NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-16-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: October 16, 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 in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. There are no signs of cracks in the congressional stalemate over how to end the government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune insists that it is 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 the Democrats are only demanding an extension of 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 increase.

Schumer says that 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. Venezuela's president is urging Americans to reject any aggression against his nation. As NPR's Ada Peralta reports, the appeal comes after President Trump said he was considering ground strikes in Venezuela. Speaking to reporters, President Trump said the U.S. controls the sea and they are now looking to strike land. The U.S. has deployed a destroyer and a cruiser as well as some 10,000 U.S. troops to the Caribbean, saying they want to stop drugs from flowing north. In a speech in Caracas, Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro said the U.S. was vilifying Venezuela in an attempt to topple his government. He called on the American public to reject aggression, saying the region didn't need a return of a swash-buckling American empire.

No to the Caribbean, no to war in the Caribbean and in South America, say yes to peace, Maduro said. Aida Pralta, in Pierre News, Mexico City. A federal grand jury has indicted the suspect accused of igniting the deadly Palisades fire in January. Steve Futterman has details from Los Angeles. The indictment accuses Jonathan Rinderneck of three arson-related charges. Destruction of property by means of fire, arson involving property used in interstate commerce, and timber set a fire. Prosecutors say the 29-year-old defendant, who was working as an Uber driver, intentionally set a different. fire just past midnight on January 1st. Fire crews put out the flames, but the fire continued

to smolder underground. A week later, it came to life again. The Palisades fire destroyed 6,800 structures and killed 12 people. For NPR news, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. U.S. futures are flat, and after hours trading on Wall Street on Asia-Pacific market shares are mixed. This is NPR. Pentagon reporters from major news outlets turned in their press credentials Wednesday. Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth gave journalists until Tuesday to sign a pledge to cover only issues sanctioned by his team. Those who refused were told they would lose access to the Pentagon. President Trump says he's authorized CIA ground operations in Venezuela.

U.S. forces have carried out at least five strikes on suspected drug boats off the South American nation, killing 27 people. The toxic metal lead was affecting human ancestors as far back as two million years ago. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyish reports, there's a new study that examined dozens of preserved teeth. The fossil teeth show that Neanderthals and other ancient relatives got exposed to a lot of lead from the environment. And Allison Moultry of the University of California, San Diego, thinks this could have affected human evolution. He studies brain development. genes, including one gene that's slightly different in Homo sapiens compared to Neanderthals. The question was why we, modern humans, acquired that mutation. There must be a strong

selective pressure. In the journal Science advances, he and some colleagues say that pressure could have come from lead. Lab tests show that brain cells with the human version of the gene had some protection against lead, while brain cells with the Neanderthal version didn't. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. Again, U.S. futures are flat and after-hours trading. On Asia-Pacific market, shares are mixed up 1% in Tokyo. This is NPR.