NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-18-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: October 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Demonstrations are taking place in cities across the nation today to protest the Trump administration. That includes Salt Lake City, Utah, where a protest in June ended in a deadly shooting. Martha Harris of Member Station, KUER reports on how local organizers are approaching today's no-kings marches and rallies. At the city's June march, a safety volunteer saw a man carrying a rifle and shot into the crime. out, killing a bystander. This weekend's protest is being put on by a different organization. Jamie Carter is with the host group Salt Lake Indivisible.

As the event got closer and closer, the feelings that were being brought up were to be still very raw. And that is one of the reasons we decided to cancel the march. They were also concerned about safety. Instead of a march, they're hosting a rally that will be followed by a dance party. They're telling everyone, including volunteers, to leave weapons at home. For NPR news, I'm Martha Harris in Salt Lake City. No King's demonstrations are also taking place in other major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., New York, and Los Angeles. Organizers estimated that more than 5 million people turned out for protests

in June and say today's event could be even bigger. Critics, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have slammed the demonstrations as anti-American. President Trump has freed former New York Congressman George Santos from prison. NPR's Brian Mann reports the Republican was sentenced in April to serve seven years behind bars. When Santos was sentenced for his crimes in April, officials in Trump's Justice Department called it a victory, saying in a statement the former lawmaker was finally being held accountable for the mountain of lies, theft, and fraud he perpetrated. DOJ officials also pointed to Santos's many victims, including Republican campaign donors, cheated by his schemes. They described Santos's seven-year prison sentence as a signal

public corruption wouldn't be tolerated. But in a post on social media, Trump described Santos as a political ally, a man with, quote, the courage, conviction, and intelligence to always vote Republican. He said Santos had been horribly mistreated and set him free. This comes as Trump has directed the DOJ to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals he views as political enemies. Brian Mann, NPR News, New York. As Israel marked one week since the ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas released the remains of a hostage late last night. NPR's, Rob Schmitz, reports from Tel Aviv. The body Hamas returned Friday night was identified as Eliyahu Margulit, who was killed on the day of the October 7th attack two years ago in the border kibbutz of Niroz. There are now 18 deceased

hostages left in Gaza. Israeli officials say they believe Hamas has the ability to release additional bodies of hostages from Gaza, despite the group saying that it would need special digging equipment in order to recover the rest of the deceased hostages. NPR's Rob Schmidt's reporting. This is NPR News. South Korea says dozens of its citizens flown home today from Cambodia will face criminal charges. They were detained in a sweep on illegal online scam operations. Authorities say many were working in call centers targeting people across Asia.

The toxic metal lead was affecting human ancestors as far back as two million years ago. NPR's Nell Greenfield Boys reports on 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 Mautry 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. The Los Angeles Dodgers have advanced to major. League Baseball's World Series. The Dodgers swept the National League Championship Series last night, beating the Milwaukee Brewers 5 to 1. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.