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

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. The Category 5 Hurricane Melissa is drawing closer to Jamaica. The storm is packing top winds of 175 miles per hour and could be, be the strongest hurricane to hit the island since recordkeeping began in 1851. Here's MPR's Rebecca Hersher. Hurricanes happen every year in the Caribbean. Jamaica has obviously been hit by lots of storms over the years. This is just the first time a storm of this magnitude has hit the island

head on since modern records began. But storms like this one are getting more likely. You know, climate change makes large, powerful storms more common. It also makes very rainy storms more likely. So if you live in the Caribbean, you know, Hurricane Central, you are more and more likely over the years to find yourself staring down a really scary hurricane like Melissa at some point in your life. Forecasters are warning of catastrophic flooding, landslides, and widespread damage. More than 100 lawyers who held leadership roles at the Justice Department are condemning the case against former FBI director Jim Comey. In Pierce Kerry Johnson reports that the attorneys say they're coming together in bipartisan fashion because they're worried about the rule of

law. The unusual group includes former attorneys general and their top deputies. They're speaking with one voice to warn about the prosecution of former FBI director Jim Comey. Their new friend of the court brief says that case appears to be motivated by President Trump's animosity and a dangerous exercise of the power to prosecute. Comies pleaded not guilty to charges of misleading Congress. He's trying to get the case thrown out by arguing he's the target of a vindictive or selective prosecution. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. And Arizona state judge is allowing a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee to go forward with its challenge to the voting rights of some U.S. citizens who cast ballots from outside the country. NPR's Hansi Lo Wong reports that the lawsuit is among the latest Republican efforts to restrict voting by overseas U.S. citizens.

Arizona is one of 37 states that allow voting by U.S. citizens who are born abroad and have never lived in the United States, and sometimes because their U.S. citizen parents or legal guardians served abroad in the U.S. military. Laws in certain states allow overseas non-resident voters to register if a relative last lived there before leaving the country. The Republican National Committee, however, is now arguing in court that Arizona's 20-year-old state law violates the state's constitution and, quote, inflicts a competitive injury on the party. by adding to voter rolls U.S. citizens who are disproportionately non-Republican. Republican efforts to restrict voting by U.S. citizens living abroad began last year with last-minute lawsuits challenging ballots and swing states. The push comes as data shows this voting population is becoming less military and more civilian. Ansila Wong, NPR News.

And from Washington, this is NPR News. Indiana's Republican governor has called on the state legislature to meet next week to redraw the state's congressional districts, Governor Mike Braun made the call for a special session today, making Indiana the latest state to join the mid-decade redistricting war instigated by President Trump. In Virginia, state lawmakers began meeting today in a Democratic bid to counter Republican redistricting. Worldwide families are having far fewer children and a growing number of economists say the trend is reshaping parts of the global economy. Here's NPR's Brian Mann reporting. Most experts agree the shift to fewer kids as being driven by good things.

including education and economic gains for women and plummeting teen pregnancy rates. But there are also challenges. Economists say families in all the countries that drive global GDP from China to Germany to the U.S. are now having too few children to maintain a stable population and robust workforce. Lant Pritchett is at the London School of Economics. It's hard to maintain the dynamism of the economy. You can't get people to do all kinds of work from electricians to plumbers to everything else. Many experts say the trend toward fewer children in the U.S. and around the world will continue,

a pattern that's already straining pension and health care systems in some countries as populations age and shrink. Brian Mann, NPR News. On Wall Street, socks climbed more records today. The S&P 500, the Dow of the NASDAQ, each set all-time highs ahead of Thursday's meeting between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two are expected to discuss a framework of a deal that could ease trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. This is in PR News. This message comes from Wise,

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