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

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. More than a million federal workers are set to miss a paycheck tomorrow as NPR's Sam Greenglass reports. The Senate today declined to advance competing measures to pay employees during the federal government shutdown. The Republican-backed measure would have paid essential employees working without pay, including troops and TSA agents. Aversion by Democrats called for paying all federal employees and blocking more layoffs by the Trump administration. Democratic Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland

and Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin debated the dueling bills. They're illegally firing people during the show. Again, Senator, I really didn't want to come and argue. Okay, well, why don't we sit down together? I have to dispute that. As they prepare to head home for the weekend, lawmakers say they are no closer to an agreement to reopen the government. Sam Greenglass, NPR News, Washington. The NBA says it's cooperating with authorities and the sprawling FBI investigation into organized illegal gambling.

Federal indictments unsealed today include Portland Trailblazers's head coach Chauncey Billups and the Miami Heat Guard, Terry Rozier. NPR's Becky Sullivan has more. The indictment describes seven NBA games where insiders with knowledge that wasn't yet public, gave or sold that info to gamblers, who then placed bets on the games and profited. One game involved Terry Rozier, the Miami Guard, who was then playing for the Charlotte Hornets. Two others involved Jonte Porter at center then with the Toronto Raptors. The NBA had previously investigated both players. The league cleared Rozier of wrongdoing, but last year Porter was banned for life.

Billips is named only in the indictment about rigged poker games run by organized crime groups, but an unnamed co-conspirator who matches his description allegedly told gamblers that the trailblazers plans to tank a 2023 game against the Chicago Bulls. Prosecutors say gamblers then bet more than $100,000 on the Blazers to lose, which they did. Becky Sullivan and Pierre News. A new peer-reviewed analysis out of Yale University finds that when kids get help building social and emotional skills in school, they also do better academically. NPR's Corey Turner explains. Social and emotional learning, known as SEL, includes helping students build a few really important life skills, like how to manage your big feelings, how to understand.

understand and communicate with others, and how to make meaningful relationships. This new analysis gathered up 40 previous studies of SEL and found that kids who got regular social-emotional learning in school saw improvement in both test scores and grades, in literacy, and in math. What's more, the researchers found, when kids were in an SEL program for an entire school year, their overall academic achievement improved by around eight percentile points, where, nearly a full grade. Cory Turner, NPR News. Tropical storm, Melissa, is bringing a risk of landslides and flooding to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. The storm could be a hurricane by tomorrow. This is NPR news from Washington.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to European leaders in Brussels today. NPR's Hanna Palomarenko reports he welcomed new U.S. sanctions against Russia and called for the increased pressure on the Kremlin. President Vladimir Zelensky appealed to EU leaders to support Ukraine. At the European Council gathering, he emphasized the importance of making a decision on the use of frozen Russian assets as soon as possible. Russia brought war to our land and they have to pay for this war. In any case, one of the ways to pressure on them is to use frozen assets.

Zelensky says the money from frozen Russian assets could be used on Ukrainian production. of drones, electronic warfare, and missiles, as well as European production of artillery shells, reconnaissance drones, and air defense systems. Hannah Palomarenko, NPR News, Kiev. Lithuania's president says Russian military planes violated Lithuania's airspace today. The country's foreign ministry is summoning Russian officials to protest the violation. The Baltic countries are increasingly worried by neighboring Russia's aggression on Ukraine after a series of mysterious drone incidents and airspace violations in recent weeks.

And Broadway musicians have reached a tentative labor agreement with commercial producers. The deal potentially avoids a strike that would have silenced nearly two dozen musicals. The American Federation of Musicians Local 802 had threatened to strike if they didn't have a new contract by this morning. The Union represents about 1,200 musicians for shows like Hamilton and The Lion King. I'm Rylan Barton. This is NPR News from Washington. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

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