NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-09-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jail Snyder. The Kremlin is confirming a summit between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. It will take place in Alaska next Friday. Trump announced a meeting on social media and indicated the talks would focus on negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine from Moscow. NPR's Charles Mainz has more. Kremlin advisor Yuri Shakov said the choice of Alaska for the meeting was, quote, quite logical. Given the U.S. and Russia were neighbors and Putin could easily. travel from the tip of far-eastern Russia across the Bering Strait.

Ushokov said the two leaders would focus on finding a long-term solution to the war in Ukraine. For Putin, that has meant demands NATO end its expansion eastward, and the Ukraine demilitarize and seed land claimed, but not always controlled by Russian forces. Yet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who is not included in the summit, is rejecting any deal that he says would reward Russian aggression, adding no decisions about Ukraine could be made without its participation. Charles Mainz and Pure News, Moscow. Speaking in a video address, President Zelensky

said seating land to Moscow would be a breach of his country's constitution. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier. Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace. Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve.

anything. They are unworkable decisions. President Zelensky heard there through a BBC interpreter. President Trump has said a deal to end the war in Ukraine would involve some exchange of territory. Authorities in Atlanta are searching for a motive in Friday shooting that left a suspected gunman and a police officer dead. The shooting happened at a CBS pharmacy near the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and also Emory University. Police in New York City say three people are in stable condition after being shot and wounded in Times Square overnight. A 17-year-old is in custody. California Governor Gavin Newsom says he's committed to putting a congressional redistricting measure before California voters this fall. Cap Radio's

Laura Fitzjailed reports on the response to the Republican-led effort in Texas to read all district lines to give the GOP a better chance to grab five additional seats. Newsom pledged to call a special election for California voters to approve new congressional maps that will boost prospects for Democrats in the state. He said President Donald Trump's call on the Texas GOP to change district lines left him no choice. We will nullify what happens in Texas. We will pick up five seats with the consent of the people. And that's the difference between the approach we're taking and the approach they're taking. Democratic leaders in California state legislature have been negotiating new maps since last weekend. They say their

proposal will be made public next week. For NPR News, I'm Laura Fitzgerald in Sacramento. know. And you're listening to NPR news. Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell is praising lion's safety, Maurice Norris, who was reported to be in stable condition after he had to be taken off the field in an ambulance during last night's pre-season game against Atlanta. He's breathing, you know, he's breathing, he's talking. It's good. He's got some movement, so, and now they're running more tests. Norris was seriously hurt during the first play of the fourth quarter when play resumed. players on both sides stood at the line of scrimmage until the game was suspended with

six and a half minutes left. Campbell says he and Falcons coach Rahim Morris agreed not to finish the game because it didn't feel right. Major League Baseball has never, in its 150-year history, had a woman called balls and strikes during a regular season game. But as Georgia Public Broadcasting's Peter Beello reports, that will change today. Forty-year-old Jen Powell worked more than 1,200 minor league games before getting the call to the big leagues. Now she's scheduled to work the base paths during a double header between the Miami Marlins and the Braves at Truest Park in Atlanta. She'll serve behind home plate in the following game. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says she has earned this opportunity, and he's proud of the

example she sets for women and young girls who aspire to roles on the field. Baseball is late among professional sports to break this barrier. The NBA's first female ref stepped on to the court in 1997, and the NFL had its first female official in 2012. For NPR News, I'm Peter Bielo in Atlanta. The North American Scrabble Players' Championship kicks off today. The competition is being held this year in Hanover, Maryland. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News from Washington.