NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-17-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Herbst. European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House tomorrow for crucial talks with President Trump about Russia's war in Ukraine. Among them, French President Emmanuel Macron, who today had some sharp words for Russia's Vladimir Putin. MPR's Rebecca Rossman has more from Paris. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Macron didn't hold back.

Do I think President Putin wants peace? My answer is no, he said. McCone's comments come just days after Putin met with President Trump in Alaska, a three-hour meeting that produced no deal to end the war. Trump had said the main goal of the meeting was a ceasefire. But after the meeting, Trump shifted his tone, writing on social media a peace agreement, not a ceasefire, was the way to end the war. A position more aligned with Putin.

European leaders and Ukraine continue to push for an immediate ceasefire, which they see as the most realistic way to halt the fighting. Rebecca Rossman, NPR News, Paris. National Guard members patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C. may start carrying weapons. As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, they're there as part of the Trump administration's plan to dramatically ramp up policing in the Capitol. A spokesperson for the District of Columbia National Guard tells NPR that members, may be armed consistent with their mission and training. The U.S. Army said last week that Guard members' weapons would remain in the armory if needed. The Guard is on the streets of D.C. as part of President Trump's effort to take control of the city's police department and crack down on

crime and homelessness. Some residents and officials have criticized Trump's plan and noted that Washington's violent crime rate is down compared to last year. Still, others support the effort. And on Saturday, the three Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio said they would send their own National Guard troops to the Capitol to help. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. Investors on Wall Street this week will play close attention to a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Empires Rafael NAM reports the focus will be on whether he hints at potential rate cuts next month. After cutting interest rates by a full percentage point last year, the Fed has been more cautious, keeping them steady so far in 2025.

That caution comes as President Trump's tariffs threatened to raise prices in the U.S. But investors now believe the Fed will need to cut rates at its next policy meeting in September because there are now signs that the labor market could be slowing significantly. That could force policymakers to pivot from prioritizing inflation to paying more attention to the labor market. So investors will tune in this week when Powell is set to deliver an economic speech during a Fed event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Raphael N.P.R. News. This is NPR News.

British actor Terrence Stamp, star of Billy Budd and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, has died according to multiple media reports. He was 87 years old. Empires Bob Mandello has this remembrance. In his 1962 debut, his sailor Billy Budd watched a flogging with eyes so innocent. What was his crime? God only know, Chuck. And audiences just melted.

You mean you don't know what he did? Had he been less of an actor, he might have stayed a heartthrob. Instead, he challenged himself every time out. As a psychopath and the collector, a seductive stranger in Theorem, an ex-con bent on revenge in the Limey. The roles for which later audiences best remember him are a good indication of his range, a supervillain in Superman 1 and 2,

and Bernadette, a middle-aged trans woman in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Being a man one day and a woman the next, an easy thing to do. There wasn't much that actor Terrence Stamp couldn't play. Bob Mandelo, NPR News. At the weekend box office, the horror film Weapons took the top spot once again with an estimated $25 million in ticket sales. In second place, Freakier Friday, with $14 million. The sequel to the 2003 film Freaky Friday brings back the stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. In third place, the R-rated action sequel, Nobody 2 with not. million dollars. That film follows the pandemic success of the first in this series, nobody, released in 2021. In the sequel, Hutch Mansell, the assassin turned Nice Guy, returns to the big screen, this time taking a much-needed family vacation that goes awry. This is NPR News.