NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-21-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

NPR News: 08-21-2025 7AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, on Krova Coleman, a Russian missile has hit an American electronics factory in Ukraine, causing extensive damage and injuries. This is according to Ukrainian officials. NPR's Greg Myrie reports the attack came as Russia carried out one of its largest air strikes of the war. President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials took to social media to report the airstrike on the U.S. factory. He said a Russian cruise missile slammed into the plant in more than a dozen people were wounded. He did not name the company. Videos show thick black smoke rising from a large industrial plant in the far west of Ukraine near the border with Hungary. Russia attacks western Ukraine less frequently than other areas. But the region was the focus of Russia's overnight barrage that included 570 drones and 40 missiles.

This comes just days after President Trump met separately with Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the war. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Keeve. The Texas State House has passed a plan to redraw the state's congressional districts. The GOP plan aims to send up to five more Republicans to the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections. This could help the GOP increase its control over Congress. Texas House Democrats, led by Representative Gene Wu, fled the state for two weeks to try to block the plan. But many returned. Wu says the redistricting plan is something that will have.

affect all Americans. This is not over. We will continue fighting. But what needs to happen is we need every American, every Texan to start paying attention and start learning about how we got here. The measure has moved to the Republican-led Texas State Senate. California lawmakers will meet today. They're considering a plan to send Democrats to Congress. The White House says more than 550 arrests have been made since President Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation's capital. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports the city's large immigrant population has mixed emotions about the growing operation. In this largely Latino neighborhood of Washington, D.C., street vendors and food delivery drivers have disappeared. Residents say people are anxious and afraid to go out

since ICE and other federal agents started turning up to arrest people. It's sad, says Janet Bernal, as she pushes a toddler and a stroller, they work hard, pay their taxes, and are treated badly. She and others do support cracking down on criminals. The White House says some arrested immigrants here illegally have been charged with kidnapping, assault, and burglary. But legal rights groups say some with legal status are also being arrested for minor infractions through traffic checkpoints and roving patrols.

Jennifer Lutton, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR News. Forecasters say Hurricane Aaron is slowly pulling away from the east coast. It is not made landfall, but tropical storm warnings extend from North Carolina's outer banks to southern Virginia. Officials are urging people to stay out of the ocean because of life-threatening rip currents. These warnings reach as far north as New England. Local voting officials are leaving their jobs at the highest rate recorded in at least 25 years. NPR's Miles Parks reports the new data show the effect President Trump's falsehoods about voting have had on the profession.

Roughly 40 percent of the voting officials who oversaw the 2020 election left their jobs before the 2024 cycle. That's according to new research from the Bipartisan Policy Center. Rachel Ory, who leads the Center's Elections Project, says an increase in pressure and harassment have amplified turnover trends that were already happening in the field. Rising turnover is almost like a canary and a coal mine. indicating that something deeper and more structural and the way that we conduct elections needs to be fixed. Election officials say this year has been a little quieter when it comes to election denial after Trump's win in 2024. But they expect pressure to pick back up next year ahead of the midterms. Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington.

The annual economic summit that is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City opens today. It's held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Economists, central bankers, and policy meters will meet there. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will deliver a highly anticipated speech tomorrow on labor markets. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington.