NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-23-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. Hospital officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 33 Palestinians sheltering intense or seeking scarce food aid. This after international experts declared a family, in North Gaza. Empires Jackie Northam reports this as Israel gets ready to go into Gaza City. The military has been telling Palestinians and medical facilities to get out of the city before the assault gets fully underway. This is, this will be urban warfare and Gaza City is densely populated. So we're talking hundreds of thousands of Palestinians being told

to evacuate. The problem is where do they go? The situation isn't any better in the south towards the Egyptian border. There's already a humanitarian crisis there. And, you know, many Gazans have been uprooted several times since October 2023. When Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel, you know, many of them are out of money. And again, there's this famine. And Pierce Jackie Northam reporting. The Trump administration says it may withhold tens of millions of dollars in election security funding if states don't comply with its voting policy goals. And Pierce Miles Parks reports, officials say the funding will make it inaccessible for

most of the country. Almost $28 million in election security grants are now at risk after the Trump administration changed the requirements for how states can qualify for them. MPR is the first to report on the development. The Department of Homeland Security, which manages the grant program, is now requiring states to prioritize compliance with election certifications that are so new, no jurisdiction in the country has equipment yet that meets the standards. DHS also wants officials to use a new tool that developed this year for citizenship verification, but It hasn't proven the tool works or explained how the data the tool analyzes is secured. NPR spoke with multiple state voting officials who say in many places the money just won't be spent because of the new rules.

Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington. American farmers are trying to reassure their international customers. They should keep doing business with the U.S. despite uncertainty amid President Trump's trade war. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports. The wheat harvest is wrapping up in eastern Washington. Almost all of this wheat is exported to Asia. President Trump's tariffs are only on imports, but farmers like Jim Moyer are worried that countries they export to

will levy retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., or businesses will just go elsewhere due to the politics and instability here. We have the uncertainty of very difficult financial times with the uncertainty of our markets. During a recent trade delegation, Moyer and other Pacific Northwest farmers promoted the high-quality of their wheat that's in demand, they told delegates U.S. trade policy may be uncertain, but trade

relationships built up over decades are here to stay. Kirk Sigler, NPR News, Pullman, Washington. This is NPR News. Federal tax credits for electric vehicle purchases are expiring at the end of September. This week, the IRS issued some guidance, clarifying that cars don't have to be delivered by the deadline to qualify.

And Pierce Camilla Dominovsky reports the flexibility could help some shoppers next month. President Trump's big domestic spending package eliminated federal EV tax credits as of September 30. Now the IRS has clarified that as long as you have a binding contract and put some money down by the deadline, it's okay if you don't get the keys in time. Andy Phillips is with H&R Block and says that'll help people who can do the paperwork but can't get the car delivered until later. It could be as simple as maybe you know the vehicle you want, but it's in another part of the country. Or it may need to be manufactured. Those federal tax credits are worth up to $7,500 on a new car and up to $4,000 on a used one.

Camila Dominooski, NPR News. The Trump administration has ordered companies to stop construction of a wind farm being built off the coast of Rhode Island. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says the measure on the revolution. wind project that's almost finished, is because of national security interests. This says the Commerce Department investigates whether imports of wind turbines and their components threatens national security. It's the latest move by the Trump administration targeting the country's renewable energy industry. President Trump is a longtime critic of the wind energy industry. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington.

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