NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-17-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roran. The leaders of France, Germany and Britain will co-chair a conference call later today after President Trump dropped his demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine. There are concerns that by backing Vladimir Putin's preference for an overall peace deal, Trump has in effect brought Russia more time to consolidate its military gains. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports. In Russia, pro-Kremlin media have been hailing the Alaska summit as a diplomatic victory for President Putin, suggesting that President Trump had been

persuaded not to insist on a Russian ceasefire in Ukraine, but instead to focus on securing a peace agreement. And if a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine cannot be reached, Russia's leadership won't be too upset, wrote the pro-government news outlet Moskowski Kamsamolitz, adding Putin has been banking on the Russian army and continues to do so. Steve Rosenberg. Demonstrations around the country on Saturday protested against Trump administration policies. They also showed support to Texas Democratic lawmakers who are refusing to vote on a Republican-backed plan to re-jaw congressional districts. Political analysts say Republicans could gain as many as five seats before next year's critical midterm elections. In Chicago, Illinois State Senator Selena Villanueva

said she's supporting the Texas lawmakers, some of whom have been in Illinois, refusing to return to Texas. Every instance, in our nation's history, it has been the people of this country that have risen up against tyranny, against oppression, against those forces that seek to repress us and oppress us. And we will not let that continue to happen. On Friday, California's Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a plan to redistrict congressional voting lines in that state, that could net them five seats. Hurricane Aaron is now a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour.

It was briefly a category five storm before losing some of its punch. Heavy rains and gusty winds are now hitting Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Michael Brennan is the director of NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami. We expect Aaron to continue as a powerful major hurricane

gradually turning northward into a break in the subtropical ridge to the east of the Bahamas and then passing somewhere between the outer banks of North Carolina and Bermuda as we move from Wednesday into Thursday of next week, it's important to remember that as hurricanes move out of the deep tropics, they tend to grow in size, and we're expecting the tropical storm force winds from Aaron to more than double in size as we go through the week next week. Aaron is still expected to avoid a direct hit on land as it passes north of Puerto Rico, then curves

north along the Atlantic East Coast before heading towards Canada. to NPR News. Just months before she's scheduled to leave office, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell has been indicted by a federal grand jury. Prosecutors say she and a bodyguard attempted to defraud the city concealing a romantic relationship and taking numerous personal trips at city expense. Cantrell's term livid and will leave office in January. George Orwell's Animal Farm was published 80 years ago, Sunday 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 Bate telling the BBC, The pigs end up being as bad as the humans they've expelled, 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. Pope Leo is marking his first 100 days.

in office as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The first American-born Pope, who is a native of Chicago, appears to be setting a more measured tone at the Vatican than his predecessor, Pope Francis, even pursuing many of his policies. This is NPR. Support for NPR.