NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-16-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

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I'm Peter Sagle. NPR is very serious, mostly. It treats newsmakers with all due respect, almost all the time. It brings you the most important information about the issues that really matter, usually, and it never asks famous people about things they don't know anything about, except once in a while. Join us for the great exception. Listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the news quiz from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roran. President Trump and President Putin have ended their summit in Anchorage with vague words about progress. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, they met for three hours, but it's not clear what came of it. Coming into the summit, Trump said he would be unhappy if he didn't come away with a ceasefire. But when the two leaders came out to speak, there was no big announcement or a clear path to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump said he would be calling Ukraine's president and European leaders, but still said he hoped for another meeting. We'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.

Thank you very much, Vladimir. Next time in Moscow. Oh, that's an interesting one. I'll get a little heat on that one, but I can see it possibly happening. And with that, they abruptly left. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Alaska. California's Democratic leaders released a redrawn country. congressional map Friday that they plan to send to voters during a November special election.

The new map could yield five new seats for the Democrats. It is in response to the GOP-led redistricting plan in Texas. Cap Radio's Laura Fitzgerald reports. The new map would drastically change the political makeup of four GOP-held congressional districts, essentially flipping them to blue. One target seat would become bluer. If adopted, the new districts would make it easier for Democrats to pick up five congressional seats in the 2026 midterms. Republicans currently represent nine of California's 52 congressional seats. California Governor Gavin Newsom says the proposal could cancel out the Republican-led redistricting plan in Texas. Lawmakers in Sacramento are set to vote on the proposal in the coming days. For NPR News, I'm Laura Fitzgerald in Berkeley. The Trump administration is restarting a program

to fund high-speed electric vehicle chargers. Congress designated $5 billion for for the program, which has been frozen since February. NPR's Camilla Dominovsky reports Trump officials have removed many of the requirements for states to use this money. After the Trump administration's funding freeze stretched on for months, a group of states sued, noting the money was guaranteed by Congress. This week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement, quote, While I don't agree with subsidizing green energy, we will respect Congress's will. Andrew Bennett is the CEO of Drives, a company that makes charger software. No doubt about it. We've lost six months of what obviously should have been, you know, fluid set of funding.

The Trump administration is also removing a number of Biden-era rules, including requirements about where charges be located. Camila Dominovsky, NPR News. A federal grand jury in New Orleans on Friday indicted the city's mayor, Latoya Cantrell, on corruption fraud and conspiracy and obstruction charges. Prosecutors say she was in a romantic relationship with a member of her. staff. You're listening to NPR News. A strike by 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada appears all but imminent despite a plea by government officials to return to the bargaining table. Canada's largest airline is expected to have canceled about 500 flights by Friday in anticipation of the strike, but Union and airline management say disagreements over pay hikes and other

issues have brought the contract talks to a standstill. A revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of Cats will be opening on Broadway next spring. But it comes with a twist. As NPR's Jeff London reports, the projection, the production is one of many radical imagings of the composer's well-known shows. Cats, the Jellicle Ball, sounds like the Cats you know. But the performers are in drag at a competition in the underground ballroom scene. It was a hit off-Broadway last year. Other recent reimaginings of Andrew Lloyd-Weber shows include this year's Tony-winning

avant-garde revival of Sunset Boulevard and Evita in London, where Rachel Ziegler sings Don't Cry for Me, Argentina Outside, on the balcony of the theater itself, while a video is fed to the audience inside, and an immersive off-Broadway production of the Phantom of the Opera called Masquerade. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. York. It was a mixed day on Wall Street. The Dow gained 34 points Friday, but the NASDAQ declined 87. The S&P lost 18 points to close at 64,449. This is NPR News. Support for...