NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. Hundreds of National Guard troops will be leaving Portland and Chicago in the coming days. The move was ordered by the Defense Department amid court battles stalling the deployments. MPIR's Juliana Kim has more. A defense official not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that 200 members of the Texas National Guard will be leaving Illinois. Similarly, 200 members of the California National Guard will be leaving Oregon. in. The number of Oregon National Guard personnel in Portland will also be reduced by half, the official says. The Trump administration initially ordered the guard to Illinois in Portland

to protect ICE and other federal personnel, but troops have been repeatedly blocked by the courts from conducting any operations in the streets. On Friday, the military's Northern Command hinted that the size of deployments will change to, quote, ensure a constant enduring and long-term presence in each city. Juliana Kim, NPR News. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the most advanced U.S. aircraft carrier, has arrived in the Caribbean, a display of American military power in an escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. It will add to a U.S. force of some 15,000 service members in what the administration says is a counter-drug operation. A split is growing between President Trump and what had been one of his staunches advocates in Congress.

And peers Luke Garrett reports the intra-party rift represents a broader fight over the MAGA movement. Trump called Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green a traitor on Saturday after reneging his endorsement for the Georgia lawmaker. Green tells CNN she now fears for her safety. Those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger. Green says Trump is attacking her because she supports releasing the Epstein files. She also criticized Trump's foreign policy agenda, saying, he should focus more on domestic issues. I would love to see Air Force One be parked and stay home.

Last week, Trump said he knows the MAGA movement best and that Green is lashing out because he didn't support her statewide political ambitions, which Green denies. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Mortgage experts are skeptical about the Trump administration's 50-year mortgages, and Pierceville Chapel reports. Backers of the 50-year mortgage say it would help buyers get into a home they might not otherwise afford. But Bruce Marks, the CEO of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, says the longer loan would take decades to build equity.

The 30-year term has always been the sweet spot in this country. But the affordability crisis is real, Mark says. And in Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Hendricks of NBKC Bank agrees. What else is staggering is the median age for that first-time home buyer is 40 years old right now. Hendricks says he wants the government to find ways to boost housing supply. and help first-time homebuyers. NPR's Bill Chappell, you're listening to NPR News. An AI safety expert is warning that Character AI's plans to boost chatbots for kids

should be rolled out more carefully to protect the teens who've developed relationships with them. April Dimbroski of Member Station KQED has more. Character AI says its ban on chatbots for Youth Under 18 will take full effect on November 25th. U.C. Berkeley bioethics professor Jody Halpern celebrated the move, but wants parents to know the weeks after separation from an AI companion could be a vulnerable time for self-harm or suicidal thinking. Parents do not realize that their kids love these bots and that they might feel like their best friend just died or their boyfriend just died.

Character AI said the company is moving slowly and has communicated the upcoming changes widely on its app, Reddit, and Discord. so kids would have time to adjust to the new paradigm. For NPR news, I'm April Dimboski in San Francisco. Newly released disclosures show Adriana Gugler, the former member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, violated ethics rules surrounding financial transactions last year. She abruptly resigned from the central bank three months ago.

That was before her term ended. Paperwork released by the Office of Government Ethics show Coogler bought and sold individual stocks last. year in violation of Fed policy. And some of the transactions took place during the so-called blackout periods around Fed meetings when trading is even more strictly regulated. She says the trades were made by her husband without her knowledge. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News, in Washington. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

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