NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-24-2025 8AM EDT

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jail Snyder. Ukrainian President Vladimir Sunlinski marked his country's Independence Day to day with a speech from Kiev's Independence Square, saying Ukraine will never surrender its freedom. We are building a Ukraine that will have enough strength and power to live in security and peace, so that on this square, on the Maidan of our independence, under our flags, on our land, land, our children and our grandchildren, will celebrate Independence Day, in peace, tranquility, with confidence in the future, and with respect and gratitude to all who defended Ukraine in this war, the war for independence.

Zelensky heard there through a BBC interpreter as President Trump and other world leaders congratulate Ukraine. President Zelensky posted a letter from Trump in which he said Ukraine's courage has inspired many and that he supported a negotiated settlement. settlement to the war. Meanwhile, Russia is accusing Ukraine of drone strikes that sparked a fire at a nuclear plant in Russia's Kursk region. South Korean President Li J. Myeong has headed to the U.S. for his summit with President Trump tomorrow. And Piers Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul. In Washington, South Korean President E.J. Myeong will try to hammer out details of a trade deal reached last month. It includes a pledge for South Korea to invest $350 billion in the U.S. in

exchange for lower tariffs. The U.S. has been talking about modernizing its alliance with South Korea, which includes focusing less on deterring North Korea and more on countering China. Most South Korean presidents visit the U.S. first, but E. will be coming from Tokyo, where he met with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Japan and South Korea are both U.S. allies who depend on exports to the U.S. and host large numbers of American troops, and he apparently wanted to coordinate with Ishiba before meeting Trump. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Hurricane Katrina stunned the country

nearly 20 years ago since then. Scientists have made strides in forecasting and understanding hurricanes, but NPR's Alejandro Runda reports that progress might stall. After Katrina, the federal government decided it wanted to make better hurricane forecasts. So it developed a program

called the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project. Efforts focused on making better computer models and getting better observations of the storms themselves. And it worked really well. Gabe Becky is a scientist at Princeton University. That was one of those investments in research that paid off. Forecasts are so much better now.

They save the country about $2 billion per hurricane by helping people plan better for the disaster. That's according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. But the Trump administration has cut funding and support for many of the entities involved. And now scientists worry progress could stall. Alejandro Burundah, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News. Contract negotiations between Boeing and the striking machinist union are to resume tomorrow.

Some 3,200 union members in the St. Louis area walked out the job earlier this month. After rejecting the company's four-year contract offer, the union says it's holding out for a contract that more closely resembles the agreement Boeing reached with Seattle area workers last year. Democratic leaders in Illinois are speaking out following a Washington Post report that says the Trump administration has been planning a military deployment to crack down on crime in Chicago, and that has been in the works for weeks. Governor J.B. Pritzker says there is no emergency warranting a National Guard or other military deployment, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says city data show violent crime is down this year. Millions of children born during the global pandemic are starting kindergarten this year, and NPR's Vanessa Romo reports on studies that should. show they may not be ready. 3.6 million children were born in 2020 as the coronavirus ushered in one of the most extraordinary periods in modern history, and experts are still trying to figure out

its long-term effects. Kristen Huff is head of measurement at Curriculum Associates, which provides national grade-level testing. Its latest study looked at the 2023-24 school year. Even students who were not in school, because they were too young to be in kindergarten during the pandemic, are less prepared. Just 81% of five-year-olds are arriving kindergarten-ready in reading. That's down from 89% in 2019. Huff says teachers and students can buck the trend with the right support. Vanessa Romo, NPR News.

And you're listening to NPR News.