NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-02-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

NPR News: 09-02-2025 3AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Rachel Martin. I'm the host of Wildcard from NPR. For a lot of my years as a radio host, silence sort of made me nervous. That pause before an answer, because you don't know what's going on on the other side of the mic. But these days, I love it. Hmm. Ah. Gosh. Give me a minute. Yeah, yeah. Think. Listen to the Wild Card podcast only from NPR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Rescuers and volunteers in eastern Afghanistan are combing through debris in search of earthquake survivors. The quake killed more than 800 people and left thousands more injured. Shereen Ibrahim, director of the International Rescue Committee for Afghanistan, describes the devastation. We are more concerned about the isolated communities in particular locations that are now partially or fully decimated. So houses, infrastructure, all gone. Travel time would be about three to five hours and unfortunately prolonged now because of the destruction that we are currently seeing. Ibrahim says many Afghans were already dealing with food insecurity and lacking in basic health care before the quake hit.

Belize and Ukraine have arrested a suspect in the weekend murder of a politician. From Kiev, NPR's Polina Litvenova reports that officials are investigating Russia's potential involvement in the assassination. Andri Parubi was shot dead in the western city of Leviv. He was one of the leaders of the popular uprising in 2013-2014, known as the Revolution of Dignity and former Speaker of Parliament. People gathered in Kiev to honor his memory. Former lawmaker Hannah Hopko is wiping her tears and says she believes Parubi was on the list of prominent Ukrainians the Kremlin wants to kill. The key laws that this is. distance us from Moscow were related to him, she says.

When Porubi was the parliamentary speaker, Ukraine enshrined in its constitution, a course towards membership in the EU and NATO. Polina Lithuinova and Pierre News, Kyiv. The Trump administration says Guatemalan children that had been targeted for deportation are being reunited with family members. This after a federal judge imposed a 14-day ban on sending an undetermined number of children to the Central American nation. The Guatemalan government has agreed to accept 150 of the unaccompanied minors per week.

The latest COVID-19 vaccines will start arriving at pharmacies, doctors' offices, and clinics around the country. But NPR's Rob Stein reports that federal restrictions could make it more difficult for many people to get the shots. 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. U.S. Futures are flat and pre-market trading.

This is NPR. A landslide in western Sudan's Darfur region has claimed an estimated 1,000 lives. The Sudan Liberation Movement Army controlling the region says the disaster occurred on Sunday in wake of heavy rainfall. The rebel group is asking international aid organizations to help recover the bodies of quake victims. A new study finds that most of the money that's being spent on cancer research ends up in the wealthiest countries. As NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports, the findings come amid a rise in cancer rates around the world. Low and middle-income countries account for more than half of new cancer patients and deaths globally. By 2050, cancer rates in these countries are expected to triple.

Research into the basic biology of cancer and treatments could help lessen this toll, like it has in many wealthy countries, but only 0.1% of the more than $50 billion in cancer research funding over the past several years, went to low-income countries. That's according to a new study published in the Lancet oncology. The researchers say this inequality limits the ability of lower-income countries to benefit from new treatments. Jonathan Lambert and PR News. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is aboard a train en route to Beijing. He plans to attend a military parade along with Chinese and Russian counterparts. Leaders of 26 nations and all are taking part in events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

war. The events that coincide with China's suggestion of a new global order that is not led by the United States or Europe. This is NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with WISE, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply.