NPR News Now - NPR News: 07-15-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

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Lyle from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. Russia does not appear to be rattled by US threats of economic penalties and weapons assistance to Ukraine. The Russian military is continuing its assault. Meanwhile, President Trump's vex, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is not committing to a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. I'm not done with him, but I'm disappointed in him. You know, we had a deal done four times, and then you go home and you see he just attacked a nursing home or something in Kiev. I said, what the hell was that all about? President Trump in an exclusive phone interview with the BBC.

Trump also talked about NATO. He says the military alliance is no longer obsolete now that they are, quote, paying their own bills. Trump's expected to make a second state visit to the UK this September. The Supreme Court has ruled the administration may continue its efforts to dismantle the US Department of Education. President Trump on social media says the ruling will facilitate returning the functions to states. Here's NPR's Corey Turner. The court reversed a lower court order that had blocked the administration from firing

some 1,400 department workers. Those layoffs were part of President Trump's stated goal of closing the education department. The ruling from the court's conservative majority came with no explanation. In a blistering dissent, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor called it indefensible, while President Trump hailed it as a major victory for parents and students. Plaintiffs had initially gotten an injunction from a federal judge by arguing a president cannot close a department created by Congress.

Yesterday's ruling allows the dismantling of the department to resume before the lower courts have decided if it is legal. Corey Turner, NPR News. Some two dozen states and the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration. They want the White House to release billions in frozen education funding. Tributes abound today for the legendary runner, Fajr Singh, believed to be the world's oldest marathon runner. He died yesterday.

He was 114 years old. Indian authorities say Singh passed away from injury sustained in a hit-and-run incident. Singh was featured in multiple videos and documentaries as an example that once never too old to start over. He'd lost loved ones, struggled with depression, left India to live with family in the UK, then took up running and did he ever. At the age of 89 he ran his first marathon in London. At the age of 89 he ran his first marathon in London. At 100 in Toronto he became the first centenarian to complete

a marathon. A year later Singh became the oldest torchbear of the 2012 London Olympics. He used his platform to promote charities, one of his secrets to longevity. to longevity, saying, advising in this documentary by the UK's Red Bridge Museum, don't eat too much and sleep better. It's NPR News. A federal appeals court is temporarily blocking President Trump's attempt to remove protections for nearly 12,000 Afghans who are in the U.S. NPR's Rylan Barton reports the order was issued as the protections were set to expire. Last week a lower court didn't grant a request to keep protections in place while the lawsuit plays out, but last night the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals did for a week.

The court didn't explain its decision, but said protections will remain in place until next Monday, while the Department of Homeland Security and nonprofit immigrant advocacy group CASA argue the case. Temporary protected status allows people fleeing persecution, natural disasters, and war to legally stay and work in the U.S. The Trump administration argues Afghans no longer need protection and that conditions have improved in Afghanistan. But some Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war in their home country say they'll face persecution if they go back. Rylan Barton, NPR News.

President Trump's tariffs are finally starting to have an impact on inflation as economists had cautioned. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, a bigger annual increase than the 2.4 rise, 2.4% increase seen in May. Measured on a month-to-month basis, consumer prices rose three-tenths of a percent, faster as well than the tenth of a percent monthly increase seen in May. Although Trump has pushed back many tariffs while threatening to reimpose them on August 1st against trading partners such as the EU, he has kept in place others such as a 10 percent Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.