NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-18-2025 2AM EDT

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. European leaders will join Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the White House Monday for crucial talks with President Trump about the war in Ukraine. Among those attending will be French President Emmanuel Macron, who had some sharp word Sunday for Russia's Vladimir Putin. MPR's Rebecca Rossman reports 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 and PR News, Paris. A state of emergency has been issued for the outer banks of North Carolina overnight. A hurricane Aaron continues to move north off the U.S. coast. A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for summer visitors

who must leave by Monday morning. Aaron has returned to a category four storm and is expected to bring a tidal surge as high as 12 feet and dangerous waters off the coast. The hurricane is expected to affect the coast as far as up as Maine. In Massachusetts, lifeguard Jillian Boyle says they're ready. looking to see some rip currents. We've heard anywhere from eight to ten feet on a given day next week. So with that big surf, it's going to come the rip currents. It's been almost two years

since Hamas attacked Israel in October of 2023. Many of those killed or kidnapped by Hamas were at the Nova Music Festival near the Gaza Strip. But the producers of that festival have continued holding dance parties, and Pierce Emily Fang has more from Tel Aviv. Ophir Amir is one of the Nova producers. He was shot in both legs in the October 7th attack. He mounted this new festival in Tel Aviv so that bereaved families could come together and dance. Just the week before this year's festival, however, Israel's cabinet voted to Eskali its war in Gaza, a move opposed by much of Israeli society and families whose loved ones are held hostage in Gaza, because they fear their loved ones will be killed in the fighting,

fighting that's killed more than 62,000 Palestinians already, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Here's Amir. So it's simple. The war should end. the hostages should be brought back home, and, you know, it's almost two years. Among the hostages is his best friend, fellow producer, Alcana Boch Boat. Emily Fang and Piern News, Tel Aviv. British actor and writer Terence Stampedide Sunday. He was 87 years old.

He began his film career with 1962's Billy Budd. For Rich, he earned an Oscar nomination. He also won praise for his touching portrayal of the transsexual Bernadette in 1994's Adventure of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. This is NPR. News. Another 500 soldiers were sent to fight wildfires that continue to burn across northwestern Spain, adding to more than 1,400 troops that are now in the front lines as 12 major blazes burn near the town of Orins. Officials say homes are threatened and evacuations are continuing. Fires in Spain this year burn more than 390,000 acres so far. A massive immigration detention

camp at Fort Bliss is opened in Texas. The first detainees were scheduled to arrive on Sunday, as Angela Cocherga. With member station, KTEP reports protesters gathered outside the military base in El Paso. Close the camp! More than 50 people held signs and chanted close the camp at an entrance to Fort Bliss Sunday morning. Construction is advancing rapidly on a detention camp on the Army base. Immigration and customs enforcement says the facility will house single adults facing deportation from across the country. Fernando Garcia is the executive director of the border. network for human rights. The people that is going to end up in these centers are the people that are going to be picked up that are being picked up right now in Home Depot, in the fields, in the construction

sites. Ice says the camp will open with 1,000 beds with plans to expand to 5,000. For NPR news, I'm Angela Kochergan, El Paso. Scotty Schaffler chipped in from 82 feet on the 17th hole on Sunday to seal his win at the PGA Championship in Maryland this weekend. He came from four-stroke, down to beat Robert McIntyre by two strokes. It was Schaeffler's fifth PGA win this year. In the second consecutive year, he's had five or more wins. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.