NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-17-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: August 17, 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 mixed 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 Louise Skiyavoni. President Zelensky is in Brussels to attend a meeting involving France, Germany and Britain ahead of White House meetings. Leaders from across Europe, including the EU and NATO's chiefs, say they'll join Zelensky for talks on ending the war.

The BBC's Joe Inwood has details. This is an extraordinary, unprecedented show of diplomatic support for President Zelensky. When he travels to the White House tomorrow, he will be accompanied by the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Commission and NATO. all there to reinforce the message that Europe has his back and will be heard. But they're also travelling with another purpose to avoid a repeat of the disastrous scenes the last time Mr Zelensky visited the Oval Office. In February, Ukraine's leader was berated and humiliated by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, an event that had real diplomatic and military consequences.

The BBC's Joe Inwood, Israel's moving ahead with a plan to militarily occupy all of Gaza NPR's Aya Batrawe reports on airstriks and demolitions that have destroyed hundreds of homes there. An arm of Israel's defense ministry, known as Kogat, says it's preparing to move Gaza's population to the south and that after more than two months of Israeli blockade on shelter supplies, it will begin allowing tents from UN agencies and aid groups to enter Gaza starting Sunday in line with the government's plan. The UN, however, has said it will not participate in any forced displacement of the population. Already Israeli troops are operating in eastern and southern Gaza City. Israel's military says its 401st Brigade's combat team is operating against Hamas, strongholds in the city.

Mahmoud Basel, a spokesman for Gaza's rescue services, tells NPR Israel's military has destroyed 350 homes in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City this past week, and that tens of thousands of residents are being forcibly displaced. Aya Batrawi, MPR News. In a nationwide strike in Israel, opponents of a news, Israeli offensive in Gaza blocked roads and closed businesses. Israeli police responded to protesters with water cannons and arrests. The strike is organized by groups representing families of hostages who are concerned

and escalation would gravely endanger the remaining hostages. At the same time, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the world community to pressure Hamas on the hostages. We want them back home as soon as possible. The world should want them back home as soon as possible. Stop being a bunch of hypocrites. Press, because when you know how to press, you press. Press and tell Hamas, no deal, no nothing, until you release them.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The D.C. National Guard confirms that the guard members who are patrolling D.C. streets may be armed. Army senior master sergeant Craig Clapper tells NPR. Guard members may be armed consistent with their mission. This is NPR. In Bolivia, a major political shift. shift from left to right is possible after today's presidential and parliamentary elections. With the nation in the grips of the severe economic crisis, the races are tight.

Polls in the Andean nation show the two leading right-wing candidates battling in a virtual dead heat. Bolivia has the largest lithium reserves on earth and significant deposits of rare earth minerals. George Orwell's Animal Farm was published 80 years ago this weekend. And readers are still finding relevance in the classic allegorical novel. Vicki Barker has more from London. Subtitled A Fairy Story, Children Could Read Animal Farm as a simple tale of pigs who overthrow their humans and try to create their own paradise. But the adults reading it in 1945 saw it as a parable of Stalin's communist Russia,

scholar Jonathan Bait telling the BBC. The pigs end up being as bad as the humans they've experienced. spelled just as so many revolutions, perhaps all revolutions, end up with dictatorships. Writing in the Times of London, the British novelist A.N. Wilson says a central theme in Animal Farm, the, quote, pathetic weakness to believe political mantras remains horribly relevant in 2025. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London. Hurricane Aaron is now category three. The storm's outer bands are pelting the Virgin Islands in Puerto Rico, with wind and heavy rain, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the Turks and Kekos.

I'm Louise Skivoni, NPR News, Washington.