NPR News: 09-30-2025 8PM EDT
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This message comes from Subaru, celebrating the Subaru Share the Love event now through January 2nd. By year's end, Subaru and its retailers will have donated more than $350 million to charity. Subaru, more than a car company.
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. It's just four hours until a likely government shutdown after Congress failed to pass a pair of bills that would have kept federal agencies open past midnight tonight. The White House is blaming congressional Democrats for it. But as NPR's Tamara Keith reports, President Trump also says it may present an opportunity to lay off workers and cut programs.
White House staff put a video on loop in the press briefing room with old clips of congressional Democrats talking about what a bad idea government shutdowns are. President Trump said the last thing he'd want to do is shut it down.
A lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want. And they'd be Democrat things, but they want open borders. They want men playing in women's sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop.
The White House has also threatened mass firings of federal workers. Democrats are pressing the White House and Republicans to negotiate with them on health care. Tamara Keith, NPR News, the White House.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a gathering of top generals and admirals that he's overhauling military standards and gender rules. As NPR's Tom Bowman explains, it could lead to a dramatic drop of women in combat.
What are the implications of a potential government shutdown?
What he said about toughening physical fitness standards for those in combat jobs who are talking armor, artillery, infantry. And he said he wants men and women to achieve, quote, the highest male standard in such things as, you know, lifting weights, dragging a sled that stands in for a wounded comrade, carrying an ammo box, running. So in general, more weight, more pull-ups, faster times. There are some 600 female Marines in those jobs, roughly 3,000, 4,000 Army women in combat jobs. One Marine officer I spoke with who's well-versed on fitness tests estimated you could lose more than 20% of women in those jobs if they have to meet the highest male standard. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak publicly.
NPR's Tom Bowman reporting, President Trump says that the National Institutes of Health will invest in data sharing to boost the use of AI in detecting and treating pediatric cancers. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports this comes amid massive cuts in federal funding for scientific and medical research.
The Trump administration says it's committing an additional $50 million to an NIH program to build on ways to apply AI to fighting cancer. Michael Kratios directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Using artificial intelligence, researchers will be able to, for example, build scalable models to predict how a child's body responds to therapies. letting doctors forecast cancer progression and minimize treatment side effects.
The $50 million investment comes on the heels of billions in federal cuts to various health agencies involved with cancer prevention and research. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.
This is NPR News from Washington. Turning Point USA's college tour is returning to Utah for the first time since founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated. His death at Utah Valley University galvanized followers of his right-wing conservative politics. The event at Utah State tomorrow will feature podcaster Alex Clark, Senator Mike Lee, and Governor Spencer Cox. President Trump's ambassador to the U.N. is criticizing Rwanda and the rebels it backs in eastern Congo. As NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports, that's a conflict President Trump has repeatedly said he's resolved.
Peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is so far mostly a promise. That's how the head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Binto Keita, described the situation at a UN Security Council meeting.
There are discrepancies between the progress we see on paper and the reality we observe on the ground, which continues to be marred with violence.
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