NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-14-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

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These days, there's so much news. It can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community. The Consider This Podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. President Trump says, his summit tomorrow with Russia's president Vladimir Putin is, quote, like a chess game to set up a follow-up meeting between Putin and Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump made the comments on Fox News radio this morning. Tomorrow's meeting on U.S. soil in Alaska will focus on Russia's war in Ukraine.

NPR's Charles Mainz reports from Moscow the talks may also touch on other issues. President Putin gathered his top advisors ahead of the summit to inform them of preparations for the talks. In brief televised remarks, Putin thanked the Trump administration for what Putin called its sincere efforts to end the war in Ukraine. That comes as Trump, as revived demands for a ceasefire and threaten punishing sanctions if Russia fails to agree to one. Yet Putin suggested the two sides used their time together in Alaska to also discuss arms control. And separately, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said huge untapped potential for Russian-American economic cooperation would also be on the docket. Charles Mainz, MPR News, Moscow. Zelensky met with British Prime Minister Kier-Starmer today in London.

More than 100 aid organizations have issued a demand to end what they describe as Israel's weaponization of aid to Gaza. And PR's Jane Arraf has more. The statement says most organizations have been unable to deliver a single truckload of aid to Gaza since March when Israel introduced new registration rules. Aid groups described the rules as unlawful, unsafe, and incompatible. with humanitarian principles. Israel issued a statement saying that the refusal of some non-governmental organizations to register raises the possibility of ties between those groups and the militant group Hamas. One U.S.-based group, Anera, says Israel is blocking more than $7 million worth of its aid,

including food for 6 million meals, just a few miles from the border. Jane Arraf, NPR News, Amman. The Trump administration is building a billion-dollar detention center at Fort Bliss, Texas, near the Mexico border. Angela Kocherga from member station KTEP reports the first detainees are scheduled to arrive Sunday. Construction on the detention center is moving ahead very quickly at Fort Bliss. That's the Army's massive installation in El Paso. A few structures are visible from the road just outside the base, including a giant white tent. The camp will house single adults facing deportation, and according to ICE, the facility will open with 1,000 beds with plans to expand to 5,000.

The administration has been criticized for conditions at some holding facilities across the country, but ICE says this camp will include access to legal representation, visitation, and medical treatment. Angela Kocherga reporting, ICE has set out to significantly increase space to hold migrants' entertainment. This is NPR News in Washington. President Trump's decision to end temporary protected status for immigrants from a number of countries has rattled care workers, as NPR's Andrea Shoe reports. In coming months, immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, and other countries are set to lose their authorization to live and work in the U.S. Among them are home health care workers and nursing homeworkers, some of whom have been in the U.S. for decades. Arnufel de la Cruz leads SCIU-Local 2015. a union representing care workers in California.

He worries the policy changes will hurt families who need help. We were already in a huge care shortage, so there's not enough caregivers to be matched with people who need care. The Trump administration says temporary protected status has been abused as a de facto asylum system, allowing unvetted people to settle in the U.S. indefinitely. Andrea Shue and PR News. Taylor Swift has announced the official release date for her next album.

The Life of a Showgirl will drop October 3rd. She shared the track list, too. It's 12 new songs with the last track featuring Sabrina Carpenter. Swift also revealed the album cover. On it, she's bedazzled in jewels and partially submerged in water. Swift talked about her upcoming album on her boyfriend, Travis Kelsey, and his brother Jason's podcast, New Heights. She said, this is the record she's been wanting to make for a very long time.

The Life of a Showgirl will be Swift's first album since she gained control over all of her music rights and her 12th studio album. I'm Kristen Wright, and this is NPR News in Washington.