NPR News: 10-20-2025 4PM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. It's day 20 of the federal government shutdown. NPR's Deirdre Walsh is following the prolonged stalemate between congressional Republicans and Democrats and its impact on federal workers.
The Senate will vote for an 11th time tonight on a bill that funds federal agencies through November 21st.
What is the current status of the federal government shutdown?
Democrats are expected to block it, insisting any deal to reopen the government must address expiring health care subsidies. The Trump administration moved money around to pay the military and tapped tariff revenue to keep a nutrition program going. Virginia Democratic Congressman James Walkinshaw supports paying the troops, but says this strategy isn't sustainable.
Every day that the shutdown continues, it's harder for the administration to try to play whack-a-mole and mitigate impacts.
Until the consequences of the shutdown are more widely felt by the public, there's less pressure on Congress to end it. Deirdre Walsh, NPR News.
New research shows a dramatic drop in peanut allergies among children. Dr. David Hill co-authored a study published today in the medical journal Pediatrics. A decade after federal guidelines were changed showing that feeding peanut products to young babies appears to help prevent development of life-threatening allergies. Today is the deadline for multiple colleges to decide whether they'll join the Trump administration's proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education campaign. Kirk Carapazza of member station GBH reports in New England, MIT, Brown, and Dartmouth have already said, no thanks.
Those three schools passed on the offer of preferential treatment in federal funding in exchange for meeting a long list of demands, like capping international enrollment and limiting what faculty can say. Ted Mitchell is president of the American Council on Education. He says the compact is bad for colleges and the country.
This is nothing short of a government attempt to make institutions creatures of the state. And that's so antithetical to what higher education is and does.
Mitchell says higher ed has plenty of work to do when it comes to controlling costs, improving degree completion rates, and fostering ideological diversity. But he says none of that should be dictated by the government. For NPR News, I'm Kirk Carapazza in Boston.
While the GOP generally resists tighter gun control, the Trump administration is pursuing just that for people who habitually use any illegal drugs, including marijuana, even though cannabis is illegal or has been decriminalized in large parts of the U.S. The Supreme Court is taking up the case of a Texas man who says the law violates his constitutional right to possess a firearm. Same law for which former President Joe Biden's son Hunter was convicted. He was later pardoned by his father. From Washington, this is NPR News. The Trump administration is working to keep a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas from collapsing. NPR's Jana Ruff reports the president's top envoys have returned to Israel.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are now in Israel for talks on what's next for the ceasefire. trying to shore up this current fragile phase. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected in Israel tomorrow as well. And while that's happening, there are also talks with Hamas in Egypt.
NPR's Jana Raff reporting. Today is the start of Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and others worldwide. But the U.S. tariffs on Indian goods are making the celebration more expensive this year. From member station WBHM in Birmingham, Vahini Shori reports.
Go to a South Asian grocery store and you may notice steep price increases on staple goods like wheat flour, rice, and oil. The Trump administration added an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods in August because India continues to purchase Russian oil. Lena Mosley is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. She says the ripple effects of the tariffs are still playing out.
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