NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-22-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Corva Coleman. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke this morning at a key economic policy summit in Wyoming. He suggested the central bank could be open to interest rate cuts, but he didn't specify when. Powell also talked about inflation. He says President Trump's tariffs have started to increase the cost of some imported goods. The effects of tariffs on consumer prices are now clearly visible. We expect those effects to accumulate over coming months with high on. uncertainty about both timing and amounts. The question that matters for monetary policy is whether

these price increases are likely to materially raise the risk of an ongoing inflation problem. Separately, President Trump said today he'll seek to fire one of the Federal Reserve's policy makers Fed Governor Lisa Cook. A member of Trump's administration has accused Cook of mortgage fraud, but no evidence has been provided. The FBI has searched the home of former National Security advisor John Bolton. NPR's Kerry Johnson reports Bolton has become a sharp critic of President Trump. The FBI says it pursued court-authorized activity at Bolton's Maryland home. As director Cash Patel posted on social media, no one is above the law. Bolton had worked on national security issues for about a year during the first Trump administration, but he later criticized Trump in its

hell-all-book. The president's allies have since raised questions about Bolton's handling of classified documents, which Bolton describes as retaliation. This year, the Trump administration yanked Bolton's security detail, which was in place because of threats from Iran. The president told reporters he knew nothing about the FBI search and said Bolton could be a, quote, very unpatriotic guy. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. The Israeli military is ordering hospitals to prepare to evacuate patients and equipment from North Gaza in the midst of its planned assault on Gaza City. A Gaza official calls this a death sentence for patients, and Pierre's Janeira Raff has more. In a recording released by the Israeli military and Israeli officer tells a Gaza health official,

they will force everyone to leave Gaza City in the north and that hospitals need to prepare to transfer operations to the South Gaza Strip. The health official tells them that the UN and international medical aid groups have informed them they have no room in the South, and that ICU patients and infants and incubators will be at risk. Gaza's health ministry director, Munir al-Bersh, later described the demand as a field execution order against patients too sick or wounded to be transferred.

Gaza's health care system has collapsed amid ongoing Israeli strikes, with remaining hospitals operating at up to 300% capacity. Jane Arraf and Pure News, Amman. On Wall Street, the Dow is up nearly 900 points or about 2%. You're listening to NPR News. The World Authority on Food Insecurity has declared famine

now exists in northern Gaza. The group of experts says over half a million Palestinians could die of starvation. Israel rejects the findings. It says the panel overlooked Israeli data on aid deliveries. A New York-based think tank says more than 200,000 people in the United States are considered to be stateless.

NPR's Jacqueline Diaz explains. Being stateless means there is no country that recognizes you as a citizen, as with certain minorities in Myanmar and Kuwait. It's a little-known subset of immigrants in the U.S. But according to the Centers for Migration Studies, the community numbers around 218,000. The U.S. has no legal framework to recognize stateless individuals, leaving them in limbo. According to Laura Bingham with Temple University, this leaves them especially vulnerable under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. We don't have a status determination.

There's no protection. You're effectively the most vulnerable undocumented person. With no country to send them to, Bingham says stateless people face increased risk of prolonged detention if arrested. Jacqueline Diaz and PR News. The Texas State Senate is poised to pass a congressional map today. It redraws state congressional districts and aims to flip five Texas Democratic. seats in the U.S. House to Republican control. Separately, California state officials have passed a similar measure. They're seeking to flip five Republican districts to Democratic

control. This is NPR News.