NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-26-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Luis Skiyvone. Amid the federal government shut down more flight delays and cancellations are expected at U.S. airports this week, the Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport today are being held due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted travelers would see more flights delayed and canceled in the coming days. Lou Garrett has the latest. More and more air traffic controllers are calling out sick and not showing up for work, says Duffy. The reason they aren't getting paid because of the government shutdown, the secretary tells Fox News.

No paycheck is coming on Tuesday, and so I've been out talking to our air traffic controllers, and you can see the stress. Duffy says he will stop flights if air traffic staffing levels get too low. What I see coming forward as we get to Monday, tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday that you're going to see more staffing shortages and towers. which means you're going to see more delays, more cancellations. The shutdown is the second longest in U.S. history. The longest was 35 days in 2019. It ended on the same day air traffic staffing issues, limited flights at major East Coast airports.

Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Also today, the Agriculture Department is announcing that federal food aid will not go out on the first day of November unless there's a resolution of the federal spending impasse. Russia says it has successfully carried out a test, of a nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile from Moscow. NPR's Charles Mains reports. In a video released by the Kremlin, Russian president, Vladimir Putin,

announced the successful test of the Budavestnik cruise missile and ordered its integration into Russia's defenses. Nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable, Bhruvestnik, is one of a crop of next-generation Russian weapons that Moscow claims are invincible to all existing air defenses. In the video, Russia's top general, Vladimir Garasimov, tells Putin the missile maneuvered for nuclear. nearly 15 hours during its test launch. The exercise comes, as Putin has vowed, Russia will not

bend to Western pressure over Ukraine. It also comes just months before the last remaining nuclear arms reduction treaty with the U.S. is set to expire. Transmaine's NPR News, Moscow. The National Hurricane Center reports Hurricane Melissa is packing maximum sustained winds of more than 130 miles an hour, about 100 miles away from Jamaica. The hurricane is expected to make landfall in Jamaica Monday night or Tuesday morning. Catastrophic flash flooding and landslides are possible. Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica's Minister of Local Government and Community Development, is urging maximum caution.

There is nothing more we can do as a government, but to beg and beseech persons to heed the warning. Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic are also in the storm's path. This is NPR News. A partial trade deal has been roughed out between the U.S. and China as President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepared to meet in South Korea Thursday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is saying today that a deal is taking shape on rare earth, metals, and tariffs. Two of the four men suspected of breaking into the Louvre Museum and stealing a hundred million dollars worth of royal jewels have been caught and are being questioned. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports they were apprehended thanks to video surveillance footage and their DNA.

French media are reporting that the men were under surveillance for several days and are known to police. The Paris prosecutor confirmed one of the men was picked up at Charles de Gaul airport about to take a flight to Algeria. French media are also reporting that more than 150 samples of the men's fingerprints and DNA were discovered on items left behind at the scene of the crime, such as a circular saw, a reflective vest, a motorcycle helmet, a jerry can, gloves, a walkie-talkie, and Empress Eugenie's Diamond and Emerald Crown that was dropped. By law, the police can hold them in 96 hours before they must be charged. The other two accomplices and the jewels are still missing. Eleanor Beardsley and Pierre News, Paris.

Baseball's World Series is now tied at one game apiece after the Los Angeles Dargers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays last night. The score was 5 to 1 as the teams met in. Toronto, Dodger starter Yoshiyamamoto pitched the first World Series complete game since 2015. They next play in Los Angeles, game three tomorrow. I'm Luis Skivone and PR News, Washington.