for his release and that of several hundred other Palestinian medics. A.L. Betrawi, NPR News, Dubai.

Thousands of federal workers received layoff notices Friday as the government shutdown continues into day 13. At least some of those intended firings have already been walked back. And PR Stephen Fowler has more. About 4,000 people from at least seven agencies received these reduction in force notices Friday. That includes places like the IRS, the Education Department, and the Department of Housing an urban development. A quarter of those layoffs were with the Department of Health and Human Services, with hundreds of firing slated for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But on Saturday, some CDC employees started learning their layoff notices were reversed.

That includes some of the so-called disease detectives who work on investigating outbreaks. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. Wall Street, the Dow is up 417, the NASDAQ up 324, the S&P 500, up 70. This is NPR News in Washington. President Trump is talking about sending Tomahawk long-range missiles to Ukraine. Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said that if Moscow doesn't settle its war in Ukraine soon, he would not rule out sending what he called an incredible and offensive long-range weapon. The comments to reporters Sunday came after an earlier phone call with Ukraine's president,

Volodymyr Zelensky. A new study finds that 9 and 10, 10-year-olds who spent increasing amounts of time on social media scored lower on reading and memory tests compared to kids who don't. And PR's redo Chattery reports. Researchers used data from a study following more than 6,000 kids through adolescents. By the time the kids were 13, 37% used social media for an hour a day. About 6% used social media more than three hours a day. Even the low-level social media users scored one or two points lower in learning and and memory tests than kids who used little or no social media over the years.

And the high-level social media users scored four to five points less. Study author Dr. Jason Nagata is a pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco. These differences can also build over time. So even one to two points in this two-year period can snowball over a decade. That can really be a big difference in this critical learning period. Reto Chatterjee and PR News. China is reporting its exports to the United States fell 27% in September compared to the year before. China's exports to the U.S. have fallen for six straight months.

I'm Luis Giovanni, NPR News, Washington. 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 U.S. 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.