NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-12-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The White House is calling newly released emails tying President Donald Trump to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a distraction from reopening the U.S. government. NPR Stephen Fowler has details. The three emails appear to show more of a connection between the president and Epstein, including a message from Epstein that said Trump, quote, knew about the girls and another that said Trump spent hours at Epstein's house with a sex trafficking

victim. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt sent a statement to NPR that reads in part, quote, these stories are nothing more than bad faith efforts to distract from President Trump's historic accomplishments. This as the House is set to vote on a bill to reopen the government and will have enough members to advance a measure to release more Epstein files. Stephen Fowler, NPR News. Representative-elect Adelaida Grijalva says that one of her first actions when she's sworn in today will be to sign a petition to force a vote on a bill requiring the release of more Epstein emails. She won an election to fill the seat held by her late father, Congressman Raul Griehalva, seven weeks ago.

The U.S. House of Representatives reconvenes this hour, NPR's Claudia Grisales, is monitoring. House lawmakers will be back in town. today for the first time since House Speaker Mike Johnson let them go home in September before the shutdown even began. The House Rules Committee met for more than seven hours last night, and they moved this bill to the floor, and that sets the stage for a final vote later tonight. And as you will recall, this deal came together after a group of Senate Democrats broke ranks to vote with Republicans to end the government shutdown. NPR's Gloria Grisales reporting. Much-loved Italian pasta could vanish from American supermarket shelves from January if

the U.S. Commerce Department goes ahead with a decision to slap heavy duties on Italian pasta brands. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports. The Commerce Department is accusing major Italian pasta producers of anti-dumping practices. That's when a foreign company sells their goods at a cheaper rate than at home. The Department threatens to impose duties, which when combined with recent new charges on European Union goods by the Trump administration would push tariffs on Italian pasta to 107%. Anti-dumping probes are fairly routine, but Italian pasta companies say they have never resulted in such extraordinarily high duties.

Italy's influential agribusiness association, Cordyretti, warns this barrier is so high that it would, quote, practically wipe out Italy's pasta exports to the United States. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News. The Dow is up 331 points. This is NPR News. California is two years into a mental health experiment called Care Court, which allows judges to order people with psychotic illness into treatment.

From member station KQED, April Domboski reports on new data suggesting counties are focused more on coaxing people in a care unless on coercion. Statewide data show all. Only 19 people have been court-ordered into treatment, while more than 600 have entered care voluntarily. That's due in part to new California state funding that pays outreach workers to persuade patients to accept help before forcing them into it. Orange County social worker Giovanni Figueroa says it can take dozens of visits to build trust. When they see you one time, two times, three times, then they realize like, oh, wow, they really are here to help me. They actually do care, and I'm not invisible. As he sees it, the success of care court is getting people to accept treatment before a judge has to order it.

For NPR News, I'm April Dombaski in Orange County. Solar storm's been lighting up social media with the northern lights visible to millions of people across much of the northern half of the U.S. and parts of the south. Here's NPR's Jaws Snyder. A severe solar storm brought the aurora's much farther south than usual, sparking social media joy as far as far as as Alabama and Florida. But the geomagnetic storms that made them possible can also present problems. They can temporarily disrupt radio and satellite operations. Experts say the sun is in an active phase. That's expected to last until at least through the end of the year. NPR's Giles Snyder reporting. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.