NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

NPR News: 11-18-2025 11AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corva Coleman. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he will now vote to support a measure that requires the Justice Department to publish all its files on late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. The speaker had previously opposed this. He even sent the House into early recess this summer to avoid a vote in the chamber. President Trump had opposed it too, but Trump reversed course this week. He told all Republicans to support the measure. It is co-sponsored by California Democratic Congressman. Rokana. Because survivors spoke up, because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out. And when it comes out, this country is really going to have a moral reckoning. Some Justice Department information about the Epstein case suggests there may be more than 1,000 victims. President Trump is hosting Saudi Arabia's crown prince at the White House today. The Saudi prince says he is ready to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. under Trump. But M. Pierre's Ayabatrawi reports he's got a long list of asks in return.

Trump says the Saudi crown prince is going to be honored on this visit. The two leaders have built a close relationship over the years and the president has praised him as a quote, great guy and described him as a visionary leader. That's despite a continued crackdown on critics in the kingdom. This will be Prince Mohammed's first visit back to the U.S. since the killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by the prince's aides seven years ago. The CIA says the prince had knowledge of the operation, which he denies. He returns to Washington now with power consolidated at home and top U.S. CEOs eager for more business with the kingdom. The Prince wants a U.S. Defense Pact, new deals in AI, and he's eyeing the purchase of advanced F-35 jets that only Israel

currently flies in the Mideast. Ayabotrawi and Pierre News, Dubai. Venezuela's president says he also is willing to talk with anyone in the U.S. to avoid a military confrontation. Yesterday, President Trump said he has not ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela, and Pierre's Kerry Kahn has more. When asked if a ground invasion of the South American country was an option, Trump said, quote, I don't rule out anything. He also said there was a possibility he would talk to Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro directly and added, quote, we just have to take care of Venezuela. In his weekly state television program, Maduro responded, he too doesn't have a problem with talking. Whoever wants to talk with Venezuela, whoever wants to talk with Venezuela,

Venezuela will talk face-to-face, Maduro says, without any problem. The U.S. military has amassed a large presence in the Caribbean with nearly a dozen naval warships and approximately 15,000 sailors and Marines. Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Kukata, Colombia. On Wall Street, stocks are sharply lower this morning. The Dow Jones Industrial average is down about 670 points. That's about 1.5%. The NASDAQ is down 450 points.

That's more than 2%. This is NPR. An infrastructure provider for internet services says it has resolved problems with its service this morning. Cloudflare reported that it experienced the problems this morning but applied a fix. Cloudflare says it's watching for any further problems. Users saw interruptions on sites such as Spotify and X. The South African government says a plane that brought 153 Palestinians to South Africa last week was part of a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

Kate Barlett reports from Johannesburg that details about who organized the flight and why it came to South Africa are still unclear or disputed. South Africa's Minister for International Relations and Cooperation admitted the incident was, quote, suspicious and said it seemed to be an attempt to, quote, cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank. Immigration officials initially blocked the Palestinian passengers from disembarking after landing in South Africa because they did not have the correct documents.

They were eventually allowed in on humanitarian grounds. Israel has said South Africa had previously agreed to take the Palestinians. The Palestinian embassy in South Africa says the Palestinians were exploited by an untrustworthy organization. South African activists say the group that organized the flight, Al-Majid Europe, has links to Israel. For NPR News, I'm Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg. Forecasters say Southern California,

California will get more rain and potential flooding this week. The National Weather Service says that the ground is still saturated from powerful storms that just hit California in recent days. This is NPR.