NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

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Lie from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The White House is defending President Trump's remarks in which he branded a group of congressional Democrats' traitors for urging service members not to follow unlawful orders. Trump said seditious behavior is punishable by death. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says Trump does not actually want the lawmakers executed but wants them held accountable. Former Vice President Dick Cheney was memorialized at his time. his funeral in Washington, D.C. today as a no-nonsense public servant who loved his country. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Joe Biden attended. Here's NPR's Don Gagne. Attendees included four former vice presidents and numerous members of Congress past and

present, Republicans and Democrats. George W. Bush recalled Cheney as his closest White House advisor in times of crisis, but said Cheney never ceased being that guy from Wyoming. I wish more Americans got to know Dick Cheney the way the folks in Casper, Cody, and Laramie got to know him. Smart and polished without heirs. President Trump did not attend. Cheney's daughter, Liz, spoke and made this brief reference to her father's strong criticism of Trump in recent years. For him, a choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all. Don Gagne and B.R. News.

The Federal Reserve holds its final interest rate-setting meeting of the year with limited information available about the state of the U.S. labor market. The recent government shutdown hampered data gathering. NPR's Scott Horsley reports as September jobs report came out today. Today's report shows health care and hospitality continue to add jobs in September, but factories and warehouses were cutting workers. And we also saw some sizable job losses in white collar fields like professional services. You know, for a while now, we've been stuck in this holding pattern where employers weren't hiring a whole lot of new workers, but weren't handing out a lot of pink slips either, despite some, you know, high-profile headlines. Federal investigators have released their preliminary report on the crash of a UPS cargo plane that killed 14 people in Kentucky.

And P.R.S. Joel Rose reports investigators found evidence of cracks in the plane's left engine mount. Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board released dramatic photos of the left engine, flying up and over the wing of the UPS cargo plane as it rolled down the runway. The NTSP says the plane, a McDonnell Douglas, MD-11, got only 30 feet off the ground before crashing as it attempted to take off from the airport in Louisville, Kentucky two weeks ago. Investigators say they found evidence of cracks in key parts of the left engine mount, even though those parts were not yet due for a detailed inspection. The three pilots on board the plane were killed, along with 11 more people on the ground. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered all MD-11 aircraft to be grounded pending further inspection. It's NPR News.

The Child Advocacy Nonprofit Called Fairplay has released an advisory warning people against buying artificial intelligence toys this holiday season. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports other groups are raising similar concerns. Fairplay's advisory says play things like AI-powered plushies and robots, collect sensitive data and disrupt human relationships among other harms. Rachel Franz is a fair play program director. These can have long and short-term impacts on development and it's ridiculous to expect young children to avoid potential harm here. In an email to NPR, the Toy Association, which represents toy manufacturers,

said toys sold by responsible manufacturers and retailers must adhere to more than 100 strict federal safety standards and tests. The trade group urges caregivers to shop only from reputable sources. Chloe Valtman, NPR News. Frida Carlos El Sweenio La Cama will be auctioned tonight at Sotheby's in New York. The 1940 self-portrait depicts the artist sleeping in her canopy bed while a skeleton wrapped in dynamite floats above the bed. It was painted during a turbulent time in Kalo's life.

El Sweene was considered one of the artist's most haunting works. Sotheby's believes the painting could sell for anywhere from 40, million dollars to 60 million dollars. U.S. stocks have ended the day, lower with the Dow closing down 386 points, more than three quarters of a percent, at 45,752. The SMP was down 103 points, and NASDA closed down 486 points. It's NPR News.