NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-19-2025 5AM EST

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Dave Mattingly. Congress has approved a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. As NPR's Claudia Grisalist reports, the measure cleared the Senate on a voice vote following a nearly unanimous vote in the House. In an extremely rare scene in Republican-controlled Washington, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer moved to approve the bipartisan bill under a bipartisan bill. a voice vote with no objections. The Senate has now passed the Epstein bill as soon as it comes over from the House. House Republican leaders said they voted to approve the plan with the expectation the Senate would amend it to address their concerns. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after the overwhelming House vote of 427 to 1, that was no longer necessary. And this way, the senators did not have to have their votes record. In a major reversal, Trump in recent days said he'd signed the bill when it reaches his desk.

Claude Riesales, NPR News, the Capitol. A three-judge panel in Texas is blocking the state from using its redrawn congressional map and next year's midterm elections in a Republican effort to flip seats. In a two-to-one vote, the federal judges ruled the map is likely unconstitutional as a result of racial gerrymandering. The state is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. A new NPR PBS poll gives Democrats the clear momentum a year out from the midterm elections. The poll shows Democrats with a 14-point lead when people were asked which party's candidate they would support if the elections were held today. The National Transportation Safety Board says a loose wire caused last year's crash of a cargo ship into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

That bridge collapsed, killing six construction workers who were on the span, at the time. Scott Masseoni with member station WIPR reports. The NTSB's final report says a wire pulling loose over time from the cargo ship dolly's breaker caused two blackouts on the ship. That eventually resulted in a loss of propulsion and steering, said Jennifer Homody, chairwoman of the board, who oversaw the investigation. This tragedy should have never occurred. Lives should have never been lost. As with all accidents that we investigate, this was preventable. Investigators concluded that the reason the wire came loose is that a label was affixed to the wire too close to where it was plugged into the breaker.

The label prevented the wire from fully inserting into the breaker because the casing pushed against the label. For NPR News, I'm Scott Mosioni in Baltimore. The state of Maryland estimates the cost to rebuild the bridge could end up topping $5 billion more than twice the original estimate. This is NPR News from Washington. President Trump says he's elevating Saudi Arabia's relationship with the U.S. We're taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formerly designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally. The president was speaking at the White House last night at a dinner honoring the Saudi

crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman. Hours earlier at a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, Trump defended the Crown Prince when reporters asked about the CIA report that found Salman approved the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul Turkey seven years ago. Salman denies any role in the slang. New research suggests weight loss drugs such as Wigovie and Zepbound, only work when they target a brain area that can cause nausea. NPR's John Hamilton reports from the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in California. About half the people who take these drugs feel queasy. That's because this class of drugs, called GLP1, affects an area of the brain stem known as the vomit center.

So researchers did an experiment that kept the drug from reaching this brain area in mice. Warren Yakovic of the University of Michigan says that kept the mice from feeling sick, but also meant they didn't lose weight. And so it's very challenging, we think, right now, to be able to separate these side effects like nausea from GLP-1's intended effects like weight loss. Even so, companies that sell GLP-1 drugs are still trying to get rid of this side effect. It's a major reason many patients stop taking the medications. John Hamilton, NPR News.

I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News, in Washington.