NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-23-2025 2PM 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, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Federal workers across the country are facing their first Friday without any paycheck at all. The very public fight over what it'll take to end the government shutdown is intensifying today in a war of words between the top rivals in the U.S. House. Speaker Mike Johnson says the impact will be felt in air travel security.

The longer the shutdown goes on and as fewer air traffic controllers show up to work, the safety the American people is thrown further into jeopardy. Johnson called Democratic leaders blocking a bill to reopen government, legislative terrorists. Minority leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, says in a climate of political violence, Johnson's remarks are reckless and irresponsible. What do these folks not understand as it relates to the language that they continue to use? We should be able to battle it out in the contest of ideas. The shutdown is now in its 23rd day. Well, the Senate did not advance. a GOP-led bill that would have mandated pay for active duty members of the military and other federal employees who have been required to work during the shutdown.

The bill, sponsored by Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, was not expected to pass, but Republicans offered the measure after efforts to reopen the government repeatedly failed on the Senate floor. The bill, which needed 60 votes to advance, failed 54 to 45. Democrats offered their own counterproposal calling for paying all federal employees, and blocking more layoffs by the Trump administration, that bill was blocked on the floor and did not receive a vote. Both Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have sharply criticized the Israeli parliament's vote on annexing the Occupied West Bank, NPR's Rob Schmitz reports from Tel Aviv.

Rubio in Israel meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. Rubio said the vote in Israel's Knesset could imperil, President Trump's peace plan between Israel and Gaza. Vice President Vance voiced his concern more bluntly on the tarmac of Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurian airport as he was about to depart Israel. I mean, look, if 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 Israeli Knesset voted on two draft laws that aimed to establish Israeli sovereignty

over the occupied West Bank. In a statement, Netanyahu's office blasted the vote as a deliberate provocation to sow discord during Vance's visit to Israel. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Tel Aviv. The NBA says it's reviewing the federal illegal gambling and betting indictments involving Chauncey Billips, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and Terry Rozier, a guard on the Miami Heat. They were among dozens of people to be indicted.

Both were expected to make a federal court appearance today at a hearing. This is NPR News. Doctors have new tools to evaluate a person's biological age compared to their chronological age, which is based on a person's date of birth. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports that President Trump's doctor says that he estimates that the 79-year-old has the cardiac age of a 65-year-old. Using the results of an electrocardiogram, doctors can use AI to estimate a person's cardiac age. Physician Douglas Vaughn of Northwestern University explains the tool has been developed by using millions of EKG results and machine learning to detect very subtle changes and patterns that track with heart disease risk. So I'm a cardiologist. I can't tell your age. I have no clue what your age is based on how we learn how to read electrocardogram,

but this tool does things that the human eyes can't do. He says the tools are still being studied for accuracy and may become part of preventive medicine to detect disease earlier in life. Allison Aubrey, NPR News. Mortgage rates are coming down and more people are buying homes. The National Association of Realtors is posting an increase in sales of previously owned homes in September. It says 1.5% increase month over month is reflected and it says year over year sales have increased 4.1% among existing homes. In a website NAR's chief economist Lauren Yun said sales are still below pre-pandemic levels, but people are in healthier financial positions. It's NPR.