NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-08-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

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There's a lot of news happening. You want to understand it better, but let's be honest, you don't want it to be your entire life either. Well, that's sort of like our show, here and now anytime. Every weekday on our podcast, we talk to people all over the country about everything from political analysis to climate resilience, video games. We even talk about dumpster diving on this show. Check out Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens. Democratic legislators who fled Texas to prevent voting on a GOP redistricting plan remain in the Chicago area. Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn says the FBI has now agreed to help find them. Democratic state legislator Gene Wu says Cornyn is threatening to weaponize the FBI. Our concern here is that they're happy to break the law, to ignore the law, to school around the law because it's convenient and easy for them. We're always concerned about that. Wu says the use of the FBI to track down elected officials is illegal. NPR has obtained police body cam footage from the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol building.

As NPR's Tom Dreisbach reports, the video shows a Justice Department official urging rioters to, quote, kill police. During the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Jared Wise went up to a police line and called the cops Nazis. You are the Nazi. You are going to stop them. As he watched officers being attacked, Wise yelled, kill him. Wise did not personally attack police, and he pleaded not guilty to charges that he aided and abetted an assault, that we admitted to yelling kill him. President Trump issued mass pardons for January 6th defendants and dismissed Wise's case. Now the Department of Justice has hired Wise as a senior advisor. In a statement, the department called him a valued member of their team.

Tom Dreisbach, NPR News. Japan's prime minister is insisting that his nation and the U.S. are on the same page when it comes to the terrorists that took effect on Thursday. But as NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports, the Japanese government is also insisting that the U.S. change its directive on tariffs. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Japan has confirmed with the U.S. that there's no difference in understanding about the 15% tariff rate the two sides agreed on last month. Japan thought the agreement was the tariffs on its exports would be capped at 15%. But the U.S. Federal Register says that the 15% is in addition to existing tariffs. Prime Minister Ishiaba added that Japan is strongly urging the U.S. to change President Trump's executive order, which took effect today.

This week in Japan's parliament, opposition lawmakers grilled Ishiaba about why he didn't get the deal with the U.S. in writing. Ishiba argued that doing so would have delayed the reduction of the tariffs from the threatened 25% to 15%. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his security cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City. Under the plan aimed at defeating Hamas, Israeli forces will take control of the Palestinian

city while distributing aid to civilians outside of combat zones. Netanyahu says the plan also calls for returning all hostages seized during the October 2023 attack that sparked the war. This is NPR. In Southern California, thousands of residents from Los Angeles and Ventura counties are being evacuated because of a fast-moving canyon fire. The blaze has consumed 1,500 acres and is 0% contained. Meanwhile, the 99,000-acre Gifford fire in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara is now 15% contained. Las Vegas is experiencing a dip in tourism following years of a post-pandemic boom.

NPR's Juliana Kim reports on the implications for the broader U.S. economy. In the first six months of this year, Las Vegas saw about 1.5 million fewer visitors compared to the first half of 2024. In June alone, the city welcomed nearly 400,000 fewer visitors than it did last year. That's according to new data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Las Vegas-based economist Andrew Wood says part of the reason is that consumers are changing how they spend their money in response to tariffs and economic uncertainty. It's just their monoc discerning about where and how they're traveling and where they're spending their dollars.

He says the city has also been hit by a loss of international visitors, particularly from Canada. Juliana Kim, NPR News. Americans are consuming mostly ultra-processed foods, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From August 2021 until 2023, the CDC says more than half the calories for most Americans came from manufactured food.

For people 18 and under, the percentage was even higher. The findings are based on a survey by the National Center or Health Statistics. You're listening to NPR News. Material scientist Anna Maria Kuklita is creating tech that replicates skin and simulates touch. A prosthetic hand would feel if the patient is holding a hot cup or a cold bottle of beer. Ideas about our skin And how we use it to interact with the world That's on NPR's TED Radio Hour

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