NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-28-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. Police in Minneapolis updated the number of injured and dead in yesterday's mass shooting at a Catholic church, 220. Two children died, 16 others were injured, and three adults in their 80s were also injured. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara says they believe the shooter, Robin Westman, acted alone. This is an individual who unfortunately, like so many other mass shooters that we have seen in this country, too often and around the world had some deranged fascination with previous mass shootings. Authority searched the church in three homes and recovered 116 rifle rounds, three shotgun shells, and one live round from a handgun police say appears to have malfunctioned.

Kirstie Marone from Minnesota Public Radio has more. Many of those wounded in the attack were transported to Hennepin Health Care's Hospital in Minneapolis. trauma surgeon John Gakin says everyone on the hospital staff pitched in. He describes one nurse manager in particular who came to the emergency department from another unit and helped a frightened child. And one of the children were very scared and alone because everybody was running about doing their jobs. And she went into the CT scanner with the patient putting herself basically in the harm's way of radiation, which normally would evacuate the room.

She put a little lead on and stayed there and held her hand and held her hair while her. she went through the scanner, so she didn't have to go through it alone. Officials have not yet established a motive for the shooting. For NPR News, I'm Kirstie Morone in St. Paul. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is suing the Trump administration in an effort to overturn the president's attempt to fire her, launching an unprecedented legal battle that could significantly reshape the Fed's long-standing political independence.

It's a first in the institution's 112-year history. Fed governors can only be fired for cause, but what cause is has never been established. Trump says he fired her over allegations that she made a false claim on a mortgage application. Russia is defending its attacks that it carried out on Ukraine's capital of Kiev earlier today that killed at least 18 people and wounded scores of others. And Pierce Charles Mainz reports.

Russia's defense ministry said it carried out precision airstrikes on designated Ukrainian military targets, a position that was later defended by the Kremlin. Spokesman Dimitripe, saying in his daily press briefing, the strikes were successful and the targets were destroyed. That claim stood at odds with the scenes out of Kiev, where in one case, an apartment building was shorn in two from a Russian missile attack bearing residents in the rubble. Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, said the attacks proved Moscow's blatant disregard for U.S.-backed peace negotiations. Pescov countered that Russia's military campaign continues, but Moscow preferred diplomacy to reach its goals. Charles Mains, NPR News, Moscow.

This is NPR News. The economy rebounded this spring from a first quarter downturn caused by a fallout from President Trump's trade wars. The Commerce Department says its second estimate of the gross domestic product, the GDP, the country's output of goods and services, expanded in the second quarter, at a 3.3% annual pace. That's better than the 3.0% first estimate, as consumer spending, which rose 1.6% was also higher than,

first thought. It remains strong and that helped push the GDP higher. A Philadelphia Art Museum is suing the Trump administration for terminating a federal grant. The Woodmere Art Museum houses a collection of American art and artifacts dating to the 18th century. It says it needs the money to exhibit its collection ahead of America's 250th anniversary celebrations. And here's Andrew Limbong has more. In 2024, the Woodmere was awarded a 7,000, $950,000 save America's treasures grants, meant to help conserve, catalog, and digitize its collection. Then in March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order terminating a wide swath of grants managed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, including the one received

by the Woodmere. According to the lawsuit filed by the museums, since then, other museums in the Philadelphia area have had their grant money restored, but not the Woodmere. The museum is suing Trump administration officials and the IMLS for violating the appropriations clause as well as the separation of powers. NPR has reached out to the IMLS for comment. Andrew Limbong, NPR News. And I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington.