NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-22-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

NPR News: 08-22-2025 6PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Herbst. The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator has lashed out at Israel, saying the famine in Gaza could have been prevented. His remarks come after the world's leading authority on food and security said more than a half million people in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger. NPR's Jackie Northam has more from Tel Aviv. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase classification, should be read in sorrow and in anger. He said that Gaza famine was predictable and openly promoted by some Israeli leaders

as a weapon of war. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity. Fletcher called on Israel to allow food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israeli officials said the report's findings

were false and biased and that Israel had taken steps recently to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Tel Aviv. The FBI has searched the home of former national security advisor John Bolton. And Pierce Carey 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. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the possibility of lower interest rates in the months to come.

Speaking at the Fed's annual meeting in Jackson Hall, Wyoming today, Powell said the balance of risks across the economy has started to shift between the Fed's goal of full employment and stable prices. The stability of the unemployment rate and other labor market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance. And that raises the odds of Fed will lower borrowing costs next month. But he says there are concerns. Powell says while the labor market is in good shape and the economy has shown resilience, President Trump's tariffs are causing the risk that inflation could rise again. This is Powell's last address to the annual Jackson Hole Conference as Fed Chair.

He and his central bank colleagues had been under intense pressure from Trump to lower interest rates. His comments sent Wall Street sharply higher. The Dow up 846 points, the NASDAQ, up 396. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls crashed on an interstate highway today with multiple casualties. The accident happened near Pembroke, about 25 miles east of Buffalo. Police say the bus driver lost control went into a median and ended up in a ditch. People inside were ejected as the windows shattered. The driver survived. Several ambulances and

medical helicopters transported patients to hospitals. The New York State threw away authority, shut down a stretch of the roadway, urging drivers to avoid the area. Many people think using health insurance means they'll get the best deal on health care, but in fact, sometimes it's much cheaper to pay for health care in cash. Alex Olgan has more. The differences can be stark. One woman's insurance was billed more than 10 times the cash rate for a genetic test during pregnancy. G. Buy, with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

found among hospitals that publish prices, half of them set cash rates lower than their middle of the road insurer price for lab tests, x-rays, and some surgeries. So this is totally surprising and ruined my faith in the pricing advantage of insurance companies. Buy says health care providers like cash because they can collect fast and avoid administrative headaches. But for consumers shelling out hundreds or thousands every month for insurance coverage, It's a frustrating dynamic. For NPR News, I'm Alex Olgan. And again on Wall Street, all three major indices

higher by the closing bell. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News, in Washington.