NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. Congress has passed a bill compelling the Justice Department to release documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump threw his support behind the effort after initially opposing it. NPR's Sam Greenglass reports. For weeks, President Trump and Republican House leadership fought a vote on the files. But once a bipartisan petition got enough signatures to force the issue, Trump reversed. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green was among the Republicans pushing the disclosure, saying the victim, some of whom were watching in the chamber, deserve transparency.

This was a fight that we should have never had to wage. It should have been the easiest thing for every single member of Congress. It should have been the easiest thing for the Speaker of the House. It should have been the easiest thing for the President of the United States. Trump says he will sign it. Sam Greenglass, NPR News, Washington. The bill's now headed to the president's desk after the Senate approved it by unanimous consent. The Trump administration unveiled its most extensive plans yet to dismantle the Department of Education, NPR's Corey Turner reports.

The department says it has signed six agreements with other federal agencies to essentially outsource the work of the Education Department. For example, work normally done by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education will be moving to the Department of Labor, as will the work of the Office of Post-Secondary Education. Other work will shift to the State Department, Interior, and HHS. Staff will also be moving with just a few Education Department leaders remaining behind to provide oversight. The Trump administration says this is all part of its plan to return education to the states. Critics say these offices were placed at the Education Department by Congress, and only Congress can move them. Corey Turner, NPR News. NPR has been speaking with U.S. citizens swept up in President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

NPR's Adrian Florido reports their stories are getting attention in Washington. Javier Ramirez says when Border Patrol agents raided the auto junkyard where he works near Los Angeles, he heard one say to another. I just hear him like, hey, just get him. He's Mexican. That's when they threw me down to the ground. Andrea Beles says the ICE agents who arrested her on an L.A. street kept addressing her in Spanish even after she declared her citizenship in English. Like, they had not heard me before speak English.

and then I was like, I speak English too. Both say they were racially profiled. They may testify when congressional Democrats kick off a series of hearings later this month, probing the treatment of U.S. citizens caught up in the government's immigration dragnet. Adrian Flaredito, NPR News. A federal court has blocked Texas from using a congressional map that would give Republicans an edge in winning five more seats in Congress. President Trump urged lawmakers to pass the map. The ruling is a blow to GOP efforts to keep its narrow control of Congress.

Congress. This is NPR News from Washington. The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has pleaded guilty in New York to recruiting others for violent attacks against Jews and racial minorities. The plans included a plot to dress as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to children. Federal prosecutors say they will seek up to 18 years in prison for the Georgian National Mikhail Chikvichvili. The U.S. and many other wealthy countries are cutting their foreign aid budgets and PR's Jonathan Lambert reports on an analysis suggesting those cuts could lead to millions of additional deaths. Over the last couple of decades, wealthy countries have sent an increasing

amount of money to poorer countries. That trend peaked in 2023, with a total of $250 billion in total foreign aid spending. That money helped drive down deaths by 23% in recipient countries, according to a new analysis by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. High levels of aid were linked to a 70% drop in HIV deaths and cut malaria deaths in half. But that progress is threatened, the researchers say. Countries are on track to shrink total aid spending by more than 10% next year. If that continues, the study projects an additional 9.4 million people could die by 2030. That toll could more than double, the researchers say, if countries follow the U.S.

and largely dismantle many aid programs. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. A wild dolphin named Mimmo has been delighted. Whiting Venetians for months with acrobatic flips. Experts want to move him after wounds indicated he'd likely been hit by a boat propeller. Agencies used acoustic devices to nudge memo out to see and it worked briefly, but he came back within an hour. This is NPR News from Washington.