NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-09-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Doa Lysa Kautau. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, says his country has no intention of recognizing Russian control over any part of its territory. This as President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are preparing for a summit without Zelensky next week. NPR's Greg Myri reports. President Zelenskyy made his position clear in a video on social media. He said, quote, Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier.

He added, we will not reward Russia for what it is perpetrated. President Trump announced to hold a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska. Trump is seeking an end to the war in Ukraine and says it could involve, quote, some swapping of territory. Ukraine is not part of the summit and Zelensky says no decisions can be made without his country's full participation. Russian forces control close to 20% of Ukraine's territory in the east and south of the country. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Kyiv. The UN Security Council announced another emergency meeting today to discuss Israel's announcement to take over Gaza after 22 months of fighting. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is in Tel Aviv with the latest.

The foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Britain all strongly condemn the Israel's government's decision to launch a new large. scale military operation. They say it risks violating international humanitarian law. Germany, one of Israel's staunchest longtime supporters along with the U.S., obviously due to historical reasons, the Holocaust, said it will stop exporting military equipment to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip. And Israelis I was talking to say that is huge. And peers Eleanor Beardsley reporting from Tel Aviv. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to vacate the seats of 13 state House Democrats. They left the state to deny the body a quorum during a special session. As Texas Public Radio's Jerry Clinton reports, the Democrats broke quorum

to block Republican efforts to create new district maps that could give the GOP five new congressional seats. A 1 p.m. Friday deadline set by the Texas House Speaker passed without the return of the Democratic lawmakers who are now in several different states. The move by Paxton follows a similar suit by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who sought to remove House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu. An attorney for the Democrats called the move a dangerous assault on the separation of powers. Paxton has also launched an investigation into former El Paso Congressman Beto O'Rourke's political group, asserting the group is funding Democrats' quorum break. I'm Jerry Clayton in San Antonio. President Donald Trump has removed former U.S. rep Billy Long as IRS Commissioner. This is

NPR News from New York. A crew of four is back on Earth after a nearly five months stay on the International Space Station after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. Central Florida public media's Brendan Byrne reports. On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home. The crew of two U.S. astronauts, one from Japan and a Russian cosmonaut, made the trip back home in the same capsule that took them to the station back in March. Over the course of an hour, the SpaceX capsule went from over 16,000 miles per hour in orbit to a gentle 16 under a canopy of parachutes at Splashdown off San Diego. In total, the crew spent 148 days in space, conducted more than 200 science experiments, and performed maintenance on the orbiting lab.

Their replacements arrived at the station a week ago, launching from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. They'll spend about six months aboard the station. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando. A 30-year-old gunman who opened fire at a CVO. drugstore near the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday has been identified. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says Patrick Joseph White of Kennesaw, Georgia died at the scene following an exchange of gunfire with local police. One officer was shot and killed and later identified as a DeKalb County officer, David Rose. He was a recent

graduate of the Police Academy. An investigation is underway to determine the motive and circumstances that led to the shooting, GBI says there is extensive evidence to collect. You're listening to NPR News from New York City. I'm Dwali Saikautau.