NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-26-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Stocks on Wall Street are trading mixed this morning as President Trump escalates his pressure campaign against the Federal Reserve. NPR, Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about five points right now. President Trump says he's firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook after allegations from a Trump ally that Cook made false statements on a mortgage application. Cook says Trump has no authority to fire. her, and she vows to continue serving on the Fed's governing board. By law, the central bank is supposed to operate free from White House pressure, but Trump has been outspoken in demanding the Fed lower interest rates. If he succeeds in removing Cook, Trump would have a chance to name

a majority of the Fed's seven-member board. New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell in July for the third time in four months, dragged down by a drop in commercial aircraft orders. That could turn around, though. A Korean airline just announced an order for more than a hundred Boeing Jets. Scott Horsley, Empire News, Washington. President Trump is once again taking aim at the mainstream media. In a series of posts on social media Sunday, Trump reiterated his push for the FCC to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC and NBC. MPR's David Fulkenflik reports the agency's chairman is already investigating nearly all of the major news networks. You're seeing the FCC, which has historically been operated as a semi-autonomous

agency that is not as part of the command control structure of the executive branch and the president really operate in line with the president's political agenda and also his personal agenda. That's NPR's David Falkin Flick reporting. National News Networks don't have broadcast licenses, but local affiliates do. SpaceX says it will try again tonight to launch its massive starship rocket. It will be its 10th test flight. NPR's Nell Greenfield Boyce reports cloudy weather in Texas forced the company to cancel last night's attempt. SpaceX had tried to send up the approximately 400-foot-tall two-stage rocket on Sunday night, but a line that fed oxygen into the rocket was leaking and had to be fixed. On their second

opportunity to launch from the SpaceX facility in South Texas, they fueled up Starship and the count went all the way down to T-minus 40 seconds. This time, though, the trouble was Anvil clouds. These thunderstorm clouds were too close to the launch pad, so the attempt had to be canceled. SpaceX will keep trying. On this 10th flight, they're hoping to break a streak of mishaps this year, three flights in a row with the upper stage lost instead of returning to Earth in a controlled way. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. Stocks are trading mixed on Wall Street at the sour. The Dow Jones Industrial averages down nine points. The NASDA composite up seven, the S&P, up a point. This is NPR News.

Friday marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Eva Tesfai from Member Station, WWNO reports. Community groups are commemorating the anniversary this week with performances, music, and art. The Katrina 20 Week of Action includes dozens of events remembering Hurricane Katrina, including a performance of the play, swimming upstream, the Katrina monologues, and an art exhibition about New Orleans culture across the country. country called Katrina a neo-diaspora. Asali Devon Ecclesiastes is the executive director of the Ache Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans.

So many things that happened around Katrina 10, we didn't want to happen around Katrina 20. Most importantly, being that the voices of the people who actually experienced Katrina were not centered. These commemorations stretched beyond New Orleans to Alabama and Mississippi, where people were also affected by the storm. For NPR News, I'm Eva Tess Fai in New Orleans. Tech billionaire Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI. He's accusing the companies of teaming up to reduce competition in artificial intelligence. The crux of the lawsuit revolves around Apple's decision to use ChatGPT as an AI-powered answer engine on the iPhone when the built-in technology on its device couldn't satisfy user needs.

In a counter-lawsuit, OpenAI, has accused Musk of harassment. I'm Windsor Johnston, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.