NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

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This week on up first from NPR News, the House votes on the Epstein files. President Trump reversed course and said, go ahead, but his Justice Department may yet block the release of some documents. Also, we get key unemployment numbers from the government. A month and a half late, what do the indicators say? Listen this week on up first on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The U.S. House votes today on a bill directing the Justice Department to release all the documents it has about Jeffrey Epstein.

That's a convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for allegedly sex trafficking girls as young as 14. NPR's Barbara Sprint reports on what the bill entails. It would compel the Justice Department to release all unclassified files. So that's records, documents, communications, all investigation materials essentially within 30 days. and that includes documents related to Epstein's death. As a reminder, the administration has already released thousands of files to the House Oversight Committee, documents that also include names of other people connected to Epstein, but there are still more files that haven't been made public.

NPR's Barbara Sprunt. President Trump has maintained he severed ties with Epstein for hiring away Marlago staff, including young women. Trump says he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes and said as much today as he was taking reporters' questions while hosting Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. And P.S. Daniel Kirtzleben reports on what's expected to come out of today's meeting there. The Crown Prince wants to buy advanced F-35 jets. And Trump has said this week that the country will sell them. But we don't have details about how many or when they'll be delivered, anything like that. We also know Saudi Arabia has shown they're very interested in investing in AI computing and they want access to advanced

AI chips. Two more things, Saudi Arabia wants a civilian nuclear deal with the U.S. and they in the U.S. have already talked this year about getting access to U.S. nuclear technology for the purposes of creating nuclear energy. NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben reporting. This is Prince Mohammed's first visit since the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. U.S. intelligence had concluded the Crown Prince approved the attack. The Saudi government denies any involvement. President Trump's bid to maintain the GOP's narrow hold on the U.S. House and the midterm

elections has suffered a legal blow in Texas. Today, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction against the state's new Republican-backed map that would have given the GOP an edge in winning five more seats in the U.S. House. Texas is under orders to go back to the map used in the 2022 and 2024 elections. The Trump administration has unveiled a sweeping plan to sidestep Congress and dismantle large pieces of the U.S. Department of Education. Two sources tell NPR the Trump administration will forge agreements between the Education Department and other agencies offloading day-to-day operations of congressionally required programs while retaining

a small contingent of staff at the department. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 500 points or more than 1%. The S&P was off 56 points. The NASDAQ was down 280. This is NPR news. Poland's government says everything indicates Russian intelligence was behind two rail sabotage incidents. Here's NPR's Ropschmits. Polish security services ministry spokesman Yacek Dobrydinsky called the axe a terrorist attack and said they were initiated by, quote, special services from the east. In other words, Russia. The first incident, which damaged a section of track happened between Morsah and Lublin on a rail line crucial for delivering aid to Ukraine.

Investigators are looking into the second incident along the same line. Poland's interior minister confirmed the use of explosives to damage the track. A local resident said he had heard an explosion the previous evening. No one was injured in either incident. Rob Schmitz and Pierre News, Berlin. Memory care units have increased by more than 60% during the past 10 years and there's a growing movement to stop segregating dementia patients. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports. Family members of those with dementia worry about their safety. Placing the person in a secure memory care unit can ease those fears. But Kirsten Jacobs of leading age, which represents non-profit providers of aging services, says growing numbers of senior living facilities don't use locked memory care units. They train staff to care for those with dementia alongside other residents. We're not suggesting we abolish memory care tomorrow. but rather think more expansively about what's right for the individual.

She says there's little research to support the idea that memory care is the best place to care for those with dementia. For NPR News, I'm Ashley Milntight. It's NPR News.