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"Charlie Kirk's assassination fuels disputes over free speech and censorship."

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by Brittney Melton September 19, 2025 Good morning. Fat Bear Week is back early this year! The annual online competition where people get to pick their favorite Alaskan brown bear that is bulking up for hibernation starts Sept. 23, and the bracket will be released on Monday. Here’s the news we’re following today: ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show has sparked a growing national conversation about free speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. People have lost their jobs over comments about Kirk. Kimmel's show was pulled off the air indefinitely after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened retaliation against ABC over comments Kimmel made during a monologue. President Trump yesterday said that broadcasters that allow criticism of him should potentially lose their license.  Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images 🎧 NPR's Tamara Keith tells Up First that the FCC holds significant power, including having jurisdiction over mergers and the ability to fine stations and pull broadcast licenses. But one Democratic member of the FCC tells her that Carr can't pull a license just because the administration doesn't like a joke or criticism. Trump has been campaigning against Kimmel for months over his criticism of him, so he is thrilled with the show’s suspension. Ilya Somin, a constitutional law expert at the CATO Institute, informed Keith that government power is being used to weaponize speech . He explained that while the First Amendment doesn’t guarantee job security, it does prevent the government from attempting to have you fired for something you said.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s federal vaccine advisory committee voted yesterday to change the current recommendations on the MMRV vaccine. The long-standing advice was to allow children under 4 to receive the vaccination, which is a combination shot for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. The committee is now recommending that children instead get the MMR and chickenpox vaccines separately. Today, the committee is expected to vote on changing recommendations for the Hepatitis B and COVID vaccines. The panel’s votes still require final approval from the CDC director.  🎧 NPR’s Pien Huang says the MMRV vaccine recommendation is a subtle change, as most kids already get these vaccines separately. But the change could mean that the combo shot would no longer be covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program for kids under 4. Huang, who is attending the two-day meeting, says it has been unusual. The 12 new members’ approach to the meeting is to challenge years of established vaccine science by digging through old data to find evidence of harm for the vaccines.  Trump said on social media that he plans to designate antifa as a major terrorist organization. The president’s declaration comes as top Republican leaders have suggested, without evidence, that antifa may have been involved in the shooting death of Kirk, NPR’s Odette Yousef says.  🎧 The president has in the past called for antifa's designation as a terrorist group, but his efforts failed in large part because antifa is not a centralized national organization, according to Yousef. There is a process to designate groups as foreign terrorist organizations, but without a foreign connection, such a designation could infringe on Americans’ First Amendment rights. This is worth paying attention to, Yousef says, because the intentional expansion of how the term terrorist is applied is already underway. This can be seen in how Trump called for the designation of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in 2020. His request wasn’t fulfilled at the time, but is is now in his second term. Newsletter continues after sponsor message Yang Liu/Xinhua News Agency via Getty New Zealand is planning to eradicate millions of invasive animals that prey on the country’s rare birds, the kākāpō and the takahē. Neither bird can fly, which wasn’t an issue millions of years ago when their only predators were raptors that hunt from the sky. However, once human settlers arrived, so did mammals that easily hunted and consumed these ground-dwelling birds. Since then, most of the country’s native birds have declined in numbers. To give them a chance, New Zealand is exploring new technology, like automated traps that use artificial intelligence to help eliminate invasive predators by 2050. While this is one of the tools the country hopes will assist in its mission, some conservation experts say a full eradication may not be achievable. See photos and read more about the work being done to protect the birds. Shane Brown/FX; Christopher Raphael/Prime; Apple TV+; Andrew Cooper/Netflix Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend: 🍿 Movies: The new horror film HIM stars Tyriq Withers as a football player training with his idol at a mysterious desert facility, where he quickly discovers that the price of greatness may be too high. 📺 TV: From returning favorites like Apple TV+’s The Morning Show to new series like Peacock’s The Paper, here are 12 titles to add to your watch list this fall.  📚 Books: There is a lot coming out of the publishing world this fall, including a Tim Curry memoir and a thriller novel about a hacker who retires from her hacking ways until a problem shows up at her front door. Here are 12 books to consider for your library hold list.  🎵 Music: NPR’s Music editor Sheldon Pearce says girl-group veteran Jade’s debut album That's Showbiz Baby! has a sense that a certain amount of drama might be attached to the adventure of show business. 🎭 Theater: Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are starring in the Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot. The play explores faith and the mysteries of existence as two friends, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for Godot, who may never show up. ❓ Quiz: I missed one question, again. I will get a perfect score again one day. Until then, here is your chance to receive a 100%.  Ever wished to be a fly on the wall in the meetings and conversations that are shaping the future of the U.S. and the world? Now you can with NPR’s newest podcast, Sources & Methods.  Every Thursday, host Mary Louise Kelly sits down with a team of NPR correspondents to discuss the biggest national security stories of the week, taking you inside the Pentagon, State Department, and CIA with military officials, intelligence experts and diplomatic leaders.  Listen to Sources & Methods on the NPR App, or wherever you get your podcasts.  NurPhoto via Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit yesterday against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, alleging that they misled consumers about ticket prices through scalpers to drive up resale prices. American Girl announced Wednesday that its 2026 Girl of the Year is Raquel Reyes, a 10-year-old Mexican American. She is from Kansas City, Mo., where her family owns a Mexican-style popsicle shop. (via KCUR) Earlier this year, Juli Cobb ran out of gas while in the middle of a road by a crowded homeless encampment under the freeway. Three men came over to help her by moving her car out of the road, helping to guide traffic around her and offering to fetch gas. Cobb said the generosity of her unsung heroes, who were on the street trying to survive, has remained with her.   Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from Hawai‘i Public Radio (edit station). This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen. Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can  sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Politics, Health and more!