NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-16-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

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There are no signs of any cracks in the congressional stalemate over how to end the government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is insisting that it's up to Democrats to just support the GOP resolution to continue current spending for about a month. So what the Democrats need to do is to vote for a clean, short-term, non-partisan funding resolution sitting at the desk right now in the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats are only demanding an extension of health. health care subsidies that will soon expire. Costs is the number one issue facing American people.

How they're going to pay each week? Their bills. And because of Trump's tariffs, because of what they did on electric rates, because food costs are going up so much, and health care is the tip of the spear of that cost. Schumer says Republicans have done nothing to lower health care costs and that members of the GOP-run House have not worked on Capitol Hill in weeks. Gaza is facing a host of questions about its future days into Israel's ceasefire with Hamas.

As NPR's Great Myra reports, it is not clear when Gaza will have a formal government. At this moment, no one can legitimately claim to be in charge of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. The Hamas leadership has been eviscerated by two years of war. A ceasefire plan calls for a committee of technocrats to take over, though it's not clear when this will be established, or how, much authority it will have. Hamas civilian police are back on the streets, but have been clashing with Palestinian clans, which are essentially armed gangs. Looming over all of this is the staggering challenge of rebuilding a territory where an estimated 90% of the buildings have been damaged or

destroyed. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Tel Aviv. The United States is facing a housing crisis with a need for millions of units. Some cities are turning to zoning reform to ramp up supply. As Cynthia Abrams from Member Station, WPLN reports, Nashville is the latest city to adopt that approach. Nashville is following in the footsteps of New York City, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and others. City leaders have already adjusted the zoning code in certain neighborhoods to allow for more density and are looking to loosen restrictions citywide. But some affordable housing experts, like Tennessee State University Professor Ken Chilton,

doubt this approach will work without serious. financial backing. Who's going to pay for all this? If we really want to solve this problem, the federal government's not going to give us the money. State government's not going to give us the money. We've got to be more innovative and creative. Chilton says cities need to start funneling dollars toward true affordable housing options if they want to see change. For NPR news, I'm Cynthia Abrams in Nashville. U.S. futures are flat and after-hours trading. This is NPR. Ontario's premier, Doug Ford, is calling for legal action against Stalantis over the automakers' plans to shift production of the Jeep Compass from Canada to the United States.

Ford says the move will affect workers in Brampton, Ontario, and he blames President Trump. Stalanty says it plans to invest $13 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing and create thousands of jobs to counter tariffs and help increase sales. New research suggests an experimental Alzheimer's drug might help some of the people most likely to get the disease. NPR's John Hamilton reports on a study that's published in the journal Drugs. People who inherit two copies of a gene called APOE4 face at least 10 times the average risk for Alzheimer's. But Dr. Susan Abushakra, of the biotech firm Alzion, says existing treatments often cause dangerous side effects in these people. They have an immediate need for a safe and effective approach to Alzheimer's.

So Al-Zion has been testing a drug that appears to be safer but has yet to prove its effectiveness. In a study of 325 people with two copies of the APOE4 gene, the drug failed to help people with more severe symptoms of Alzheimer's. But in people with milder symptoms, the drug helped preserve memory and thinking and dramatically reduced brain atrophy. John Hamilton, NPR News. The small Mediterranean island of Cyprus has roughly one million residents, and according to officials there, roughly the same number of feral cancer. Cats. The Islands Environment Commissioner says a sterilization program there is a good one, but that tougher measures are needed to eradicate the problem. Cyprus cats, meanwhile, have become a

major tourist attraction. This is NPR. A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story, but right now, you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes, because no one's story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the Up First podcast from NPR.