NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-27-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

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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 Windsor Johnston. President Trump is stepping up his push to send the National Guard into major U.S. cities, this time focusing on Chicago, which he's called a killing field. Trump is already cracking down on crime in Washington, D.C., where federal law gives him more authority. Georgetown law professor, Steve Lattick, tells NPR that it gets trickier outside of the nation's capital.

In other states, in California, in Illinois, in New York, the only way President Trump could directly command the National Guard, would be to formally federalize it, and that depends upon President Trump finding various things to be true on the ground that also don't appear to be true on the ground. And that would expose whatever he would try to, I think, a significant risk of litigation. Meanwhile, the governor of Illinois and other top Democrats are pushing back against Trump's plan, calling the effort a political stunt. French President Emmanuel Macron is warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against weaponizing anti-Semitism. The Israeli leader has accused the French government of not doing enough to stop what he called anti-Semitism's rise in France. And PR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris. In a newly published letter, Macron rejects that anti-Semitism is on the rise and that the

French government is not doing enough to fight it. He calls the suggestion of the latter an offense to the whole country. France has the largest Jewish population in Europe. Netanyahu's charges came after a memorial tree planted for a young Jewish man killed in 2006 was cut down. Macron says Netanyahu is weaponizing anti-Semitism because of his, quote, murderous war in Gaza. Netanyahu has also expressed anger over Macron's promise to recognize Palestinian statehood, claiming that too fuels anti-Semitism. Eleanor Beardsley and Pierre News, Paris. Many European mail services will no longer deliver small packages to the United States.

citing confusion about new tariffs imposed by President Trump. Terry Schultz reports the change could dramatically affect shipping for small businesses in the EU. Postal services from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK are among those suspending shipments of small packages to U.S. destinations after President Trump ended what was called the de minimis exemption. This allowance was used by many small European companies to ship products worth less than $800 to U.S. customers. duty-free. As of Friday, tariffs of 15% will apply on these packages, but postal authorities say it's unclear who's responsible for collecting the import duties and how shippers should communicate

with the U.S. Customs Service, so they're not going to accept them. Parcels worth less than a hundred dollars sent by individuals can still be mailed. For NPR news, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. This is NPR. Emergency crews are working to contain a fast-moving wildfire in central California. The garnet fire broke out on Sunday and has burned 14 square miles in the Sierra National Forest east of Fresno. In Oregon, rain and cooler temperatures are helping crews to make progress against the flat fire, which is now 7% contained. The Trump administration has made a risky copy of millions of American Social Security numbers. That's according to a new whistleblower complaint. NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports the copy. The copy

was made even though red flags were raised. The Social Security Administration's chief data officer says Trump appointees copied the agency's entire numerical identification system database to a private cloud environment. The database contains social security numbers of over 300 million Americans, along with other details including Place of Birth and Parents' names. Andrea Meza is an attorney with the nonprofit government accountability project, which represents the whistleblower. It's a lot of really personal data on millions and millions of Americans.

Cybersecurity staff within the Social Security Administration warned the move was high risk, but the copy was made anyway. The agency says the copy is in a place, quote, walled off from the internet. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News, Washington. The powerball jackpot has soared to an estimated $815 million. Tonight will be the 38th drawing since the jackpot was last one in California at the end of May. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.