NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-23-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: October 23, 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 Kourva Coleman.

Vice President Vance has concluded his visit to Israel. in an effort to support the Gaza ceasefire. During his trip, Israeli lawmakers voted to annexed the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to Palestinians. Vance criticized the Israeli vote. It was a political stunt. It was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to Israel. today. European Union leaders are in Brussels today to discuss Ukraine. They're heartened by President

Trump's decision to sanction two Russian oil companies. NPR's Eleanor Beersley reports, Europe has also been sanctioning Moscow. The Trump administration sanctioned two major Russian oil companies just as the EU approved its 19th round of sanctions on Russia. Manfred Weber is head of the largest party in the European Parliament. He had a message for the continent's right-wing politicians who still think greater efforts should be made to negotiate with the Russian president. Even Trump tried it now to please and to invite Putin to come to the negotiation table. Putin has only one interest and that is destroying our European way of life. At the summit, EU leaders are discussing using Russia's immobilized assets in Belgium as collateral

for issuing a $162 billion loan to Ukraine. Eleanor Beardsley and Pernews, Paris. The Justice Department and the FBI will hold a press conference this hour. Officials say they'll announce several arrests related to illegal sports betting and poker games. Media outlets, including ESPN, report that the head coach for the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, Chauncey Billups, and Miami Heat Guard Terry Rozier, have been arrested as part of federal investigations. The NBA had previously investigated Rozier over betting allegations, but determined no rules were broken. The federal debt now tops $38 trillion for the first time ever. NPR Scott Horsley reports the government has added a trillion dollars in new debt in just the last two months.

Even with big swaths of the federal government temporarily idled by the shutdown, spending continues to outpace tax revenues, leaving the government to rely on borrowing to make up the difference. The cost of the growing debt is compounded by today's interest rates, which are higher than they were a few years ago, Last month alone, the government had to spend $91 billion just to cover interest payments on the death. That outpaced every other line item in the federal budget except for Social Security. Fiscal watchdog Michael Peterson warns interest costs are likely to crowd out other important investments, acting like a drag on the broader U.S. economy. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 30 points.

This is NPR. The U.S. Coast Guard says it will host federal immigration. immigration agents at a Coast Guard base in the San Francisco Bay Area. President Trump has said he wants to target the city to reduce crime. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie opposes the action. He says he has signed an emergency directive to prepare the city for possible federal troop deployment. Automaker Tesla says it lost 37% of its net income in the third quarter of this year. That's even though the automaker delivered nearly half a million cars this quarter. That's the best auto sales quarter so far this year. But Tesla has now reported a drop in profits for the third quarter in a row. One of the country's leading dancers has taken her final bow with the American Ballet Theater. As NPR's Netta Ullaby reports, Misty Copeland performed for the last time last evening in New York with a company where she was the first black principal dancer.

Misty Copeland performed excerpts from some of her most iconic roles. like the doomed princess of the ballet Swan Lake. This music comes from a clip on Copeland's Instagram, from when she performed the role in 2017. That was just two years after Copeland made history for breaking racial barriers at one of the world's top ballet companies. Copeland is 43, and this final performance with ABT marked the first time she had danced professionally in five years.

But she said she's not retiring. The show, she said, was more of what, Ballet dancers call a revealance. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.