NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-24-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

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With a major shift in our politics underway in this country, 1A is drilling down on what's at stake for you and our democracy. In our weekly series, If You Can Keep It, we put these changes into focus and answer your questions about the impact of the Trump administration on the U.S. Join us every Monday for If You Can Keep It on the 1A podcast from NPR and WAMU. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. A safety investigation is underway. into the bus crash near Buffalo on Friday that killed five people and injured dozens of others. The tour bus from New York City was carrying more than 50 passengers when the crash occurred. They'd been visiting Niagara Falls and were returning home.

NTSB investigator Tom Chapman says a failure by passengers to use safety equipment may account for such a high number of injuries and deaths. We had an opportunity to look at the bus today. The bus does appear to us. It's in bad shape, but it does appear to us that the bus was equal. equipped with seat belts. So part of our investigation will be to determine the extent to which seatbelts were being used and the extent to which the lack of seatbelt use may have been a factor in some of the passengers being ejected. New York State police officials, meanwhile, are investigating the cause of that accidents.

Health authorities in Gaza say at least eight people, including children, have died from malnutrition since Friday. This week, international experts declared a famine in North Gaza. MPR's Jane Arraf has more. IPC 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 aid 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 Trump administration has halted construction of a nearly complete wind farm off the southern coast of New England. Connecticut and Rhode Island were counting on the project to help them transition to renewable energy sources.

For member station, the public's radio, Ben Burke has more on our story. Construction on the Revolution Wind Project ground to a halt Friday afternoon when the developer Orsted got a letter from the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, ordering an immediate work stoppage. The letter cited national security concerns, which were left unspecified. Orsted says it's complying with the work stoppage while at a value. its options, including legal action. Leaders in Rhode Island and Connecticut are also considering lawsuits. The state's had agreements to buy enough electricity from Revolution Wind to power 350,000 homes. Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee says the stoppage also threatens hundreds of American jobs. The company has also built a factory in Providence to manufacture turbine foundations.

For NPR News, I'm Ben Burke in Providence. And you're listening to NPR News. Nigeria's military says it used precision airstrikes early Saturday to kill at least 35 Islamic militants in the northeastern part of that country. The strikes targeted four locations where the militant Boko Haram and a splinter group have been operating. There's been major fighting in the region for years, and that fighting has also spilled over into neighboring countries. A new study finds pollution from the production and use of oil and gas in the U.S. has extensive health consequences. MPR's Alejandro Barunda has more details from the new paper. paper published in the journal Science Advances. Fossil fuel production causes pollution in all stages of the process. One, drilling and extraction release noxious gases and sometimes carcinogens.

Two, storing gas and oil and transporting it moves pollution around. Three, refining it causes more dangerous pollution. And four, using it produces fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, and many other chemicals. Those pollutants are linked to a wide range of poor health outcomes, from asthma to cancer to preterm birth, and even to premature death. The new study adds up the health burden from all four stages. It finds some 90,000 early deaths a year can be linked to oil and gas pollution, and they're concentrated in communities of color. Texas and California feel the most health impacts.

Alejandro Burunda and PR News. Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantley share the lead heading into Sunday's final round of the PGA golf event that's underway right now in Atlanta this weekend. Fleetwood hit into the water on the 15th hole and ended up with a double boge the two or two strokes ahead of Russell Henley, who sits in third. I'm Dale Wilman. NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe.

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