NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

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Lie from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. As Hurricane Melissa bears down on the Bahamas, the extent of the carnage it caused on other islands since yesterday is starting to come into focus. At least 29 people are dead. The majority in Haiti from flash floods and structures collapsed by one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. The 185 mile per hour, Cat 5 storm was the strongest to ever hit Jamaica Tuesday. Base in Kingston, Nick Davis, reports power is still out across much of the country and communities are isolated. The stories we're hearing people who are able to post on social media are absolutely horrifying. More will come

out over the next day or so. People are starting to head west to try and get aid even from here, just local people. But there's been tales of people opening their homes to friends, neighbors, strangers because so many people, especially in rural communities, were left with nowhere to go.

Nick Davis reporting, the leaders of the world's two biggest economies are set to meet in the coming hours on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum in South Korea. President Trump predicts he and China's Xi Jinping will strike a deal that addresses their disputes over tariffs and fentanyl. The U.S. has secured a series of trade packs in his tour through Asia this week. NPR's Kamala Dominovsky takes a closer look. look at a deal Trump struck with Japan. President Trump has struck a framework deal with Japan that calls for hundreds of billions of dollars of Japanese investment in the U.S. And this week, he said Toyota would invest $10 billion as well as export U.S. made vehicles

back to Japan. Many international automakers build in the U.S. and ship overseas, but Trump has long complained too few cars go to Japan. Japan loves small microcars while big pickups are king in the states. In a statement to NPR, Toyota says it's a lot. has already invested nearly $50 billion in the U.S. reflecting a principle to, quote, build where we sell. Camila Dominovsky, NPR News.

Israel is banning one of the world's most established children's aid organizations from operating in Gaza. Here's NPR's Jane Arraf. Save the Children has been providing aid in Gaza and the West Bank for more than 70 years. But Israel has recently announced new rules for non-governmental organizations, sending in staff and humanitarian aid. Those rules allow Israel to revoke registration for any group but deems anti-Israeli. Save the Children had been informed that it did not meet the new criteria and that its international staff would soon have to leave Gaza.

A UN study says almost 55,000 children in Gaza are acutely malnourished because of lack of aid. Israel denies that it restricts aid to Gaza. As part of the recent ceasefire, it had agreed to more than double the number of trucks allowed there. Jaina Raff, NPR News, Amon. It's NPR. One of the leading artificial intelligence chatbots on the market, character.a.I, says it will sharply restrict how miners will be allowed to interact with it.

The move is a latest step by an AI company to try to make chatbots safer for kids under 18. Here's NPR's John Rewitch. Character AI lets users create and chat online with virtual characters. Last year, the family of a 14-year-old who died by suicide after using the platform sued the company. Other AI companies, including industry leader Open AI, have come under scrutiny for what some see as lacks safeguards for minors. Character AI has already rolled out a series of measures to strengthen guardrails. Now it says it'll introduce an age assurance function to target age-appropriate experiences.

And starting in late November, it will bar minors from having open-ended chats on the platform. The company also says it's launching an independent nonprofit focus. on next-generation AI safety. It says it's making these changes in light of an evolving landscape and questions from regulators. John Rewich and PR News. A pair as prosecutor says two suspects in the recent jewel heist at the Louvre Museum have partially admitted to playing a role in the crime. The official said today that investigators believe the pair forced their way into the

Louvre. Authorities say two other suspects remain at large. Historic Royal Jewels with an estimated value of more than $100 million have not yet been recovered. U.S. stocks have ended the day mixed with NASDAQ closing up 130 points. The S&P was down slightly. The Dow lost 74 points. This is NPR.