NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyafone. As his Asia visit nears a close, President Trump has announced that he and South Korea's leader have negotiated agreements on trade and Korean investments in the U.S. This comes ahead of Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday local time. NPR's Deepa Shiveron reports. The U.S. and South Korea affirmed Seoul investing $350 billion into the U.S. They've been negotiating for months on the deepest. details of their trade agreement, including how the money would be distributed. All the details of the agreement are yet to be released, but 150 billion of the investment will go towards revitalizing U.S. shipbuilding. Tariffs on South Korean goods will also be lowered from 25 to 15%. Trump met South Korea's president separately and as part of a formal dinner with heads of states of other countries. At the table was also Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, who Trump has been upset with recently over tariff negotiations. Deepa Shiveram, NPR News, Guanyju, Korea.

Israel says the ceasefire has resumed in Gaza after a deadly wave of attacks, and Pierre's Anas Baba has details. It was one of the deadliest nights since the war in Gaza began. Over 100 Palestinians were killed, including 66 women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry. Hospital morgues were overwhelmed, and families searched for loved ones, and they moaned their children bowled from the rubble. Halima Abu Hanna held her 10-year-old son Fadi's body in her arms. He was killed in the strikes. She says, why didn't they take my soul away from me?

Till the world enough. Israel says it was targeting militants retaliating for the killing of a soldier, Anasbaba and Pira News, Gazistay. A newly published comprehensive analysis shows that vaccines that protect people against COVID-19, RSV, and the flu, remain very safe and highly effective. And PR's Rob Stein has more. The analysis was conducted by researchers at Stanford, Harvard, Brown, and other leading

universities as part of the Vaccine Integrity Project. That's an independent effort by public health experts. It's designed to provide reliable information about vaccines despite disruptions in vaccine policies in the Trump administration. The researchers analyzed more than 500. studies and report in the New England Journal of Medicine that the vaccines continue to provide strong, safe protection against COVID, RSFE, and the flu. Rob Stein and PR News.

The Federal Reserve today reduced its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point down to about 3.9 percent from about 4.1 percent. Wall Street, the Dow closed down slightly off 74 at 47,632. This is NPR. In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is reeling after the most deadly police operation in its history. According to Rio de Janeiro, state security forces, at least 121 people were killed, among them four police officers, and 113 suspect were arrested. Julia Carnaro has details.

Rio woke up in shock to scenes of dozens of dead men laying side by side in their underwear in the middle of the street in Complexo da Pena. Residents carried the bodies there, after retrieving them in a forest area where suspected gang members had fled to. Most of them had been shot dead. Tuesday's massive police operation deployed 2,500 security officers to the sprawling favelas in Complexo da Pena and Alemon, home to over 100,000 people. The target was the Red Command criminal faction. Rio's governor, Claudio Castro, claimed the operation was a success and said all those killed were suspected criminals, even before identifying their bodies.

For NPR News, I'm Julie Carnero in Rio. A Paris prosecutor says two men apprehended in connection with the crime have admitted involvement in an eight-minute jewel heist during morning museum hours at the Louvre. At least two other accomplices remain at large. The two in custody were arrested Saturday a week after the robbery of more than $100 million in French crown jewels. The stolen goods have not been recovered.

prosecutors say video surveillance cameras show there were at least four criminals involved in the brazen morning heist at the world's most visited museum. I'm Louise Skiyvone and PR News, Washington.