NPR News Now - NPR News: 08-31-2025 9PM EDT

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This message comes from Snap Judgment. Their new series, A Tiny Plot, follows a group of homeless people in Oakland as they fight to create their own encampment run by their own rules. It's a bold experiment in freedom and community. Listen to Snap Judgment wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. Russian President Vladimir Putin is in China for a four-day visit that will include meetings with President Xi Jinping and India's leader Narenda Modi.
Starting point is 00:00:28 As NPR's Charles Mains reports from Moscow, the gathering comes during talk of global realignments. President Putin has long argued for a new multipolar world, less dominated by the U.S. His visit to China will see that vision on full display. Putin will join a regional security summit in which anger over punitive U.S. economic policies are expected to take center stage. That includes by India. A U.S. ally increasingly adrift after President Trump imposed steep tariffs over its purchase of discounted Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine. Yet Russia's biggest trading partner remains China. Putin will meet separately with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Starting point is 00:01:05 He'll also join North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un among Xi's guests of honor at a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the symbolic show of a new global order. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow. State officials have released the ballot language for California's special election this November. Voters will consider a measure that would allow California Democrats to redraw the state's congressional map. And peers Ashley Lopez reports. The proposed language for the measure asked voters to quote, authorize temporary changes to congressional district maps in response to Texas's
Starting point is 00:01:38 partisan redistricting. Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed a bill at the explicit request of President Trump that creates five more favorable house seats in the state for the Republican Party. In response, California leaders are asking voters to approve a plan to create five more favorable seats for Democrats. This closely watched special election in the state could play a He roll in deciding which party wins control of the House next year. The public has until September 4th to inspect the ballot label, title, and summary. Ashley Lopez, NPR News. The latest COVID-19 vaccines will start arriving soon at pharmacies, doctors' offices, and clinics around the country.
Starting point is 00:02:16 But new federal restrictions mean the shots may be harder to get for many people. NPR's Rob Stein explains, The Food and Drug Administration has approved reformulated versions of the Moderna, Pfizer-Biontech, and Novavac shots. But for the first time, the FDA has only approved the vaccines for people who are at risk for serious complications because they're at least 65 or have some other health issue. That means many people may have to get a doctor's prescription to get vaccinated, and even then, the availability may vary from state to state. It's also unclear if insurance companies will still pay for the shots for everyone. Rob Stein and PR News.
Starting point is 00:02:58 New York City, Mayor Rudy Giuliani is hospitalized in New Hampshire. He received several broken bones after his vehicle was involved in an automobile crash on Saturday night. A spokesperson says that Giuliani's rental car was rear-ended at high speed. You're listening to NPR News. Longtime CNN White House and Pentagon correspondent Charles Beirnbauer has died. CNN made the announcement today. Beerbauer joined CNN in its earliest years. covered the Department of Defense and the White House during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush
Starting point is 00:03:34 administrations. After leaving CNN, Beirbauer became the first dean of the University of South Carolina's College of Mass Communication. He retired from that role in 2017. Charles Beerbauer was 83 years old. Hollywood summer box office numbers will end up roughly even with last year, NPR's Bob Mandello says that for film studios, that counts as both a relief and a letdown. $3.6 billion is what the film industry expects this summer's movies to have taken in by the end of the holiday weekend. Nothing to sneeze at, certainly, but given ever-increasing ticket prices, not really something
Starting point is 00:04:11 to cheer. We have a blue dog to catch. Lilo and Stitch, Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth, and eight other films this summer qualified as blockbusters, meaning they've each taken in more than $100 million. The largest dinosaurs on the planet. But there's less strength with smaller movies. as audiences wait to stream films without superheroes, aliens, or dinosaurs. Back before the pandemic, the summer of 2019, had the same number of blockbusters,
Starting point is 00:04:37 but that summer's lesser films were stronger, so the industry took in about a half a billion dollars more overall. Bob Mandello, NPR News. Wall Street had Monday off for the Labor Day holiday. Trading resumes on Tuesday morning. Friday, the S&P closed lower. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News. This message comes from Why,
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