NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-25-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyavone. President Trump has embarked on his first trip to Asia since returning to the White House. Bilateral trade talks could be on the agenda with multiple nations. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has details on one of the main challenges of the six-day trip. President Trump told reporters on route to his first stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that he expects a good meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but that both sides may need to make concessions. U.S. and Chinese trade officials held talks in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, seeking to de-escalate the trade spat. China has not yet confirmed that Xi Jinping will meet Trump on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation in South Korea next week.

President Trump also said he's open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while he's in South Korea. Kim has made similar remarks and the two met three times in 2018 and 2019, but there are currently no plans for the two to meet on this trip. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. The Justice Department says it now wants to deport Kilmar Abrago-Garcia to the African nation of Liberia, but as NPR's Martin Kosti reports, his lawyers say it's an unacceptable option. A judge ruled in 2019 that although Abrago Garcia was in the U.S. illegally, he shouldn't be sent back to El Salvador because of dangers he'd faced there. The Trump administration deported

him there anyway, it says by mistake, and he was returned to the U.S. in June. Now his lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Motionberg, says Costa Rica could take Abrago Garcia, but the administration keeps insisting on sending him farther away. They are using the selection of the country of removal as a means of punishing him. In its court filing, the Justice Department calls Liberia a thriving democracy, which provides, quote, robust protections for human rights. But it doesn't say whether Liberia has promised not to send Obrigo Garcia on to El Salvador. Martin Kosti and PR News. The federal government shutdown has now moved into its 25th day,

and more Americans are beginning to feel the effects. Sophia Schmidt of member station WHYY reports Pennsylvania is delaying a program that helps families heat their homes in the winter. More than 300,000 households in Pennsylvania rely on the low-income home energy assistance program to help buy heating oil or pay their energy bills. The program usually opens in November, but without federal funding, the state is pushing it back to December. Liz Marks directs the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project. She says families will be forced to make hard choices. I think a lot of people are going to sacrifice food, medicine, medical care, other like. essentials. I think people will fall behind on their rent.

Pennsylvania officials say once federal funds start flowing again, they'll start up the program as quickly as possible. For NPR News, I'm Sophia Schmidt in Philadelphia. This is NPR News. Actress June Lockhart, known to generations of TV viewers as the mom in Lassie, has died of natural causes at her California home. She was 100. NPR's Chloe Veltman has this remembrance. June Lockhart was one of television's most beloved mothers. She cared for an adopted son and a famous dog as Ruth Martin in the popular series Lassie from 1958 to 1964. There's no room in this house for two stubborn females. And later in the 1960s, Lockhart

explored far off planets as the matriarch Maureen Robinson in the Kitch Adventure series Lost in Space. Aren't you forgetting a small ingredient for happiness known as love? The daughter of two actors, Lockhart, was born in New York in 1925. Her family moved to Los Angeles a decade later. She made her screen debut in MGM's 1938 movie adaptation of a Christmas Carol, starring alongside her parents as the Cratchit family. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. Tarrantial rain is in the forecast for Jamaica as tropical storm Melissa is now a hurricane.

In Kingston, Jamaica, there are preparations for days of heavy rain and flooding. Vendors at Coronation Market were hurrying to sell and stock goods before the storm. Diane Thompson sells herbs there. My God, now, no problem. I may I ask him this morning so if we can turn by the storm. Because no matter what, we cannot manage it. All you can do is survive it, says Fisherman Clive Davis. After the storm, there must be a calm, so we'll come together and do we clean up.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic are also in the path of the storm. I'm Luis Giovanni and PR News.