NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-16-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump is back in Washington after his meeting in Alaska with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. On the return flight, he spoke with NATO leaders and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy to update them on the meeting with Putin. The two men met for nearly three hours but did not reach a ceasefire agreement to Russia's war against Ukraine. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports. Standing in front of a banner that read Pursuing Peace, President Trump said he has a fantastic relationship with Putin, though they didn't announce a ceasefire or any concrete plan to end the war.

But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. Putin called the war a tragedy without addressing his role in starting it, and he said Europe and Ukraine should not try to torpedo what he called. nascent progress in the summit in Alaska. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington. The chief executive of PBS says she's cutting 21% of the television network's budget,

this in response to the elimination of federal funding for public media. As NPR's David Folken-Frick reports, she also told PBS stations she would try to shield them from some of the financial impact. Paula Kerger had to answer pointed questions about allegations of liberal bias in PBS's programming at a hearing in the U.S. House just a few months ago. Those hearings helped to fuel President Trump's successful call to Republican lawmakers to pull back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting. Spending the GOP-led Congress had already approved and that he had already signed it in law

for the next two fiscal years. NPR is, if anything, a stronger focus of criticism from the right, but television is more expensive than radio, and PBS and its stations rely more heavily on federal funding. Kerger said PBS was cutting the fees at charges stations to run its programs by $35 million, and would give them more time to pay the remaining dues next year. The network declined to say how it would cut its budget by a fifth, NPR has already said it would cut fees next year by $8 million. David Falkenflik and PR News.

After months of deliberations, Baltimore is accepting an opioid settlement. Scas Masayoni has more. The final award is a historic win that brings Baltimore's total winnings from opioid companies to nearly $580 million. The city sued opioid companies independently, rather than taking the global settlement to lucrative results, The city won its case against McKesson and Sincorra in November, and the jury awarded the city about $266 million in damages. The city also submitted a more than $5 billion abatement plan to reduce

overdoses in the near future. But the judge in the case reduced those amounts to $52 million of damages and only allowed for $100 million for abatement. Baltimore is still set to receive more settlement funding from Johnson & Johnson and the Sackler family. For NPR News, I'm Scott Masioni in Baltimore. are. Flash flooding in India and Pakistan has left more than 280 people dead and scores of others are reported missing. Rescuers Friday brought more than 1,600 people to safety in two mountainous districts in the neighboring nations. Heavy rainfall began an Indian concold Casimir and spread to Pakistan. The mayor of New Orleans has been indicted by a federal

grand jury. It's the first time in the city's history that a sitting mayor facing criminal charges. Mel Bridges of Member Station WRKF has more. Mayor LaToya Cantrell and former NOPD officer Jeffrey Vappy are charged with 18 felony counts, including conspiracy and wire fraud. Prosecutors alleged the mayor and VAPE used their positions to cover up an affair that started in fall of 2021 during the time he was assigned to her security detail. The pair allegedly spent hours in a city-owned department while on duty, arranged for VAPE to travel out of state with the mayor on work trips, deleted evidence, made false statements to federal investigators, and gave false statements to a jury. Cantrell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in public statements. In June,

she called the allegations levied against her, quote, disrespectful. For NPR News, I'm Mel Bridges in Baton Rouge. After a six-month freeze and a legal battle with states, the Trump administration is now reopening a federal program to fund the installation of high-speed electric vehicle charges along the country's highways, the Department of Transportation had froze some of the five billion dollars that Congress appropriated for the program after it was approved by the Biden administration. This is NPR News.