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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. A federal appeals court will allow President Trump to deploy National Guard troops in Portland. From Oregon Public Broadcasting, Lauren Dake has more.
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Oregon and California have National Guard troops stationed outside Portland's city limits, but it's unclear what impact this ruling will immediately have on the ground. The Ninth Circuit's 2 to 1 decision applies to just one of two temporary restraining orders blocking deployment of troops from both Oregon and other states. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said that the state will continue to fight in courts to block troops from being stationed outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility until.
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That second temporary restraining order is rescinded. Troops cannot be deployed anywhere in Oregon at this point.
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The ICE facility in Portland has been the site of protests since June. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Dake in Portland.
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This is day 21 of the federal government shutdown. The Senate failed again yesterday to pass a spending bill that could end it. President Trump is expected to host Republican senators at the White House today for lunch to discuss the shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune could bring up a bill this week that would pay federal workers during the shutdown. President Trump has already directed the Defense Department to move money to pay service members, but other government workers are not getting their checks. Staffers at a National Park Visitor center in Salem, Massachusetts, are furloughed. From member station wbur, Andrea Shea reports supporters have stepped up.
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Salem's month long Haunted Happenings festival attracts a million visitors in October. A lot of them head to the National Park Service Visitor center for information and bathrooms. When the government shutdown closed the center, Annie Harris, CEO of the nonprofit Essex Heritage that helps staff and run the facility, sent out a flurry of emails, including to the mayor.
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I think we could maybe keep it open.
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Are you? The Park Service agreed to let Salem reopen the center if the community covered costs through Halloween weekend. Within 48 hours, businesses and nonprofits raised $18,000 keeping the center open until November 2nd. For NPR News, I'm Andrea Shea in Salem.
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Vice President Vance is now in Israel today for talks about shoring up the Gaza ceasefire. This comes as Hamas has handed over the body of another deceased Israeli hostage. Is he was killed two years ago when Hamas attacked Israel. NPR's Jane Araf says locating the hostages bodies has been challenging.
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They are really difficult to find, understandably, because Gaza has essentially been flattened in many areas and there are hundreds and hundreds of Palestinian bodies still under the rubble. No one knows where they are. This is a result of almost two.
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Years of Israeli airstrikes NPR's Jane Araf reporting. This is NPR. Demolition has started on the east wing of the White House as President Trump says he's going to build a new ballroom. The construction is privately funded. Trump had said over the summer he would not touch the mansion to build this. He says when complete, the ballroom will host nearly 1,000 people. A new study shows that marijuana can help with chronic back pain. The German company that ran the study says it expects to get approval to market the drug. Ben. NPR's Will Stone reports that won't be.
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True in the U.S. the findings come from a pair of major clinical trials on patients with low back pain, the leading cause of disability. The first showed that a blend of cannabis oil containing the psychoactive compound THC outperformed a placebo. The other compared it to opioids and showed cannabis had fewer GI side effects and provided better relief. The company tells NPR it's being required to repeat the studies in the US before seeking approval from regulators here. Richard Price, a spine surgeon at UC Davis, says many of his patients ask about using cannabis.
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It's a really good study, and it's, you know, one that we should repeat in the United States.
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Because cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug, running large research trials comes with many obstacles, meaning it will likely be years before that additional research gets completed. Will Stone, NPR News.
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The massive outage of Amazon's cloud computing Web service is apparently over after it was down yesterday for hours. The outage knocked out numerous online services, from airlines to social media and financial platforms. Amazon is a financial supporter of npr. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News, in Washington.
Host: Korva Coleman
Duration: 5 minutes
Date: October 21, 2025
This episode delivers concise updates on major national and international news as of early October 21, 2025. Key topics include a federal court ruling on National Guard deployment in Portland, the ongoing federal government shutdown, the Gaza ceasefire efforts, White House construction, a new medical marijuana study, and the resolution of a major Amazon Web Services outage.
This NPR News Now episode provides succinct updates on major legal, political, humanitarian, scientific, and technological developments as of October 21, 2025. Its fast-paced structure allows listeners to stay informed on evolving national and global stories in just five minutes.