NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-24-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

NPR News: 08-24-2025 7AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

These days, there's so much news. It can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community. The Consider This Podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Russia is accusing Ukraine of drone strikes that sparked a fire at a nuclear plant in Russia's Kursk region. Russia says a transformer at the plant was damaged by debris after the drone was shot down. Russia claiming to have shot down 95 Ukrainian drones overnight as Ukraine marks 34 years of independence from the former Soviet Union.

Ukrainian refugees in North Carolina marked independence this weekend. They held a gathering and Raleigh and Kalina Shostok was there. We just hope that this aid which we have, this help which we have from America, it will continue, it will increase, and eventually we will win the war. The Pacific Northwest has been experiencing sky-high temperatures over the past few days, and that's creating dangerous conditions for local residents. From Oregon Public Broadcasting, Joni Audenland reports. Portland, Oregon has seen triple-digit heat for the past two days,

while Seattle has reached the mid-90s. The extreme heat is expected. to last until Tuesday. On Friday alone, Portland saw more than 20 emergency calls for people suffering from heat exhaustion. One of them was David Loftus, who passed out while competing in a relay race and woke up in the back of an ambulance. They stuffed ice packs under my arms and on my groin, and by the time we got to the hospital, the ice was all melted and the packs were warm. Local officials have worked to provide air conditioning units to those in need. Still, 25% of renters in Portland have no air conditioning at home.

For NPR News, I'm Joni Audenland in Portland, Oregon. Amid that heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, fire crews in Northern California have been working this weekend to corral the picket fire in Napa County. It's burned more than 6,000 acres and led evacuations in rural communities. Postal services from several countries around Europe are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States. officials say they lack clarity over new import duties being posed by the U.S. starting on August 29th, and Britain's Royal Mail has become the latest service to pause deliveries. Here's Vicki Barker reporting from London.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order ending tax exemptions on low-value imports. Gifts worth less than $100 will remain duty-free. But starting August 29th, all international shipments of any value must pay the same tariffs, as their country of origin. There's confusion, though, over just how the duties are to be collected and by whom. Now, Britain's Royal Mail says it will suspend its business delivery service starting Tuesday, just the latest foreign postal service to pause shipments to the U.S. In a statement, Royal Mail adds it hopes to have a new system in place by the time the new rules take effect. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.

And you're listening to NPR. News. Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker says President Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis. He issued a statement after the Washington Post reported this weekend that the Pentagon has been planning a military deployment to Chicago. Such a deployment would mark an expansion of Trump's use of the military in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Trump says he's cracking down on crime, but Chicago's mayor says crime is down this year. State media in North Korea, say leader Kim Jong-un has supervised a test firing of two types of new air defense missiles.

The launches were carried out this weekend coinciding with South Korean President Li Jiangza Summit with Japan's prime minister. Lee is to meet with President Trump and Washington tomorrow. New report says the Antarctic ice sheet is at risk of collapse because of rising sea levels. Scott Mayman reports. In a report for the nature publication, the changes have been witnessed by a very variety of experts. One of them is Professor Jan Struggnell from Australia's James Cook University, who says hundreds of millions of people in coastal communities will be impacted. Globally, this includes around 750 million people live in low elevation coastal zones.

Other more conservative estimates put that number closer to 200 million. But still, Professor Struggnell says melting Antarctic ice can trigger worldwide events. And what happens in Antarctica really doesn't say this. She says global action is needed now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For NPR News, I'm Scott Mayman in Canberra, Australia. And I'm Jail Snyder. This is NPR News.