NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-17-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

NPR News: 11-17-2025 12PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump is now telling House Republicans they should vote to release the Epstein files. Here's NPR's Sage Miller. Trump took to truth social to say even though he considers it a Democratic hoax, Republicans should vote to release the files because there's nothing to hide. The House is set to vote on the petition this week. There is a possibility that dozens of Republicans vote in favor to release the files collected during an investigation, by the Department of Justice.

The administration has released thousands of private files to the House Oversight Committee, but the Justice Department still has documents that have not been made public, including witness interviews. If the measure passes the House, it would still need to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president. Sage Miller, NPR News. Overdue economic data are expected this week. NPR Scott Horsley reports that includes late summer tallies of exports and imports and imports and a snapshot of the job market in early fall. Now that the federal shutdown is over,

government statisticians will start to release those economic report cards we've been missing for the last six weeks. The Commerce Department says it will provide an update on the August trade deficit on Wednesday. The Labor Department will deliver the September jobs report the following day. Both of those reports were supposed to come out in early October. No word yet on when or even if we'll see data on inflation

or unemployment for last month. which could help to shape the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates in December. Scott Horsley and Pierre, News, Washington. France will sell 100 fighter jets to Ukraine in a landmark deal to strengthen Ukraine's long-term air power. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports the agreement was announced during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Paris. Today, he's ninth to France since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. President Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a 10-year defense agreement in Paris that paves the way for Ukraine to receive Rafael multi-role fighter jets, air defense systems,

missiles, and anti-dron technology. The weapons will help Ukraine fight Russia today, but the deal is also meant to show the Kremlin that France and Europe are in it for the long haul. Said to be worth around $12 billion, analysts say the framework will help develop Ukraine's future air fleet of up to 250 combat aircraft, combining France's Rafael jets with U.S.-made F-16s, and Sweden's Gripen Fighters. Eleanor Beardsley and Pernoos, Paris. After more than 40 years in the business and a string of box office hits,

Tom Cruise has an Oscar. He received an Academy Honorary Award yesterday at the Governor's Awards. He delivered an emotional acceptance speech streamed by the Oscars online. I have ever made or ever will make. And I want you to know that I will always do everything I can to help this art for him.

Ceremony also honored singer-actor and philanthropist Dolly Parton and Debbie Allen. It's NPR. New research shows as children get older, their brains become more attuned to the sounds of speech. NPR's John Hamilton reports from the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in San Diego. Researchers studied the brains of 51 children and young adults as they watched a movie clip that contained both music and dialogue. Liberty Hamilton of the University of California, Berkeley, says the brain response changed with a. As individuals get older, the brain is showing this emerging preference for speech over music. In young children, music and speech caused about the same level of response in the brain. But by adolescence, speech was getting much more attention. Hamilton says the research could explain why children with conditions including ADHD have more difficulty focusing on speech in a noisy environment.

John Hamilton, NPR News. The Century Foundation says its latest analysis of consumer data show. More people falling behind on their utility bills than last year, and it's likely to get worse this winter. The liberal think tank released an analysis it says shows the average overdue balance on utility bills increased from just under $600 in 2022 to $789. This, as the Trump administration promotes investments in electricity-consuming data centers for artificial intelligence, Last month, the Energy Information Administration projected U.S. households would pay more to heat their homes with electricity than they did last year. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.