NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-18-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump says he is hoping to schedule a trilateral meeting with himself and President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. NPR's Tamara Keith report Zelenskyy and European leaders are at the White House today in a follow-up to President Trump's Alaska summit with Putin. At the start of the White House meeting, European leaders expressed cautious optimism, as President Trump outlined the contours of a potential peace deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine. In a very significant step, President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine,

and this is one of the key points that we need to consider, and we're going to be considering that at the table also, like, who will do what? But he added, there would likely need to be a possible exchange of territory where Russia has made gains. Trump said he hoped a trilateral meeting would be possible very soon, and Zelensky echoed that hope. Tamara Keith, NPR News. Texas House Democrats have returned to the state capital in Austin, ending their two-week quorum break. Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider reports a Democrats' return opens the door to Republicans' passage of a new congressional map that would help the GOP gain five seats in next year's midterm elections. Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burroughs said the time had come for the chamber to get

back to business. This body has endured wars, economic depressions, and quorum breaks dating back to the very first session. It will withstand this too, and what will remain in is a chamber where the majority has the right to prevail and the minority has the right to be heard. That said, boroughs announced that those Democrats for whom arrest warrants had been issued would only be allowed to leave the chamber in the custody of Department of Public Safety Troopers who would ensure their return on Wednesday. For NPR News, I'm Andrew Schneider in Houston. Mississippi is now the fourth Republican-led state to pledge the deployment of hundreds of National Guard forces to Washington, D.C., all part of President Trump's federal policing of the nation's capital. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for portions of North Carolina's Outer Banks due to possible flooding from Hurricane Erin.

Cherise Piggott of Member Station WUNC has the latest. Evacuation orders are in place for Hatteras and Okrake Islands in Dair and Hyde counties, where officials are urging residents to leave. starting Tuesday morning. While Hurricane Aaron is not expected to make direct landfall, the storm system could increase in size. The National Weather Service says Aaron could bring several days of heavy surf and high winds as well as wash out parts of the main highway on the outer banks. Coastal flooding is expected to begin as early as Tuesday and last through Thursday. That means beaches in the area are closed too at the height of tourism season. For NPR news, I'm Cherise Piggott in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed

down 34 points ending the day at 44,911. This is NPR News. MSNBC will soon be MS now. The company says it's changing its name to My Source News Opinion World and dropping its peacock logo, all part of Comcast planned a spin-off a new company called Versant. It's a new kind of summer for some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. They're getting relief from the heat by show. their shoulders. Sarah Hewlett of Member Station K-U-E-R spoke with some Mormon women. Faithful Latter-day Saints wear religious garments under their normal clothes. But this is the first summer the church is offering the sacred garment without sleeves in its nearly 200-year history.

Brigham Young University student Dara Layton is very excited. So I went on probably the biggest shopping spree I've ever gone on in my entire life. But I was just like so excited to have new styles that I could wear. Adult church members receive the garments in temple ceremonies. Layton says they're part of a commitment to God. But some Latter-day Saint women are frustrated by the garment change. They wonder why they had to cover their shoulders for so long, only for them to be okay to show now.

For NPR News, I'm Sierra Hewlett in Provo, Utah. Words like Skibitty and Dululu made the cut. There are among more than 6,000 new words. A Cambridge Dictionary added, Colin McIntosh, the lexical program manager for the world, world's largest online dictionary says internet culture is changing the English language. Enter scibitty, a nonsensical slang coined by the creator of an animated YouTube series that can mean bad or cool. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.