NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-24-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: October 24, 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. Today is day 24 of the federal government shutdown.

It's the first day most federal employees will miss their full paychecks. State governors are now issuing the alarm about government food assistance, also known as SNAP. Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, says that aid will stop on November 1st. From member station WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mel Bridges reports. Roughly 800,000 people here, or about 1 in 5, received SNAP benefits. With SNAP benefits running out, more people have to rely on food banks. Mike Manning, president and CEO of the greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, says they're still trying to figure out how they're going to keep up. Once the SNAP benefits go away and people can no longer use their snap cards, it's going to be a real challenge because we're going to see people coming to us for help. And we're already very limited in the amount of food we have available. Governor Landry, a Republican, blames the lack of funding on Senate Democrats. Each party accuses the other of using the pain caused by the shutdown for political leverage. For NPR News, I'm Mel Bridges in Baton Rouge.

The shutdown also delayed the release of the latest government report on consumer prices, but the inflation report is supposed to be issued this morning. Cattle ranchers are pushing back against President Trump's proposal to import more beef from Argentina. Trump says it's an effort to lower beef prices in the U.S., but it also helps Trump's ally, the right-wing president of Argentina. Trump also spearheaded a $20 billion U.S. bailout of Argentina. From Colorado Public Radio, Caitlin Kim reports on U.S. reaction. Kyler Brown works for his family's small cattle and farm operation in southern Colorado

and says he's frustrated by the Trump administration's plan to quadruple the amount of beef it imports from Argentina. One of the few bright spots in pretty much all of agriculture was that the cattle industry was finally maybe making some profit. Brown says there are a lot of reasons beef prices are high. including the lowest herd size in decades. Despite criticism from U.S. producers, the administration isn't signaling a change. Trump said on social media, the consumer is a big factor in his thinking. For NPR News, I'm Caitlin Kim in Washington. President Trump has finished demolishing the east wing of the White House. It's now a pile of rubble. Historical and preservation groups had urged Trump to temporarily halt the White House destruction.

But appears Tamry Keith reports the pleas were ignored. In a letter, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, In the United States urged the Trump administration to pause the demolition until plans for the 90,000 square foot ballroom, far bigger than the main house, can go through a review process. The White House says the offices and other East Wing features, including the secure underground presidential emergency operations center, will be modernized and enhanced as part of the ballroom project. Tamara Keith, NPR News. On Wall Street and pre-market trading, Dow futures are higher. This is NPR. New York Attorney General, Letitia James, is scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom today in Virginia.

She's expected to plead not guilty to charges that she committed bank fraud. President Trump had demanded the prosecution of the Democrat who is a Trump critic. James says Trump has weaponized the Justice Department against his political enemies. Separately, Trump has pardoned the founder of a cryptocurrency exchange on his money laundering charges. Changben Zhao founded the company Binance. Trump campaigned on pro-crypto policies, his family is heavily invested in the crypto industry. A new peer-reviewed analysis from Yale University finds that children who get help in building social and emotional skills in school 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 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 8 percentile points were nearly a full grade. Corey Turner, NPR News. Again on Wall Street, Dow futures are higher, so are NASDAQ futures. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington. Fall in love with new music every Friday. At All Songs Considered, that's NPR's Music Recommendation podcast, Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week.

Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into New Music Friday from All Songs Considered. wherever you get your podcasts.