NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-14-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. President Trump has given his budget director, Russell, vote wide authority to cut staff and services across the federal government during the shutdown. In an online post, the Office of Management and Budget said its preparedness. pairing to batten down the hatches with more reductions in force or firings to come. During a White House event, Trump said he's targeting programs that don't align with his priorities. With closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we wanted to close up or that we never wanted to happen, and now we're closing them up, and we're not going to let them come back. The Democrats are getting killed.

The Republican-led Congress remains at a standstill. House leaders refused to come back into session, while the Senate is stuck in a loop of failed votes to reopen the government as Democrats demand health care funding. A State Department advisor and India expert has been charged with illegally possessing national defense information. She made her initial appearance in federal court in Virginia today, as NPR's Ryan Lucas reports. Ashley Tellis is an India and South Asia expert who serves as an unpaid senior advisor at the State Department, a contractor at the Pentagon, and a senior fellow at the Carnegie. Endowment for International Peace. He was charged by criminal complaint with the unlawful retention of national defense information. Court documents say federal agents found more than 1,000 pages of documents with classified markings in Tellis's Virginia home, including in three black trash bags

in a storage room. The criminal complaint also says Tellis has met at least five times since 2022 with Chinese government officials at Virginia restaurants, but it does not allege that he provided them with any classified materials. Ryan Lucas NPR News, Washington. The Trump administration has revoked the visas of six foreigners. They say made derisive comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The State Department said they should lose their visas after reviewing their social media posts.

The man accused of firebombing the residents of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in April has pleaded guilty. From member station WESA, Tom Reese reports. Governor Shapiro speaking at a news conference said, he's grateful to have closure after learning Cody Balmer will spend 25 to 50 years in prison as part of a plea deal. Charges range from attempted murder to terrorism. Shapiro and guests were asleep inside the Harrisburg home after celebrating Passover when Balmer entered and threw beer bottles filled with gasoline into a dining room. Shapiro says the threat of violence

remains with him. I think it's important that in this time of rising political violence, that none of us grow numb to it or accept this as the normal course of doing business for elected officials. The governor's residence has undergone extensive security upgrades in the aftermath. For NPR News, I'm Tom Reese in Harrisburg. Stocks closed mixed on Wall Street today as trade tensions continue to simmer between the U.S. and China. This is NPR News. A Florida judge has temporarily blocked the transfer of land and downtown Miami for Tom. Trump's future presidential library. An activist alleged that officials at a local college

violated Florida's open government law when they gave the real estate plot to the state, which then transferred it to Trump's Presidential Library Foundation. The property is valued at more than $67 million. French Prime Minister Sebastian Le Corneux says he will end a push to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. It's a move aimed at preventing his minority government from being toppled. A neo soul singer DiAngelo has died at the age of 51. He stood at the forefront of a soul music revival in the 1990s and early 2000s, as NPR's Rodney Carmichael reports. A sometimes reluctant icon, DiAngelo was best known for his hits brown sugar and untitled. How does it feel? The neo soul movement he helped to find the neo soul movement he helped to find,

included contemporaries and collaborators, ranging from Erica Badu, Maxwell and Angie Stone to Raphael Sadiq, Questlove, and Jay Dilla. The release of Voodoo in 2000 shot DiAngelo to superstardom and sex symbol status. Following a long period of reclusion from the music industry, including battles with depression, he began his own creative resurrection, culminating with the release of his final studio album, 2014's Black Messiah. DeAngelo had been battling cancer, according to a state of his state. statement from his family. Rodney Carmichael, NPR News. This is NPR News. This message comes from

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