NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-04-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Texas Democrats have successfully prevented Republicans from moving forward on a plan backed by President Trump to redraw the state's congressional map, at least for now. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burroughs a short time ago. Members, a quorum is not present. The role has been called and a quorum has not been established. More than 50 Texas Democrats fled the state over the weekend to prevent passage of that controversial redistricting map that could give the GOP five more seats in Congress. Ali Jarmaning of Member Station WBUR spoke with two of them.

Representatives Anna Hernandez and Armando Walle are in Boston for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Walle says they're not afraid of Governor Greg Abbott's threats to remove them from office for not showing up to vote. Our constituents expect us to fight. They don't expect us to lie down. I'm not worried about any legal, political ramifications because the people have elected us to do what we're doing today.

Hernandez says this redistricting attempt should be a warning to other states. "...because it's Texas now, but it's going to continue through the rest of the states and it's going to kill our democracy." Democrats say they're prepared to stay away until at least August 19th, the end of the special session. For NPR News, I'm Ali Jarmaning. Republican leaders in the Texas House are seeking to compel Democrats to return to the state. They've issued civil warrants for their arrest. It's not clear whether such warrants can or will be enforced

beyond Texas borders. Smoke from those wildfires in Canada creating unhealthy air quality conditions for many in the Northeast. From Buffalo, Toronto Public Media, Michael Oss reports. An air quality advisory for fine particulate matter went into effect across most of New York State this morning, with the worst conditions being around Buffalo. The state reported that the peak air quality index was around 8 a.m. with a score of 154. CEO of the Community Health Care Association of New York, Rose Doohan, says that number creates unhealthy conditions for the general population and those with chronic health conditions. Health centers treat all kinds of chronic conditions and asthma is a chronic condition

that affects a lot of health center patients. And so anything that exacerbates those kinds of conditions, it's really noticeable. Duhan recommends that vulnerable populations limit outdoor physical activity until conditions clear. For NPR News, I'm Michael loss in Buffalo Notice of a State Department proposal that could make it harder to obtain a business or tourist visa is expected to appear in the federal Register tomorrow the department is planning to start a 12 month pilot program under which people from countries deemed to have high under which people from countries deemed to have high overstay rates and deficient internal document security control would be required to post bonds of up to $15,000 to enter the country.

States as the country is affected will be listed once the program takes effect. This is NPR News. Police in Tennessee have yet to catch up with the man wanted in the murders of four people, but they have made arrests. Authorities say a 23-year-old woman was arrested and charged today with assisting 28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond. Two men have also been arrested for allegedly helping Drummond. In Montana, authorities are still searching for an Army veteran wanted in the killing of four people at a bar in the small town of Anaconda, that manhunt is in its fourth day. Thousands of Boeing defense workers are on strike. Some 3,200 union members walked off the job overnight at three Boeing manufacturing plants, two in the St.

Louis area and one in Illinois. The workers rejected a second contract offer the previous day. After months of trying to contact a probe headed for the moon, NASA has announced it's ending the mission. Joe Palka reports on that probe that was supposed to map and characterize water on the moon. Lunar Trailblazer launched successfully on February 26th, but almost immediately ground controllers lost the ability to command the spacecraft, and so it never made the mid-course correction needed to get the probe into lunar orbit. One of the problems seemed to be the spacecraft's solar panels weren't pointing toward the

sun, so its batteries weren't charging. Mission managers had hoped the craft might drift into a favorable orientation for charging, so they kept listening for a signal, but none arrived. Scientists are reasonably certain there's water on the moon, they're just not sure what form it's in. Ice, frost, or water molecules bound to rocks. The technology developed for the lunar trailblazer will be used on future missions designed to resolve that. For NPR News, I'm Joe Palca. And I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.