NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-30-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

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On this week's wildcard podcast, Gray's Anatomy and Scandal creator Shonda Rhymes says she doesn't need people to like her shows. When you believe the good things people say about you, you also then are obligated to believe the bad things. Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. A slim majority of the general of the GOP-led Senate voted to end President Trump's emergency tariff program. But the Republican-led House isn't expected to take up the effort. And here's Claudia Grisalas has more. The series of three votes this week amounted to eight tests for Senate Republicans

divided over the president's emergency tariffs in Brazil, Canada, and around the globe. Despite passage, the resolutions are not expected to get a vote in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this year installed a rules change to block resolutions challenging the president's tariff's authority from reaching the House floor. Even so, President Trump would veto the measure if it reached his desk. Earlier this week, Vice President J.D. Vance lobbied Republican senators to vote no, but a handful were not convinced. Kentucky's Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, Maine, Susan Collins,

and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski defected to vote with Democrats. Claudio Diceles, NPR News, the Capitol. Today's the 30th day of the federal government shutdown, and lawmakers are no closer to negotiating a short-term funding bill that would reopen it and fund programs. More than a million federal workers are furloughed with some required to work. Neither group is being paid. Among them, air traffic controllers. Vice President Vance. I think that as much as delays have gotten worse over the last couple of weeks, everybody here is very worried that we're going to see more delays, more strong. on the people who are actually making the aviation system run.

Meanwhile, food assistance through the SNAP program expires on Saturday for the nearly 42 million Americans who get the help. Senate Democrats want Republicans to extend health care subsidies that are scheduled to run out at the end of the year, likely resulting in much higher bills for tens of millions of people. The Trump administration is drastically cutting the number of refugees it will admit to the U.S., capping it at 7,500 for the next year. Kellerman reports that's the lowest level on record.

In a notification in the Federal Registry, President Trump has capped the refugee admissions for the next fiscal year at 7,500, and he says most of those spots will be set aside for white South Africans, who he says are the victims of, quote, unjust racial discrimination. It makes no mention of Afghans, despite past promises, to help those who supported the U.S. in America's longest war. Afghan Evac, a group that advocates for bringing those Afghan allies here, says tens of thousands remain in danger abroad, and this new policy gives them no safe pathway to the U.S. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. Wall Street lower by the closing bell, the Dow down 109 points, NASDAQ down 377, that's down

one and a half percent. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The British Parliament is taking rare action against a member of the royal family. In London, NPR's Lauren Freyer reports the ongoing fallout of Prince Andrew's controversial friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein six years after Epstein's death by suicide in a New York City jail. Parliament's spending watchdog is asking the UK Treasury and the Crown Estate, which manages property owned by the Royals, to explain why Prince Andrew is still living rent-free in a 30-year-old. room royal lodge on the grounds of Windsor Castle. The watchdog is giving them till the end of November to explain how the prince's living arrangements are, quote, achieving the best value for money

for UK taxpayers. This month in a posthumous memoir, one of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers said she had sex with the prince too when she was 17. Andrew denies it. Then this week, photos emerged of Andrew hosting Epstein and convicted rapist and former movie producer Harvey Weinstein together at the Prince's daughter's 18th birthday. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, London. Andrew recently relinquished some of his royal titles and honors. The average note for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped 20 basis points this week after the Federal Reserve yesterday cut its benchmark interest rate.

Mortgage buyer, Freddie Mac, says the average rate on a 30-year loan is now 6.3%. This is after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, signal that there might not be any more rate cuts this year. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Believe in a free press? Us too. Now's the moment to show it. The NPR shop is back, with the logo T that started it all,

and new gear that turns support into a statement. Every purchase this October helps NPR support local journalism across the country. Be a part of the movement at Shop NPR, dot org.