NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-17-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. President Trump says he's commuted the sentence of former congressman George Santos. He's serving more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges. The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people, including his own family members, to make donations to his campaign. Admiral Alvin Horsley is leaving U.S. Southern Command because of concerns about deadly U.S. strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean. That's according to a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly, as NPR's Quill Lawrence reports. Secretary of Defense Pete Higseh announced that Admiral Alvin Halsey would retire after 37 years in the military. But it's almost unheard of for an officer not to finish the full three years of a command like this, especially in the middle of a military buildup.

Thousands of U.S. troops have moved into position off the Venezuelan coast, and the U.S. has destroyed several vessels the White House claims were carrying narcotics. Critics say those strikes amount to execution without trial. A U.S. official told NPR that Halsey recently met with Hegsseth at the Pentagon to express his concerns about these strikes, and that his resignation was announced by Hegseth shortly after. Quill Lawrence NPR News. President Trump appears to be walking back plans to sell long-range tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that would allow it to strike deep into Russia. Trump mentioned the possibility of providing the powerful weapon to Ukraine earlier this week, but has been more reticent since a phone call with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as NPR's Deepa Shivaram explains. Trump says it could be a point of leverage to help end the war.

He said that yesterday on the phone he asked Putin, would you mind if I gave a couple thousand tomahawks to your opposition? And he said, Putin did not like that idea. Zelensky, though, has been asking for these weapons. And he said, suggested that if the U.S. were to give Ukraine these tomahawk missiles, then Ukraine could provide more drones to the U.S. And Trump seemed to be maybe a little bit open to that idea, but he said he'd rather the war be over entirely. NPR's Deepa Shivram reporting, the Trump administration says most of the roughly 4,000 layoffs that have been announced during the shutdown aren't blocked by a court order. That's according to documents filed Friday in a case brought by unions representing

thousands of federal employees, and PRR's Jacqueline Diaz, has more. A federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order earlier this week, pausing the layoffs of thousands of federal workers. And in a court filing, the Trump administration said it's following the judge's order. But the administration also made clear that it believes most of the employees who received layoff notices can still be removed. They say that's because the court ordered pause only applies to programs or offices where the union plaintiffs have members.

Jacqueline Diaz, NPR News. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended half a percent higher today. This is NPR News. Prince Andrew says he's giving up his royal title of the Duke of York after his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the headlines. It comes as excerpts have been published of a posthumous memoir from Virginia Gifree, she alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex with Andrew when she was 17 years old. Current and former staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency demonstrated against cuts during a FEMA solidarity rally today.

It's a potentially risky act because some of the same staffers were placed on leave after signing a public dissent letter this year. President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of eliminating FEMA, though his statements have shifted. Garden ants have a natural nemesis, a lethal fungus, but the insects have a few strategies to avoid infecting each other, and as Ari Daniel reports, those strategies may hold lessons for people. Several years back, University of Bristol biologist Natalie Strohmet described how these ants respond socially to the fungus. Infected workers quickly self-isolated,

and some of the healthy ants increased their distance. This was a form of proactive social distancing, if you wish. In new research, she and her colleagues, including Indiana University biologist Luke Lecky, found that when faced with an outbreak, the ants also modify how they build their nests. They were kind of more compartmentalized and they were less interconnected. The researchers believe that architectural principles from the ants might one day help inform the design of human enclosures. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. And I'm Rylan Barton. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

Thank you.