NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-19-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

NPR News: 11-19-2025 10AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. President Trump will attend the Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, D.C., today. He's hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They've announced that Saudi Arabia will invest up to a trillion dollars in the U.S., focusing on the tech sector. Details are still unclear. Trump posted the Crown Prince at a dinner last night and said he is elevating Saudi Arabia's status to a major non-NATO ally. This comes with improved U.S. economic and military ties. Separately, House Speaker Mike Johnson says he is not pleased that the Senate approved a bill to require the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey

Epstein. Johnson spoke to reporters after attending the dinner last night. I'm deeply disappointed in this outcome. I think I've been at the state dinner. I don't know. I just told that Chuck Schumer rushed it to the floor and put it out there preemptively. It needed amendments. I just spoke to president about. About that, we'll see what happens. Trump has said he would sign the bill. It's not clear when that would happen. A federal appeals court panel has blocked a plan by Texas lawmakers to redraw the state's congressional districts.

President Trump had demanded the redistricting. It's an effort to send more Republicans to Congress. Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider reports, Texas officials have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The three-judge panel issued an injunction saying the plaintiffs were likely to prove a trial that Texas racial gerrymandered the 2025 map. Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia represents a Houston district that would have been dramatically redrawn. Well, obviously, I'm elated. We all spent much time and we kept saying these are racially gerrymandered maps. And now the judge has agreed. They, in fact, say substantial evidence, not just evidence, but substantial. The high court would need to act swiftly

as the registration period for the 26th, Texas primaries is nearly halfway over. For NPR news, I'm Andrew Schneider in Houston. Stocks opened higher this morning as Target issued a cautious forecast for the holiday shopping season. NPR Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 120 points in early trading. Discount retailer Target says customers are keeping a tight grip on their pocketbooks, with most of their spending devoted to food and other essentials. Spending on discretionary items like home furnishings is down. Target reported a drop in same store sales for the market.

the most recent quarter and lowered its profit forecast for the full year. A federal judge ruled Facebook's parent company does not have a monopoly in the social networking space. The decision means meta will not have to spin off its Instagram or WhatsApp features. And new figures from the Commerce Department show the nation's trade deficit shrank in August as higher tariffs took effect. That report, along with many others, was delayed by the government shutdown. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR News. Officials in southern Japan say a huge fire has burned more than 170 buildings.

At least one person has died in the coastal city of Saigon Siki. Scores of people have evacuated. The fire is burned about 12 acres, or an area about the size of six soccer fields. The blaze has spread to a forest, and the Japanese military is now helping firefighters attack the flames. It's not clear how the blaze got started. Brain scientists say several Trump administration claims about autism lack a strong scientific foundation. NPR's John Hamilton reports from the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. At a session on autism, speakers question plans to make a prescription cancer drug called Lukavurin widely available to autistic children.

Federal officials have said several clinical trials support using the drug in autism, but Dr. Shafali Jeste, Chair of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles says the results of those studies are hard to interpret. These trials have been conducted without the rigor that we would really want. Juste and other scientists at the session also say the evidence linking Tylenol to autism is lacking, and they say there is overwhelming evidence that vaccines do not cause the disorder. John Hamilton, NPR News. Officials in Venice, Italy say a bottlenose dolphin is in city canals.

His fans call him memo. He's been swimming and doing flips in the Venetian canals for months, but Venice authorities want him to swim away because he may have been injured by a boat propeller. They'll try to move Mimmo to open water. This is NPR.