NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-28-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jail Snyder. A federal judge in San Francisco has indefinitely halted many of the Trump administration's mass layoffs tied to the government shutdown. NPR's Andrews, she reports the decision pauses for now the layoffs of thousands of federal employees. U.S. District Judge Susan Ilston sided with a group of federal employee unions. She found they're likely to show that actions taken by the Trump administration since October 1st to fire thousands of federal workers are illegal. In court, the attorney for the government pushed back, arguing that the executive branch has the authority to conduct layoffs before, during, and after a shutdown, and that it's good policy to end programs that don't align with the president's priorities.

The union's attorney called the government's arguments absurd and asserted that a lapse in appropriations does not justify permanently eliminating positions. Andrea Shue and PR News. A separate lawsuit is seeking to force the Trump administration to fund the SNAP Food Assistance Program. A group of Democratic attorneys general and governors filed the suit today in federal court in Massachusetts, saying the administration is legally required to keep SNAP going using money from a contingency fund. Vice President J.D. Vance says members of the military will not miss their next paycheck on Friday as the government shutdown continues. Vance met for lunch on Capitol Hill with Senate Republicans who have been weighing temporary funding for U.S. troops and other essential workers. Here's NPR Sam Greenglass. Vance and other Trump

administration officials have warned that repurposing funds to keep the troops paid may not be sustainable into November. We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now, but we've got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We're trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out on. The Senate was considering measures to temporarily keep paychecks flowing to troops and air traffic controllers. But now Topper Republicans say they're not interested in what they call rifle shot bills. A GOP bill to fund SNAP benefits is unlikely to get a vote this week either. Vance says the way to stop the pain is to reopen the government. Sam Greenglass, NPR News, Washington. Hurricane Melissa made landfall today

is to make his strongest hurricane on record. Melissa has lost a bit of strength, but remains a powerful category four hurricane, crossing over Western Jamaica with top winds of 150 miles per hour. NPR's Ader Peralta is keeping track of the storm. The National Hurricane Center says we should expect catastrophic damage in Jamaica. I mean, you know, these winds are just incredibly strong. The only sort of good news that we have is that it will glance Kingston, Jamaica, which is the biggest city in the country. But, you know, the whole western part of Jamaica is going to be in the eye of this storm,

and we should expect just massive amount of damage. And you're listening to NPR News. Israeli warplane struck Gaza today after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out what he called powerful attacks. An Israeli military official told NPR that Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas carried out an attack against Israeli soldiers in an area under Israeli control. Israel is also accusing Hamas of slow walking the handover remains of Israeli hostages. The ceasefire began on October 10th, each side, as he accused. accuse the other of violations. Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays are set to resume Major League Baseball's World Series after last night's marathon game that lasted a record

tying 18 innings. L.A. won the game and leads a series two games to one. Here's reporter Steve Futterman. Like so many times during this world series, the pregame focus is on the Dodgers superstar Shohei Otani. Up until now, Otani has been simply hitting. Tonight for the first time in his career, Otani will pitch in the World Series. In last night's 18 inning game, Otani got on base a World Series record nine times. He had two home runs, a pair of doubles and five walks. L.A. manager, Dave Roberts, acknowledges Otani is tired. He's spent, I mean, he was on base eight, nine times, running the bases. But yeah, he'll be ready. His two home runs last night was the third time this postseason that Otani has had a multi-homer game. No one has ever done

that in a single year. For NPR News, I'm Steve Fudderman at the World Series in Los Angeles. Another day of record highs on Wall Street, all three U.S. stock markets pushed into record territory. This is NPR News.