NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-27-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. President Trump is now in Japan, where he is scheduled to meet the country's newly installed prime minister. He has already met with Japanese emperor Narahito. Trump is focusing on trade this trip. His next destination is South Korea. There, he's expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is traveling with the president. Besant says negotiators for the U.S. and China have made progress on trade talks. We have a framework for President Trump, President Xi, to decide on the end we discussed a wide range of things from tariffs, trade, fentanyl, substantial purchase of U.S. agricultural products and rare earths. But the Treasury Secretary says nothing is final until Trump and Xi meet on Thursday. The federal government shutdown is nearly four weeks old. The largest union of federal workers is today calling on lawmakers to pass a spending bill and reopen the federal government. Hurricane Melissa is now a Category 5 storm that's expected to move over Jamaica as soon as tonight. NPR's Nathan Rott reports the island and other countries in the Caribbean are bracing for catastrophic flooding. 30 inches of rain are expected in some parts of the Caribbean over the coming days,

creating life-threatening and catastrophic conditions. National Hurricane Center warns. Flash floods and debris flows or mudslides are expected. Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba are also being affected, but the immediate forecast warns the slow-moving storm will move close to or directly over Jamaica in the coming days. The U.S. Navy began evacuating personnel from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba over the weekend. Nate Rott and PR News. The search for bodies of the remaining Israeli hostages continues in Gaza.

There are also reports of the Israeli military striking Palestinians inside the enclave. NPR's Rob Schmidt's reports from Tel Aviv, this could threaten the two-week-old ceasefire. Over the weekend, Israel allowed a search and rescue team from Egypt to enter Gaza to search for the bodies of the 13 remaining hostages. According to an official who spoke to NPR but not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, Israel also allowed members of Hamas to cross the so-called yellow line into Israeli-held territory. to assist in the search for the deceased hostages. Gaza's civil defense reports that Israel's military struck a group of Palestinian civilians who had returned to their homes near Kahn Yunus in southern Gaza, killing two and injuring

three. Over the weekend, Israel's military said it carried out a targeted strike in central Gaza on a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, injuring four people in a car. Both attacks appear to be testing the U.S. brokered ceasefire agreement. Rob Schmitz and PR News, Tel Aviv. On Wall Street, the Dow is up nearly 300 points. This is NPR. California Governor Gavin Newsom says he will consider running for the Democratic presidential nomination,

but he says he will consider that after the midterm elections in 2026. Newsom spoke with CBS Sunday morning. As families in the U.S. and around the world have fewer children, economists say the trend is reshaping parts of the global economy. As NPR's Brian Mann reports, in many places, populations are aging fast and beginning to decline. Most experts agree the shift to fewer kids is being driven by good things, including education and economic gains for women and plummeting teen pregnancy rates. But there are also challenges. Economists say families in all the countries that drive global GDP from China to Germany to the U.S.

are now having too few children to maintain a stable population and robust workforce. Lant Pritchett is at the London School of Economics. It's hard to maintain the dynamism of the economy. You can't get people to do all kinds of work from electricians to plumbers to everything else. Many experts say the trend toward fewer children in the U.S. and around the world will continue, a pattern that's already straining, pension, and health care systems in some countries as populations age and shrink. Brian Mann, NPR News.

The U.S. Navy is investigating after losing two aircraft in the South China Sea, Both were based on the aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz. A fighter jet and a helicopter went down into the ocean in separate circumstances. These occurred within a half hour of each other. All the crew were rescued. The Nimitz is returning to its home base in Washington State. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News.