NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

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Hey, I'm Daewud Tyler Amin. And I'm Am Powers. We are an editor and a critic at NPR Music. And we're also friends who love digging into music histories and thinking about how songs can change over time. And we're doing that on a new show. We're totally nerding out about the songs that just stick with us and why. Find our first episode in the All Songs Considered Feed on October 23rd. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

President Trump and his South Korean counterpart have reached a deal on South Korean investments in the United States in exchange for lower tariffs. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports that President Trump is in South Korea for a regional summit and bilateral meetings. In exchange for lowering U.S. tariffs on South Korea, Seoul pledged to invest $350 billion in the U.S. The Trump administration wanted it up front in cash. South Korea said that could destabilize its economy, meeting in Yongju, the two sides have agreed that South Korea would pay $200 billion in cash, up to $20 billion a year. Neither side has mentioned a time frame for the payments. Another $150 billion will be invested in helping the U.S. revive its shipbuilding industry.

The two sides have also agreed tariffs on South Korean automobiles will be lowered from 25% to 15%. The exact details of the deal will be published in a fact sheet in the coming days. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Guangzhou, South Korea. Hurricane Melissa's offshore of eastern Cuba, leaving behind heavily flooded roads and damage, especially in Santiago de Cuba, today a pummel the island with top sustained winds exceeding 100 miles per hour, strong enough to inflict major damage to homes and turn everyday objects into dangerous projectiles. The storm has weakened considerably, though, since it made landfall in Jamaica as a 185 mile-per-hour storm. the Category 5 hurricane was the strongest storm known to ever hit the island of nearly 3 million. Damage assessment is underway. So far, the storm has been linked to at least seven deaths in Jamaica and Hispaniola.

Melissa is tracking north of the Caribbean toward the Bahamas and Bermuda. The Federal Reserve is expected to announce another quarter point cut in U.S. interest rates today. The second such cut in six weeks. NPR Scott Horsley with details. For most of this year, the Federal Reserve, Reserve kept interest rates relatively high in an effort to curb stubborn inflation. Those inflation worries haven't disappeared, but they are taking a back seat for now to rising concerns about the job market. Hiring slowed over the summer, and in recent days some high-profile

corporations have announced large-scale layoffs. Assessing the strength or weakness of the job market is especially tricky these days because the government workers who ordinarily keep tabs on employment have been temporarily sidelined by the federal shutdown. Fed policymakers did get a out on inflation for last month. It showed prices in September were up 3% from a year ago, a slightly smaller increase than forecasters expected. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. The World Health Organization is reacting to witness reports of hundreds of people killed at a Saudi maternity hospital in Sudan. Parimilitary forces allegedly carried out killings in Darfur after capturing Elfashear City. The Dow is up 226 points. It's NPR News.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving to overruled dozens of state laws. NPR's Yuki Noguchi tells us one consumer group says that defies the will of most voters. The CFPB says it is clarifying that federal credit reporting systems preempts states from passing their own credit reporting rules, among other things that would nullify the laws in at least 15 states, where medical debt cannot be included in credit reports. Medical debt is considered different because it's usually involuntarily incurred. Separately, the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Undue Medical Debt released a survey showing 81% of voters across the political spectrum want states to restrict medical debt reporting. Yuki NPR News. The big tech company, OpenAI, has restructured itself as a for-profit company.

Here's NPR's John Rewitch. OpenAI says it's transformed itself into a PBC or public benefit corporation. That's a type of company that's legally obligated to create public or social goods. Previously, it was a non-profit. And under the new structure, an OpenAI Foundation will hold an equity stake in the corporation worth about $130 billion. OpenAI says that makes the foundation one of the best resourced philanthropic organizations ever.

The transition of the main business into a PBC now gives OpenAI the chance to raise capital by listing shares. In a live stream after the announcement, CEO Sam Altman said an IPO is the most likely path for the company. John Rewich, NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News. On the ThruLine podcast from NPR, the story of the undersea cables that run the Internet.

Other historians have compared it to the Apollo missions of going to the moon. Listen to ThruLine in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.