NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-23-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Herbst. The U.S. government plans to deport Kilmar Abrago-Garcia to Uganda next week, according to his lawyer's court filing this weekend. Abrago Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year, was released from federal custody yesterday. And peers Camilla Domenoski has more. In an admitted mistake, federal officials sent Abrego Garcia to a notorious Salvador in prison. On his return, the government charged him with humans.

smuggling, which he denies. Abreco Garcia, who has not been convicted of any crime, left a Tennessee jail on Friday to return to his family in Maryland. The Department of Homeland Security responded to the release with a statement calling him a monster. Abreco Garcia's lawyers say that prosecutors have offered to deport him to Costa Rica if he pleads guilty to the charges. Now, immigration officials say he will face deportation to Uganda, a choice the lawyers call coercive. Camila Dominovsky, NPR News. 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. MPR's Andrea Shoe 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. Federal regulators have ordered a company building a billion-dollar wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island to stop, even though construction was nearly completed. And peers Michael Copley reports it's the latest action by the Trump administration targeting the renewable energy industry. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued a stop work order to the Revolution Wind Project, saying in a letter to one of the developers that it needs time to address national security concerns. Works almost finished on the project, which is expected to help power homes and businesses in Rhode Island and Connecticut starting next year. One of the developers, a Danish firm called Orsted, said it's considering all its options, including a potential lawsuit.

The head of the National Ocean Industries Association, whose members include oil and gas companies, said stopping construction could hurt jobs and local communities. The Trump administration has made it harder for companies building wind and solar projects to qualify for federal tax incentives. Michael Copley, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The federal judge in California is expanding an order, blocking the Trump administration from pulling federal funding for cities across the country over their so-called sanctuary city policies. That means they limit local law enforcement assistance to federal immigration agents. That funding amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars for more than 30 cities, including Los Angeles,

Chicago and Denver. Seven lawmakers from Taiwan's opposition party are declaring victory after today's recall election and they will all stay in office. As Ashiz Valentine reports from Taipei, that's a big win for the opposition, which favors closer ties with China. That's Yang Chonging of the opposition KMT,

celebrating her victory in footage by Taiwanese news channel TVBS. Results show Xi and six other opposition lawmakers have all kept their seats in the second round of Taiwan's largest ever recall campaign. In both rounds, a total of 31 opposition lawmakers have survived their challenges. Grassroots protesters had launched the elections, arguing the opposition, was blocking President Li Qingdo's efforts to prepare for a potential Chinese invasion. President Lai recently pledged to boost defense spending to over 3% of GDP next year. These results indicate he'll have a tough time getting there. For NPR News, I'm Aschish Valentine in Taipei. Wall Street was hired by the closing bell yesterday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a group of economists that it could soon be time for a change in Fed policy.

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