NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-15-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

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It's that time of gear again. Planet Money Summer School is back. This semester with help from professors, policy experts, and yes, even a Nobel laureate, we're diving into how government and the economy mix and asking the big questions like, what role should government play in our economy? Does government intervention help or hurt and how big should the government be? That's on Planet Money Summer School from NPR, wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. Ukrainians are keeping close watch on today's summit between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska. But as NPR's Greg Myrie reports, Ukrainians are concerned about

agreements that might emerge since their leader isn't at the summit to make his case. Ukrainians have high interest in the summit and low expectations for what it might produce. One common response is that nothing substantive will come of the talks in Alaska. They think Russia's Putin is still firmly committed to the war. Olena Humanuk, age 46, lives in Kyiv. She says she thinks this summit is a waste of time. Negotiations are possible, she adds, but only if Ukraine is included. Some Ukrainians fear Trump and Putin might reach some sort of arrangement that would favor Russia,

and then Ukraine will face pressure to accept it. An outcome, they say, that will only make their position more difficult. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Kiev. California Governor Gavin Newsom is moving ahead with plans to redraw congressional maps to try to win more seats for Democrats. This is to counter efforts by Republicans in Texas. Newsom made the announcement at a press conference in Los Angeles yesterday. Outside the building were border patrol agents.

Newsom called it an intimidation tactic. But Border Patrol sector chief Gregory Bovino said these were just normal patrols. This is a location that we have conducted these roving patrol duties for the past. two months. But L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says it is no coincidence. There was no reason in the world for them to come here. Nothing to do with safety. In fact, this is the exact opposite of keeping our city safe. We do not need them here, and they have no business to come here and provoke this. California will put the question to voters and hold a special election in November on redrawn districts. President Trump is turning up the heat on corporate

America. As NPR's Maria Aspen reports, his recent actions are reshaping the future of business and the wider economy. The word unprecedented gets used a lot to describe how President Trump is wielding power. But even by those standards, he's tightening the screws on big companies. Trump publicly excoriated to executives at Intel and Goldman Sachs, who aren't household names. But business experts have been even more rattled by a deal he announced with NVIDIA, which will pay the U.S. government a cut of its sales in exchange for being allowed to sell one of its chips in China. Ryan Bourne is an economist at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Now, that isn't really free markets, as Americans have understood it. It's almost political

fee markets. He's one of many, warning that Trump's efforts to exert more control over companies threaten free market capitalism and the wider U.S. economy. Maria Aspen, NPR News. This is NPR News from Washington. students still aren't showing up to school at pre-pandemic numbers. Chronic absenteeism is still elevated in new numbers from the 2024-2020 school year. NPR's Sequoia Carrillo reports. Five years after the onset of the pandemic and switch to virtual learning, students remain out of the classroom at higher rates than before lockdown.

A new report out of the Rand Corporation finds that the problem is particularly persistent in urban districts. This past school year, in roughly half of urban school districts, more than 30% of students were chronically absent. On top of that, one quarter of students in K-12 districts say they do not think that being chronically absent is a problem. District leaders continue to worry about the impact of high absenteeism on students' academic recovery. Sequoia Carillo NPR News. Kellogg is planning to get rid of artificial dives. from all of its cereals by the end of 2027. The maker of fruit loops, frosted flakes, and apple jacks says it wants to give consumers more of what they want and need like whole grains and

fiber and less of what they don't. The company says it's starting with schools and will reformulate their cereals served in cafeterias by next year. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the dyes and says Kellogg has now signed a legally binding agreement. The company said it had already planned to remove the synthetic coloring. Other food makers have promised to do the same thing. I'm Kristen Wright, and this is NPR News.