NPR News: 10-21-2025 4AM EDT

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens.

The government shutdown is now in its 21st day.

NPR's Giles Snyder reports on the latest rejection of a stopgap funding bill.

The Senate voted 50 to 43 Monday evening on the House-pass short-term spending bill, and for the 11th time, Democrats blocked it.

It needed 60 votes.

Democrats are insisting on an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, saying it's a crisis that can't wait.

Republicans say discussions can't happen until the shutdown ends.

NPR's Giles Snyder reporting.

Former FBI Director James Comey is asking a judge to dismiss the criminal case against him.

As NPR's Kerry Johnson reports, Comey says President Trump improperly singled him out.

for prosecution.

The former FBI director says the Constitution bars the government from carrying out a vindictive or selective prosecution.

But in new court papers, Jim Comey says that's exactly what happened when a prosecutor close to President Trump moved to indict him on charges of misleading and obstructing Congress.

Comey says the case is pure retaliation because he's a prominent critic of the president.

Trump has called the former head of the FBI a piece of garbage, a liar and a leaker and a weasel who should be in jail.

It's rare to get a case dismissed on the ground of vindictive prosecution, but Comey says at minimum, the judge should let him explore evidence within the Justice Department about how he came came to be charged with a crime.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

A massive outage at Amazon's web services division wreaked havoc on websites and apps across the internet Monday.

Amazon says the problem is largely fixed, although some disruptions might linger.

NPR's Jacqueline Diaz has the story.

Early in the morning, users started reporting problems with popular online games Fortnite and Roblox and with financial apps like Robinhood and Venmo, just to name a few.

The root to many of of these problems appears to have been with Amazon Web Service.

The cloud computing service lets users store and manage data online.

Amazon says an error in a software update to a database service called DynamoDB caused this widespread disruption.

Experts say the incident raises questions about the internet's reliance on a small number of major cloud providers.

And we should note, Amazon is a financial supporter of NPR and it pays to distribute some of NPR's content.

Jacqueline Diaz, NPR News.

Several universities had until Monday to agree to a list of demands from the Trump administration or risk losing federal funding.

The demands are dubbed the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.

They include a ban on transgender people using bathrooms or participating in sports that do not align with their gender at birth and a cap on foreign student admissions.

As of Sunday, six of nine schools said they would not sign the document.

This is NPR.

Vice President J.D.

Vance is heading to Israel to try to shore up the ceasefire in Gaza.

U.S.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Monday to discuss recent developments in the region.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says dozens of civilians have been killed in strikes across Gaza since the ceasefire deal was reached.

The attacks came after Israel accused Hamas militants of killing two soldiers, a claim that Hamas denies.

A big cancer research summit is underway in Europe this week, and Pier Shuki Noguchi reports that experts are discussing how artificial intelligence is helping predict how patients respond to treatment.

AI is increasingly used in a variety of ways to identify, track, and personalize the treatment of cancers.

Several new research studies unveiled at the European Society for Medical Oncology this week show how the technology can better detect cancers in things like CT scans of mesothelioma or track recurrent disease using blood-based biomarkers in colorectal or lung cancers.

In some studies, using these technologies close to doubled the length of survival for patients.

Researchers say breakthroughs like these are increasingly enabling medical treatment that is personalized to patients.

Yuki Naguchi, NPR News.

Japan has elected its first woman prime minister.

The election of 64-year-old Sanai Takaichi ends Japan's three-month political vacuum since the centrist Komiito Party lost its majority in Parliament.

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