NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-26-2025 1PM EDT

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Top economic officials from the U.S. and China have worked out a substantial framework for an agreement on rare earth metals and tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said today, the deal means the U.S. does not plan to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, as President Trump have threatened. Besson appeared on several of the television talk show this morning. Here he is on NBC.

President Trump gave me a great deal of negotiating leverage with the threat of the 100% tariffs on November 1st. And I believe we've reached a very substantial framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese. Besson said the agreement includes substantial agriculture purchases for U.S. farmers. But he added it's not final until President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet in South Korea Thursday. The U.S. and Brazil are talking again after months of a contentious and public fight over President Trump's tariffs and other sanctions against the South American country. Trump and Brazil's president met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Malaysia today. NPR's Carrie Khan reports. In a photo from the meeting, Brazil's president Luis Anasio

Lula de Silva and Trump are shaking hands and smiling broadly. Lula says the two had a great meeting and that high-level trade talks were underway. A deal should come, quote, pretty quickly added Trump. That's quite a turnaround from the insults. The two traded as Trump slapped 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods over the prosecution of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. The Trump political ally was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn his 2022 election laws.

Lula also offered to mediate the current escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. He's told Trump, a military conference, confrontation would be devastating for the region. Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Russia says it successfully carried out a test of a nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile. The Russian president said the next step is its deployment. NPR's Charles Mainz reports from Moscow. In a video released by the Kremlin, Russian president,

Vladimir Putin announced the successful test of the Budavestnik cruise missile and ordered its integration into Russia's defenses. Nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable, Berveznik, is one of a crop of next-generation Russian weapons that Moscow claims are invincible to all existing air defenses. In the video, Russia's top general, Valé Garasimov, tells Putin the missile maneuvered for nearly 15 hours during its test launch. The exercise comes, as Putin has vowed Russia will not bend to western pressure over Ukraine.

It also comes just months before the last remaining nuclear arms reduction treaty with the U.S. is set to expire. Transmaine's NPR News. Moscow. This is NPR News in Washington. Ukrainian authorities say Russia attacked the Capitol Keeve with drones overnight for a second night in a row. They say three people were killed. At least 29 people were wounded. The attack set two high-rise apartment buildings on fire. Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, has said the attacks on civilians in Kiev show the need for more Western air defense systems. Gunfire disrupted homecoming festivities at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania last night. Authorities say one person was killed and six others were wounded.

The Chester County District Attorney said one person with the firearm has been detained. He says he does not believe there's any active threat to the campus. Lincoln University is an historically black college, about 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia. The Los Angeles Dodgers roared back in game two of the World Series to beat the Toronto Blue Jays' five to one. The best of seven series is now tied one game apiece. Steve Futterman was at the stadium for the final out. The star of game two was the Dodger starter, Yoshi Yamamoto. He was brilliant, allowing the Toronto batters just one run on four hits. The game was close until the seventh inning. The two teams were tied one to one in the seventh. The Dodgers got a pair of

solo home runs to take a three to one lead. L.A. added two more runs in the eighth to make the final score 5 to 1. After a one-day break, the series resumes in Los Angeles on Monday for games 3, 4, and 5. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman at the World Series in Toronto. And I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.