NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-18-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Corvick Coleman, European leaders are joining Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today. They were left out of President Trump's meeting last Friday with Russian President Putin in Alaska. NPR's Lauren Freer reports. On the eve of this White House visit, UK Prime Minister Kier Starmar and French President Emmanuel Macron chaired a virtual meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing. Afterward, they issued a statement saying they're ready to deploy multinational force Ukraine. what they call a reassurance force, to, quote, help secure Ukraine's skies and seize and regenerate Ukraine's armed forces,

but only once hostilities cease. In their statements, Starmor and Macron say they reaffirm their support for Ukraine, praise Zelensky's desire for a just and lasting peace, and commend Trump's commitment to providing security guarantees to Ukraine. Lauren Freyer and PR News, Glasgow. President Trump says Hamas should be, confronted and destroyed. Writing online today, Trump says that's the only way Israeli hostages will return. Trump says, quote, the sooner this takes place, the better the

chances of success will be. More National Guard troops are coming to Washington, D.C. President Trump says they'll help stop crime, but federal data show violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low. Writing again online today, Trump wrongly claimed this data, prepared by the U.S. Justice Department, was put out by the city. Then Trump claimed the data was fake. He offered no evidence for that. Christina Henderson is a Washington, D.C. City Council member, she says the district has a long history of working with federal partners. I would honestly welcome the conversation with the federal government about how we can better partner on some of these deployment and operations. If the goal is really about public safety, there are so many other things that we can be doing as opposed to just a visible deterrent.

She spoke to NPR's Morning Edition. It's been two years since the Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill. People can buy this without a prescription. A new study shows this change has been effective in increasing access to contraception. And P.R.'s Katie Riddle reports. The study is from Oregon Health and Sciences University. It shows a nearly 32 percentage point increase in people who shifted to using the pill from no contraception at all. Dr. Maria Rodriguez is one of the lead authors.

I was super excited about them because it showed exactly what I thought and hoped we would see, which is that the over-the-counter pill is reaching individuals that have the greatest structural barriers to obtaining contraception from the health system. It especially helps those who are uninsured and live in rural areas. Katie Riddle, NPR News. On Wall Street, stocks are mixed. The Dow Jones industrials are up about 25 points. The NASDAQ is down nearly 20.

This is NPR. A freight train derailed in North Carolina yesterday. More than two dozen coal cars ran off a track about 70 miles northeast of Rale. The derailment has caused passenger rail Amtrak to cancel some service. Meanwhile, a new Amtrak line starts today between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. The Mardi Gras Service is the first time passenger rail service has been offered between the cities since Hurricane Katrina damaged the tracks 20 years ago. Stephen Bissaha of the Gulf State's newsroom reports from the inaugural ride along the Gulf Coast. Each Mississippi stop greeted the new Amtrak train with brass bands and big crowds. That included Stephen Sewell with his family, including his son. It's so loud. They're from New Orleans visiting Bay St. Louis, a growing getaway from the city. I believe we love Bay St. Louis.

So you plan on taking the train here? Yeah. Her family lives in Pensacola, so it's like a nice halfway point, too. So, yeah, it'll be good. About 240 million federal and local dollars are being invested to improve these tracks. Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker said this is when the last pieces needed to recover from Hurricane Katrina 20 years earlier. For NPR News, I'm Stephen Besaha on the new Mardi Gras Amtrak line. Hurricane Aaron remains a major category for hurricane and forecasters expected to strengthen.

Its top sustained winds are now at 140 miles per hour. Aaron is not predicted to hit the U.S. East Coast, but it is expected to trigger rip currents. I'm Corvick Coleman. NPR News in Washington.