NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-01-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

NPR News: 09-01-2025 4PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life. Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the shortwave podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Russian president of Vladimir Putin says U.S. back, peace efforts to end the war in Ukraine could still bear fruit. He spoke at an Asian regional security summit in China, where he began a four-day visit. NPR's Charles Maines has details.

Speaking before leaders from countries including China, India, and Iran, Putin claimed Western meddling in Ukraine and NATO's expansion had forced Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Yet Putin said understandings reached at his recent summit with President Trump in Alaska had opened the path towards peace. Trump and his negotiators say the Alaska talks marked a breakthrough, with Putin agreeing to concessions towards Ukraine's future security in exchange for forfeiting land. Yet the Kremlin has since slow walked Trump's efforts to organize a summit between Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and dismissed several Western proposals for security guarantees for Ukraine outright. Charles Mainz, MPR News,

Moscow. The European Commission confirmed today the GPS system of a plane carrying European Commission present Ursula von der Leyen was jammed. Well, it was on his wait a Bulgaria yesterday. The plane landed safely. Bulgarian authorities suspect interference by Russia. Vandr Lyon has been a frequent critic of Russia and its war in Ukraine. Rescue workers in Afghanistan are trying to reach villagers in remote mountainous areas after a magnitude 6 earthquake last night. A Taliban official said more than 800 people have died. Helicopters have been deployed to collect the injured since landslides have cut off roads. Harold Mannhard, with the World Food Program in Kabul, says it's a complex operation.

In some of the areas, it takes at least 45 hours by foot to get to the worst affected areas. We're obviously having reports of multiple injuries. This is an area that is already prored to disasters. They've been affected by some floods in the recent days, and the weather is expecting to get worse as well. I've seen photos, and there's been numerous houses that have been destroyed by the earthquake. And we obviously know the families and the children are being heavily impacted. by this. He spoke to the BBC. President Trump says restaurants in Washington, D.C. are busier than ever after increased federal law enforcement in the city. NPR's Milton Gavada spoke with some locals

about their views on the situation. Chef Rock Harper of Hill Prince Bar worries people are hesitant to go out. People think that they are checkpoints and FBI and National Guard on corners, slamming people. Other locals feel safer going to dinner, like political. political consultant, Rick Van Meter. I rode the metro today for the first time in three months, and I was just pleasantly surprised at how safe it felt, how clean it felt. According to Open Table, compared to the same time last year, reservations dipped 31% the week Trump announced he was deploying extra federal security officers

and National Guard troops. Milton Gavada, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR News. Wall Street is closed today for Labor Day. It reopens tomorrow. The Labor Department will release its latest jobs report on Friday. The last report showed a slowdown in the number of jobs added to the economy. President Trump then fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The brains of shrews shrink in winter and then regrow in the summer. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce reports, scientists now say they know how the brains can do it. Presumably to conserve energy in winter, when food is hard to find, the brains of shrews shrink by about 10%. Later, the brains get bigger. To see how they achieve this feat, researchers used MRI machines to peer inside the brains of anesthetized shrews

along with other lab tests. Chechelia Baldoni is with the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. She says it turns out brain cells don't die off. So the cells inside the brain are shrinking in size. A report in the journal Current Biology says the cells shrink because they temporarily lose water. Understanding how the water balance gets restored

could suggest possible treatments for human brain diseases that involve a decline in brain volume due to water loss. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. In women's tennis, Naomi Osaka eliminated Cocoa Golf 6362 at the U.S. Open today to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in more than four and a half years. She has won four major championships, including at the U.S. Open.

golf is 21 and has won two Grand Slam trophies. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News, in Washington.