NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-23-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

NPR News: 08-23-2025 12AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On Fridays, the 1A podcast is all about helping you cut through the info fog and get to what's important in the news. Close out the week with us on our Friday News Roundup. Here from reporters who've been embedded with the biggest news of the week. Join us every week for the Friday News Roundup. Listen to the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. The Trump administration says the federal government will have 300,000. fewer employees on its payroll by the end of the year.

That's about a 12% cut. The number was first reported by the New York Times, NPR's Andrea Shue has more. Shrinking the federal workforce has been a focus of President Trump since he returned to office. His Department of Government Efficiency got right to work,

offering incentives for people to leave, and then working inside agencies to identify deep workforce cuts. Now the Office of Personnel Management says by the end of December, the government will have shed about 300,000 employees. About half of those opted for the administration's deferred resignation program. Others have been summarily fired or laid off as part of agency

reorganizations. Many still remain on the government payroll through the end of September. OPM spokesperson McLaurin Pinover told NPR, there are no plans at this time for additional reductions in force. Andrea Shue and PR News. A U.S. official is told NPR that President Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. It's the latest in a series of firings of senior military and national security officials. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports. Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has removed Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruz as the head of the military intelligence and combat support agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, or the DIA. It wasn't immediately clear why Cruz was fired.

However, the dismissal comes just months after the DIA made an assessment. concluding that a missile strike launched by the Trump administration likely failed to completely destroy Iran's nuclear sites. The White House has insisted the strike obliterated those facilities. Members of President Trump's cabinet, including Hegsef and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, have recently pushed to revoke security clearances or fire many senior national security officials, particularly after pressure from right-wing activists like Laura Lumer. Jen O'Glofflin, NPR News. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated Friday that the central bank may soon be cutting interest rates. But as NPR Scott Horsley tells us,

the conditions for such a cut still remain just a bit murky. Now, the unemployment rate is still very low, just 4.2 percent, but that's largely because the workforce is growing very slowly or maybe even shrinking. Immigration is pretty much dried up at the same time a lot of baby boomers are retiring. So even though the job market looks to be in balance right now, Powell says it's a precarious balance. This unusual situation suggests that downside risks to employment are rising. And if those risks materialize, they can do so quickly in the form of sharply higher layoffs and rising unemployment. Fowell says that uneasy job market may warrant a cut in interest rates, and that was enough to cheer stock market investors who were already betting on a rate cut

at the next Fed meeting in September. That's NPR's Scott Horsley. And you're listening to NPR News. Penal Friday denied parole for Lyle Menendez. He and his brother were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents. Eric Menendez was also denied parole on Thursday. The son of Brazil's former far-right president says new charges leveled against his father and him are all fabricated and politically motivated. Those charges include obstruction of justice. Eduardo Bolsonaro tells NPR that the two are just defenders of democracy and are being politically persecuted. MPR's Kerry Kahn has more. Brazil's federal police say the former president Jayir Bolsonaro received as much as

$5 million in one year from what they call unknown origins. Some of that money was sent abroad to his son. Eduardo, Bolsonaro, a politician now living in Dallas, tells NPR nothing was illegal and the money was from donations. He says officials are punishing him for opposing Brazil's current leftist leader. I deny all of that. What I'm doing is denouncing the human rights that are happening in our country. President Trump has levied 50% tariffs against Brazil. He says because of the

treatment of ex-president Bolsonaro, whose trial will consider a verdict and sentence next month. Carrie Con, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Tommy Fleetwood is once again hoping for his first win on the PGA golf tour. He shares the lead at the tournament underway in Atlanta right now with Russell Henley. He shot a 63 on Friday on a rain-soat course that's producing very low scores. Cameron Young shot a 62, meanwhile, and sits in third, while Scotty Sheffler is five strokes back after shooting a 69. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit

wise.com. T's and Cs apply.