NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-24-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. The White House is denying that the Trump administration is carrying out politically motivated investigations. NPR's Tamara Keith reports. On Friday, the FBI searched the home and office of Trump's first-term national security advisor, John Bolton. On NBC's Meet the Press, Vice President J.D. Vance was asked if Bolton is being targeted because he is a vocal Trump critic, and Vance denied it. careful about that. We're going to be deliberate about that because we don't think that we should throw people, even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically, you shouldn't throw people willy-nilly in prison. This investigation doesn't come in isolation. Senator Adam Schiff, who led a Trump impeachment and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump for fraud, now both face highly publicized DOJ investigations into alleged mortgage fraud. Tamara Keith, NPR News. Delivering product.

from Europe to the United States is about to get a bit trickier. Many parcel companies and national postal services in Europe are temporarily pausing business shipments to the U.S. because of a new tariff-related rule. MPR's Kamila Dominovsky reports. There's a longstanding exception, some call it a loophole, called the de minimis rule. An imported package worth less than $800 can carry no tariff at all. The Trump administration has already eliminated that rule for goods from China and Hong Kong, and starting to this coming Friday, it's going away for goods from all countries. Deutsche Post in Germany, LaPost in France, Correos in Spain, and other European postal services say they have unanswered questions

and need time to make new systems. So for now, they are pausing U.S.-bound parcels of goods. Letters and gifts worth less than 100 bucks are not affected. Camila Dominooski, NPR News. Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on the capital of Yemen. After Houthi-Rilatins, missiles at Israel last week. NPR's Jackie Northam reports from Tel Aviv. Israel's military says ten fighter jets took part in the attack on targets in Yemen, including a Houthi military site in the capital, Sana'a, as well as power plants and a fuel storage site at an oil company. A video on social media shows a massive orange-colored fireball over part of the city. The strikes come after Houthis launched a ballistic missile at Israel on Friday. Israeli officials say the

missile carried a cluster bomb the first time this type of munition has been launched from Yemen. Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel since the start of the Gaza war nearly two years ago in solidarity with the Palestinians. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Ukraine marked its Independence Day to day. President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke from Independence Square in Kiev. He called for a just peace, more than three years after Russia's full-scale invasion. This is NPR News in Washington. Vietnam is preparing evacuations as a typhoon approaches.

It brought strong winds and heavy rain to southern China, shutting down businesses and public transportation. It's expected to make landfall on Vietnam's coast tomorrow. Farmers are rushing to harvest their rice crops. Space Axis preparing another test launch of its giant new starship rocket. As NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports, It hasn't conducted a successful test this year. Starship is the largest rocket ever built, and getting it to work is important for NASA's return to the moon and Elon Musk's dreams of settling on Mars.

But things have not been going well this year. Three flight tests resulted in spectacular failures where the starships either exploded or burned up in the atmosphere. A fourth starship blew up during testing on the ground in June. Another failure won't immediately cost SpaceX its leadership in the launch business, according to Carissa Christensen. CEO of Bryce Tech, a firm that analyzes space launches. SpaceX conducts more than half the world's launches. It deploys 80% of the world's satellites. But she says competitors are catching up with new rockets of their own.

Jeff Brumfield and PR News. The state of Texas is being sued over its new congressional map. Lawmakers gave final approval yesterday morning to the redistricting. It's designed to add more Republicans to the U.S. House in the midterm elections next year. The lawsuit was brought by 13 Texas residents who say restricting in the middle of a decade violates the Constitution, and the new map discriminates against black and Latino communities. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington.