NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-18-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

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I'm Rachel Martin, host of Wildcard from NPR. I've spent years interviewing all kinds of people. And I've realized there are ideas that we all think about, but don't talk about very much. So I made a shortcut, a deck of cards with questions that anyone can answer, questions that go deep into the experiences that shape us. Listen to the Wild Card podcast only from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Krova Coleman, Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky and European leaders are scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House today.

The Trump administration says it hopes to build off last Friday summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And PR's Luke Garrett has more. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says some, but not a lot of progress, was made towards peace in Alaska. Here he is on ABC News. So we're still a long ways off. I mean, we're not at the precipice of a peace agreement. We're not at the edge of one. but I do think progress was made.

Rubio framed peace agreement negotiations as a balance between Ukrainian security guarantees and a land exchange with Russia. Zelensky said Sunday he can't trade land. The Secretary of State said if no peace deal is reached, Trump still has levers against Putin's economy. In terms of sanctions, look, at the end of the day, if we can't reach a peace agreement here and this war continues and so forth, then I anticipate you'll see the president take further action. He's already made that clear.

Rubio said it will ultimately be up to Putin and Zelensky to make the deal. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. The former head of Israeli military intelligence says that the high death toll in Gaza is necessary. He says it's to send a message to Palestinians after Hamas's October 2023 attack. NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv. Aharon Khaliva resigned from the military last year. Israeli TV aired leaked audio recordings where he discusses intelligence failures that led to the October 2020. attack. He said the death toll of tens of thousands killed in Gaza was necessary. He said for every

Israeli killed on October 7th, quote, 50 Palestinians must die. I am not speaking out of revenge. I am speaking about a message to the next generations. He said Palestinians periodically needed a Nakhaba, the term that refers to the permanent displacement of Palestinians during Israel's founding in 1948. The intelligence chief resigned more than a year ago and acknowledged the authenticity of the recordings. His comments come amid increasing condemnation of Israel's conduct in Gaza. Daniel Estrin NPR News, Tel Aviv. A massive immigration detention camp has opened at Fort Bliss, Texas. The first detainees were scheduled to arrive yesterday. From member station KTEP, Angela Kachirga reports protesters gathered outside the military base in El Paso.

More than 50 people held signs and chanted closed the camp. 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. 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. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. More National Guard troops are coming to Washington, D.C. They're coming from Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

All of these are Republican-led states. The district is a democratically-led city. President Trump says the Guard will help stop crime, but federal statistics say crime in Washington, D.C. is at a 30-year low. Jury selection begins today in San Francisco in a federal privacy trial involving big tech company Google. NPR's Bobby Allen reports Google is fighting claims that it improperly collected data from mobile phone users. A federal judge has rejected Google's attempts to throw out the case. It centers on Google allegedly tracking people even after they turn an off switch on cell phones to purportedly stop the tracking. The judge said evidence has shown Google was being intentionally vague about what the off switch actually did. And so a jury will now be selected to hear whether Google's actions violated California privacy.

laws. If the jury sides against Google, it could lead to stiff financial penalties. Google says the claim that it deliberately deceives consumers about tracking is patently false. Last year, Google settled a suit over its incognito mode after a lawsuit claim the company collects data on the supposedly private browsing sessions. Bobby Allen, NPR News. Google is a financial supporter of NPR. Some 10,000 flight attendants for Air Canada have rejected a Canadian government order to go back. to work. The airline says it will try again tonight to restart flights. Contract talks between the Air Canada and the flight attendants have broken down over wages. This is NPR. There's a lot of news happening. You want to understand it better, but let's be honest, you don't

want it to be your entire life either. Well, that's sort of like our show, here and now anytime. Every weekday on our podcast, we talk to people all over the country about everything from political analysis to climate resilience, video games. We even talk about. dumpster diving on this show. Check out here and now anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR.