NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-13-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump is deploying National Guard troops in the nation's capital this week as part of a federal crackdown on crime. Critics are questioning the stepped-up presence around Washington, D.C.,'s iconic monuments, including the National Mall and Lincoln Memorial. As NPR's Tom Bowman reports, they point out that those symbolic sites are far removed from neighborhoods where residents say, actual crime is occurring. Incidents of violent crime in the nation's capital have dropped sharply in the past two years, but most crimes are not committed around the national monuments. They're being committed in the neighborhoods or along the busy commercial streets.

I spoke with two retired National Guard generals who suggested that having guard troops only at the monuments is really more performative, a public relations move. That's NPR's Tom Bowman reporting. A growing wave of protests against the war. war in Gaza has swept Israel in recent weeks. NPR's Etai Stern reports, hundreds of retired Israeli Air Force pilots rallied in Tel Aviv last night to call for an end to the war and the return of hostages. Among the demonstrators was former chief of staff of the military, Dan Khalutz. He's also a fighter pilot and former head of Israel's Air Force. He told the crowd, Hamas no longer

possess a significant threat to Israel. saying the Gaza Strip is devastated, both its infrastructure and its people. There is no army there. The last remaining Hamas members are hiding. Khaluts also warned against political pressure that could push the Israeli army into actions of questionable legality, if not worse, adding, quote, the war in Gaza is eroding our morality and our values, both as human beings and as Jews. A recent poll showed 70% of Israelis support ending the war now.

Itai's turn, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Scientists say they've discovered 2.6 million-year-old teeth of a previously unknown human cousin. NPR's Nate Roth reports its further evidence that human evolution was a complicated process. We've all seen the T-shirts or memes of a series of apes standing up straighter and strater and morphing into modern coffee-drinking man and woman. anthropologists, though, have long known that human evolution was not a linear process, and the new findings published in the journal Nature adds another piece to the puzzle. The teeth, the researchers believe, belonged to a new species of Australopithecus,

an upright-walking ape-like species that coexisted with early human ancestors in East Africa. The discovery provides more evidence to researchers say that human evolution was similar to that of other species, with many branches and dead ends. Nate Rott, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Tropical storm airing continues to gain strength in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to be a Category 3 hurricane by the weekend. The National Hurricane Center says the storm is on track to pass just north of St. Martin,

the British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The storm will probably take a path that misses the Bahamas and the United States. YouTube is rolling out an age verification system in the U.S. It uses artificial intelligence to guess if a user is under age. NPR's John Ruich report social media sites are facing increasing pressure to protect kids from inappropriate content. YouTube says it'll use AI to assess a variety of signals, including account activity and longevity, to figure out if a signed-in user is a minor. If an account is determined to belong to someone who's under 18,

it says standard protections for minors will be automatically applied. Those include showing only non-personalized ads and enabling well-being tools, like reminders to take a break or go to bed. Users who think the AI model got it wrong can verify their true age with a photo ID or credit card. YouTube says its age inference approach has been used in other markets and it's worked well. Some critics say, though, it raises privacy concerns. John Rewich, NPR News. Venus Williams will return to Grand Slam Tennis at the U.S.

Open at the age of 45. She received a wildcard invite to compete in singles at Fleshing Meadows. Williams has won seven major singles championships, including at the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001. This is NPR News.