NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-22-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. A massive rescue operation is underway at the site of a collision between a semi-truck and a tour bus in upstate New York. State police say more than 50 people are involved. State Trooper James O'Callaghan says the bus out of Niagara Falls was possibly returning to New York City when it appeared to lose control and crashed. The bus did roll. There were multiple ejections.

multiple people trapped and there's multiple fatalities, and this includes children as well. O'Callaghan suggested that many of the tourists on the bus were of Indian, Chinese, and Filipino descent. The collision has shut down all lanes of the New York Thruway at Pembroke, east of Buffalo. The FBI has searched the home of former Ambassador and 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 merits. 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. Millions of people in the Southwest are under heat warnings in what forecasters are calling the most intense heat wave of the summer for that region. NPR's Nate Roth reports temperatures are already setting records in some parts of Southern California. It is dangerously hot in Southern California with temperatures nearing or over.

a hundred degrees in many parts of the region. Public health officials are urging people to limit their activity outside and to drink lots of water, especially because temperatures are not dipping that much overnight. Heat becomes increasingly dangerous for people when their bodies can't recover at night. It also raises the risk of extreme wildfire. Red flag fire warnings are in place for Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Elevated temperatures are expected to last through the weekend. Nate Rott, NPR News.

The Pentagon says the National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C., will be armed. This marks an escalation in President Trump's federal oversight of the district's law enforcement. Hundreds of Guard members from GOP-led states arrived in the nation's capital this week as part of President Trump's bid to address what he is described as rising crime in the city. However, local and federal data show overall violent crime in D.C. has fallen. You're listening to NPR News. The world's leading authority on food insecurity has confirmed famine in northern Gaza. In a report published today, the United Nations back group of experts, known as the IPC, finds that more than half a million people in parts of northern Gaza are at risk of dying of starvation,

and additional million face critical food shortages as the crisis spreads to other areas. It's a first time famine has been confirmed in the Middle East. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un held his country's first medal ceremony for troops who fought with Russia against Ukraine. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul that the North is believed to have sent roughly 12,000 troops to Russia's Kursk region. State media pictured Kim Jong-un pinning medals on military commanders at a ceremony in Pyongyang. He also pinned medals next to pictures of 101 soldiers killed in battle. South Korean intelligence estimates the total number of dead and wounded at around 5,000.

It's not clear why the surviving commanders came back to Pyongyang or whether they planned to return to Russia. Kim was also pictured consoling families of the dead soldiers. Analysts believe Kim faces political pressure to justify the overseas deployment and the casualties. Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Seoul. The Dow has surged further into record territory, up now more than 850 points after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled a possible interest rate cut. The Dow is up nearly 2 percent, the SMP and NASDAQ, up nearly 2 percent. It's NPR. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR NewsNow Plus at plus.npr.org.

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