NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-23-2025 3PM 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. Wide-ranging illegal gambling and sports betting investigations linked to major organized crime families is resulting in charges against dozens of people, including some prominent figures in the NBA. The Justice Department's announced Portland Trailblazers head coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups was arrested in Oregon. Miami Heat player Terry Rozier was arrested in Florida.

They were both expected to appear in federal court today. As FBI Director Cash Patel describes it, the extent of wire fraud and money-longed. The fraud is mind-boggling. It's not hundreds of dollars. It's not thousands of dollars. It's not tens of thousands of dollars. It's not even millions of dollars. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation. Federal authorities say the NBA has been cooperating with the investigations. President Trump has pardoned Chang Ping Zhao, the founder of Cryptocurrency Exchange Binan, who'd been in prison for money laundering. NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben reports a White House is casting the pardon as another shot at former President Joe Biden's actions.

Chang Peng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 and also stepped down as the CEO of Binance. Zhao, also known as CZ, was later sentenced to four months in prison. The prosecution was carried out under the Biden administration, which aggressively targeted the crypto industry and sought to establish guardrails to prevent the flow of crypto for criminal purposes. The Trump White House seeks to contrast Trump with Biden. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says Zhao was prosecuted in the previous administration's, quote, War on Cryptocurrency.

In 2024, Trump ran on pro-crypto policies and his family runs multiple crypto-related businesses, including crypto platform World Liberty Financial. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News, the White House. Trump says he's backing off a plan surge of federal agents into San Francisco Saturday after speaking to the mayor. This according to his post on Trump. truth social. Russia is criticizing the president's decision to impose sanctions on the country's two largest employers. For Moscow, NPR's Charles Mainz reports. The new sanctions take aim at Rosneft and Luke oil, two oil majors that make up nearly half of all Russian oil exports.

Yet reacting to the move, foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakhara, insisted Russia's economy developed a strong immunity to years of Western sanctions and called the policy counterproductive to Trump's efforts to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Others were less diplomatic, former president, Dmitri Medvedev, who now sits on Russia's Security Council, said the move amounted to an active war against Russia. Trump announced the sanctions earlier this week, linking the move to Russian president, Vladimir Putin's failure to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine in good faith. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is up nearly 200 points. It's NPR News.

Russian former chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik is accusing the International Chess Federation of harassing him for investigating his unsubstantiated cheating allegations against his American fellow chess grandmaster Daniel Naradzky. Naradzky's death was announced Monday the cause has not been made public. He was 29 years old. Other major chess players have raised concerns about Kramnik's behavior. targeting multiple rivals and the threat posed to their livelihood. Last week, Taylor Swift set sales records with her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. This week, she still rules and charts.

Here's NPR Stephen Thompson. The Life of a Showgirl sold more than 3.4 million copies in its first week. And she landed all of the top 12 songs on last week's singles chart, led by the fate of Aphelia at number one. This week, the album's song. numbers are more modest by comparison. Still, it's sold another 101,000 copies while she relinquishes only two spots in the top 10 to pre-existing hits, led by Huntrix's Golden at number three. As sales slow down, the life of a showgirl will become more reliant on streaming as it looks to duplicate the long chart runs of other Taylor Swift records. But at least for this week,

it would easily top the chart based on streaming alone. Stephen Thompson, NPR News. The NASDAQ has climbed 230 points. The Dow is up 188. It's NPR News. On this week's Wild Card podcast, Gray's Anatomy and Scandal creator, Shonda Rimes, says she doesn't need people to like her shows. When you believe the good things people say about you,

you also then are obligated to believe the bad things. Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the end. PR app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.