NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2025 11PM EDT

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens. President Trump has addressed, has arrived in Busan for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. It's his last event before Trump heads back to Washington. As NPR's Deepa Shiverram reports, the meeting has been the most highly anticipated for months. This meeting is the first time Trump and Xi have met face-to-face since 2019. But the two leaders have spoken over the phone as a trade war escalated between the U.S. and China. While traveling through Asia, Trump has said he expects to make a trade deal with Xi

and said China will have to make some concessions, as will the U.S. It's also possible the two talk about other topics, including the flow of fentanyl and China purchasing soybeans from the U.S. There's also the topic of Taiwan's independence, though Trump has been reluctant to wait into that matter. Trump and Xi might meet again in person in a matter of months. Trump has said he will head to China early next year and also plans to host Xi in either Washington or Florida at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Deepa Chivaram and PR News, Jiangzhou, Korea. Officials in Jamaica say Hurricane Melissa claimed at least five lives and left more than three quarters of the island without power. Dural, Florida, NPR's Greg Allen, has reaction from within the second largest Jamaican community in the United States. At a warehouse in Dural, a Miami suburb, volunteers are packing boxes filled with food, water, and hygiene products that are being shipped to Jamaica by global empowerment mission. Melissa was the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica, and it focused its destructive power on the island's western side. One of the volunteers, Adrian Long, was

worried about his family who live in Southfield, near the spot where the hurricane made landfall. a smaller town. We have a family business there. My uncle lived there. I haven't heard a thing. And I know it's bad because the last hurricane was terrible. The charity says it has planes loaded with aid for Jamaica ready to land when the airports reopen. Greg Allen, NPR News, Dural, Florida. The Federal Reserve Board cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point today. But as NPR's Greg Allen reports, the Central Bank port cold water on hopes for an additional rate cut in December. By making it cheaper to borrow, money, the Fed hopes to goose demand and prop up the sagging job market. The vote was not unanimous,

however. One member of the rate-setting committee wanted a larger half-point cut, another wanted to leave rates unchanged. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says policymakers also have widely differing views about whether an additional rate cut might be warranted at the next Fed meeting in December. That disappointed investors who were banking on another quarter-point rate reduction before the end of the year. Setting interest rates can be challenging in the best times. The job is particularly difficult now, since much of the government data policymakers usually rely on to track the economy has been suspended by the federal shutdown. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

You're listening to NPR. A former sheriff's deputy in Illinois has been convicted of second-degree murder in the July 2024 shooting death of Sonia Massey, who called 911 for help. Sean Grayson's fatally shot Massey as she stood in her kitchen holding a pot of hot water. He now faces forward to 10 years in prison or probation at sentencing in January. Syria's interim president has addressed the annual Future Investment Initiative Conference, a summit in Saudi Arabia. He told business leaders gathered in Bria that Syria is the region's next great investment in the Middle East.

More from NPR's eye of patrally. Ahmed al-Shara spoke before a crowd of global business elites and regional power brokers. That included Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, and President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., who was a speaker at the forum earlier in the day. Al-Shara said Syria had attracted $22 billion in foreign investment in the 10 months since the end of its civil war. He says Syria has opened a new page and is, quote, rich with opportunity in tourism, agriculture, energy, and other key industries. The former rebel leader also praised Saudi Arabia for supporting Syria's transition after the fall of Bashar Assad, whose government was backed by Russia and Iran.

President Trump met with Al-Sharahar in Saudi Arabia in May. where he announced the U.S. was lifting sanctions on the country. Aya-Botrawi, NPR News, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. President Trump says the United States will share sensitive technology to help South Korea build a nuclear-powered submarine. Trump says he gave sole permission to build the submarine following trade talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit. South Korea has promised to invest $350 billion in the U.S.

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