NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-23-2025 12AM EDT

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. The entire East Wing of the White House is being demolished as President Trump expands his plans for a new ballroom. NPR's Tamara Keith reports. The East Wing was built during World War II and has been modified over the years. Until recently, it housed the offices of the First Lady's staff. Explaining that it needed to be torn down, President Trump downplayed its significance. It was never thought of as being much. It was a very small building. Trump said it didn't make sense to save the East Wing at the expense of the massive new ballroom he has planned.

In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure. Images of excavators tearing into a wing of the White House have set off alarms for groups concerned with historic preservation. The White House says preservation work was done and calls the controversy, quote, pearl clutching. Tamara Keith. NPR News. The North Carolina legislature is the latest state to honor President Trump's call to add more Republican seats in Congress. Texas and Missouri have added extra GOP seats and California is taking similar action on behalf of Democrats. Christopher Cooper teaches political science at Western Carolina University where he is following the mid-decade redistricting campaign. I think this is sort of the Babe Ruthie era of redistricting, right?

They're calling their shot and they're putting the ball exactly where they told us their goal. to. He's saying what he wants to do. He's saying the intent and the intent is to draw more Republican districts and the fact that it is a purple state that, as you said, as a Democratic governor, as a Democratic lieutenant governor, has a Democrat attorney general. None of that really matters if the goal is just to get more Republicans in Congress. Cooper says unlike previous redistricting movements, the current mid-decade effort comes at the request of the president. The U.S. and European Union have imposed new sanctions on Russia. hoping to force the Kremlin to accept an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. NPR's Eleanor Beersley has details.

The U.S. sanctions are a big win for Europeans who have spent 10 months pleading with Washington to tighten the screws on the Russian economy. European leaders have also called for a ceasefire at the current battle lines, something Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects. EU leaders say they're committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it is unacceptable to leave part of the Donbass in what he calls Nazi hands. Russia's intransigence finally seems to have been too much for Trump, who canceled his planned meeting with Putin and announced the sanctions on two major Russian oil companies helping finance the war on Ukraine.

Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. U.S. futures are lower in after-hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR. The Treasury Department data shows the national debt now exceeds a record $38 trillion. The Joint Economic Committee estimates the debt has risen around $70,000 per second for the past year. The Government Accountability Office cites some of the reasons for the high debt, including inflation, stagnant wages, and high interest rates. Coca-Cola is launching a new glass bottle for Coke made with cane sugar. As WAB's Marlon Hyde reports, the Trump administration has been pushing for the change.

For Coke drinkers looking to avoid high fructose corn syrup, they now have a new option. The Atlanta-based beverage giant is rolling out a new 12-ounce single-served glass bottle of Coke made with U.S. cane sugar. Corn syrup is used as an ingredient for coax in the U.S. and has been for a long time, partly because of cost. However, President Trump and his administration have pushed for the company to go away from using high-fructose corn syrup. already offers products in the U.S. that use cane sugar, like Mexican Coke, except the sugar is imported from Mexico. A Coca-Cola spokesperson confirmed to NPR that the new soda will be available in select cities and retailers. For NPR news, I'm Marlon Hyde in Atlanta. The director of the Louvre in Paris has offered to resign over the weekend heist of

France's crown jewels, but the offer was declined. Loran Descartes has acknowledged what she calls a terrible failure. Daycar says the alarms were working and security cameras were running, but have limited views of the perimeter around the museum. It took the thieves less than 10 minutes to scale the building and snatch $102 million worth of jewels before fleeing on scooters. This is NPR.