NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-27-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corva Coleman, the federal government shutdown is nearly one month old. Today, the largest union of federal employees is calling for immediate action. The American Federation of Government Employees is demanding that Congress pass a clean stopgap funding resolution and put federal government employees back to work. This has been the position of Congressional Republicans. Democrats say they want Republicans to first take back their enormous cuts to federal health care spending as health care premiums are set to soar. And P.R. Sam Greenglass says lawmakers also disagree over whether to pay federal workers during the shutdown. Republicans want a measure to pay only

employees working without pay like TSA agents. Democrats want to get a paycheck to all federal employees and also block the White House from doing more layoffs. That last part is going to be a non-starter for a lot of Republicans, though Republican Senator Ron Johnson did say he's open to something more inclusive. NPR's Sam Greenglass reporting. President Trump has arrived in Japan as he continues his trip to Asia. He's focusing heavily on trade issues. As Adam Hancock reports from Kuala Lumpur, Trump began his trip with a visit to Malaysia. Trump presided over the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia following their latest deadly border dispute in July. Trump also signed a flurry of trade agreements, including deals involving

and critical minerals with Thailand and Malaysia. US-China trade talks were held on the sidelines of the summit with Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying a framework of a deal has been worked out in preparation for Trump's meeting with President Xi later this week. During his stop in Japan, the US president is scheduled to meet the country's new leader to discuss trade and defence spending. For NPR news, I'm Adam Hancock in Kuala Lumpur. Virginia Democrats are calling state lawmakers back for a meeting today at the Virginia

state capital. The Democrats could launch a process to become the latest state to redraw congressional districts. From member stationed VPM, Jad Khalil reports, the legislature would first have to rapidly amend Virginia's constitution. Virginia currently redistricts using a bipartisan commission. If Virginians want to return that power to the legislature, it would take a constitutional amendment. And legislators would have to approve the text of any amendment twice, once before an election and once after. This session could be the first approval with the second as early as January. Virginia is in the midst of an election and picking a governor next week. That also means elected officials are off the campaign trail in the last days of voting. One big question is

how that and the effort at large could affect voters' choices in the ongoing election. Virginia currently has six Democrats and five Republicans in Congress. For NPR News, I'm Jad Khalil in Richmond. On Wall Street, in pre-market trading, stock futures are higher. Dow futures are by more than 240 points. You're listening to NPR. Across the United States, more school districts are turning to artificial intelligence to help detect guns on school grounds.

NPR's Amy held reports it's not always successful. So far this year, more than 100 gunfire incidents have happened on school grounds, according to every town for gun safety. Metal detectors take time and staffing. Enter AI. It can quickly scan security camera footage and alert schools to hazards like a weapon.

Or not. In Baltimore County, Maryland, last week, one high schooler found himself in handcuffs over Doritos. He said police explained the way he held the bag had flagged it as a firearm. Miriam Rogers is superintendent. It's truly unfortunate. We never want any student to be in a situation that is frightening.

The consortium for school networking finds a majority of school districts now use AI in some capacity with threat detection, the top use. But many are still working through how to best leverage the technology. Amy Held and PR News. Weather forecasters say Hurricane Melissa is now a dangerous Category 5 hurricane with top sustained winds of 160 miles per hour. That is the top of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. Melissa is aiming directly at Jamaica. It could

pour up to 40 inches of rain there. Catastrophic flash flooding is expected. Election officials in the West African nation of Cameroon have declared incumbent president, Paul Bia has won re-election. He is the world's oldest head of government. This would be Bia's eighth term in office. There have been protests in Cameroon as the opposition candidate has urged supporters to demonstrate in the streets. This is NPR.