NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-23-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. Gaza health authorities say at least eight people, including children, have died from malnutrition since yesterday, a day after international experts declared a famine in North Gaza. MPC said food shortages, malnutrition and starvation levels in Gaza City and surrounding areas have now reached famine levels after months of warnings. It blamed it partly on Israel blocking AIDS. shipments to Gaza earlier this year, and a U.S. and Israeli-backed distribution system, the Gaza humanitarian foundation that it said did not qualify as humanitarian aid. It found that aid at GHF sites was accessible for an average of only 23 minutes a day. Israel has barred the UN's biggest provider of aid, replacing it with food delivered at limited locations under armed

guards. Gaza health authorities say more than 2,000 people, many of them children, have been killed around aid sites. Jane Arraf, NPR News, Amman. The Justice Department released hours of audio and a transcript of its interview with Gieland Maxwell, the longtime associate of convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. And peers Ryan Lucas reports it's part of the Trump administration's efforts to contain the fallout from its handling of the Epstein files.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is President Trump's former personal attorney, interviewed Maxwell last month in Florida. In the transcript from that interview, Maxwell discusses many of the famous people who knew Epstein over the years, including President Trump. Maxwell told Blanche she never saw Trump do anything improper. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually exploit underage girls. She would like a reduced sentence or a pardon from President Trump.

Shortly after her interview with Blanche, Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison camp. Ryan Lucas and Pierre News, Washington. People are being urged to evacuate as fires blaze in the west, including through California's scenic Napa County. And peers Alana Weiss has more. The picket fire first sparked Thursday afternoon and its cause is not yet known. The area where it's burning is the same as the devastating 2020 glass fire, which raged for 23 days and destroyed more than 1,500 structures. But officials assured residents that the weather condition is between now and then have made this fire easier to control. Further north in Jefferson County in central Oregon, a similar blaze roared.

The flat fire, which has already burned across thousands of acres, is being aided by persistent heat. Residents in the Lake Billy Chinook area were warned to leave immediately due to the imminent threat to the area. Alana Wise, NPR News. And so far more than 4,000 acres have burned. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Montana wildlife managers have decided to increase this year's wolf hunting and trapping quota by more than 100 animals. Montana Public Radio's Ellis Julin has more. Montana's Fish and Wildlife Commission authorized a statewide quota of 452 wolves.

That's 118 more than last year. They say that increase is necessary to try to reduce the overall wolf population, a directive given to them by the state's Republican Majority Legislature. Included in that number is a regional limit for the number of wolves that can be killed in areas bordering Yellowstone National Park. That area has seen declines in wolf populations in recent years. Opponents of these changes say killing this many wolves could warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. A federal court recently ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reassess threats facing wolves. For NPR News, I'm Ellis Jew Lynn in Helena, Montana. European Postal Services are suspending the shipment of many

packages to the U.S. This amid a lack of clarity over new import duties. Postal services in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy say they will stop shipping most merchandise to the U.S. effective immediately. France and Austria will follow Monday, the U.K., on Tuesday. International goods that were previously exempt from U.S. tariffs will now be subject to import duties starting August 29th. This applies to merchandise worth more than $800.

dollars, letters, books, gifts, and small parcels worth less than $100 will continue to be exempt from the tariffs. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.