NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-16-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: August 16, 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 Nora Rahm. President Donald Trump and Ukraine's leader Vladimir Zelensky say they'll meet at the White House on Monday to talk about ending the war in Ukraine.

The announcement comes just hours after Trump held a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska. NPR's Greg Myrie reports. President Trump called Zelensky and extended the invitation as he flew back from Alaska to Washington. Zelensky wrote on social media that Monday's meeting will discuss, quote, all the details regarding ending the killing and the war. Trump said in his own social media posts, they believed it was best to go directly

to a peace agreement rather than a mere ceasefire. But that's a very tall order. Trump has pushed for months, without success, to get a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine endorses Trump's call, while Russia's Putin has not. Speaking at the Alaska summit, Putin gave no indication he had changed his position. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Kiev. Some Democratic Texas lawmakers are still apparently out of state to keep the legislature from voting on a Republican proposal to redraw the state's congressional maps. A special session ended yesterday,

but the governor has called another special session to take it up again. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burroughs has a message for the Democrats when they do return. Do not think you have permission to return to Texas and enjoy a peaceful weekend before finally showing up to work. DPS will remain active and civil arrest warrants will be reissued. If you are located, you will be compelled to this chamber. The map redrawing in Texas has prompted California Governor Gavin Newsom to plan to put redistricting on the ballot there in November.

Yesterday, California Democrats released their proposal for a new congressional map. A recent executive order signed by President Trump paves the way for retirement accounts to start including assets such as crypto, real estate, and private. private equity. NPR's Laura Wamsley reports. Most people's retirement accounts are full of stock and bond funds, but this executive order directs several federal agencies to start clearing the path for assets like crypto and private equity in accounts like 401Ks. There's no law banning these more exotic investments in a retirement account, but federal law requires that employers be prudent in what they offer in employees' retirement plans, or they risk being sued by their workers. Experts say these new

kinds of assets may not be well suited to everyone's 401k. Private equity, for example, often charges very high fees and can tie up money for a decade, and crypto has high volatility and is loosely regulated. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News. In the Caribbean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season is now a category five storm. Hurricane Aaron's winds are nearing 160 miles per hour. This is NPR News in Washington. A Catholic aid organization says an Israeli airstrike in Gaza this week destroyed a warehouse filled with food and baby formula. Two workers were killed.

The aid was to be distributed this week to Christian and Muslim families. Two Palestinian children were part of the medal ceremony at the European Super Cup finals match for soccer held in Italy this week. The presence comes as the health ministry in Gaza says more than 18,500 children have been killed by Israeli. fire in the war there. NPR's Emily Fang reports. Players at the match also unfurled a banner on the field that read, stop killing children, stop killing civilians. The banner made no reference to Israel or its war in Gaza, but it was clear what the banner was referring to. This month, 41-year-old

Suleiman obeyed, one of the most famous Palestinian players of all time, was killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to get food for him and his family, according to the Palestinian Football Association. The Union of European Football Associations put out a statement celebrating Obeid's life. But that statement was criticized online by Mohamed Salach, an Egyptian star player for the Premier League's Liverpool Club, for not mentioning how Obeyed died. Israel's sports minister Mickey Zohar told NPR he had no comment on the matter. Emily Fang and Pier News Tel Aviv. A 97-year-old woman has completed 250 park runs, community 5K events. the oldest woman in Europe to do so. Grace Chambers set the record today in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

She had taken up running at the age of 88 after undergoing heart surgery. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News.