NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-30-2025 5AM EDT

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Dave Mattingly. President Trump says his meeting with China's President Xi Jinping today in South Korea went well and covered key economic and security issues. Trump and Xi met for more than an hour and a half at a South Korean military base in Busan on the sidelines of a regional economic summit. Speaking aboard Air Force One afterwards, Trump said China has agreed to do more to curb the flow of fentanyl ingredient. into the U.S., and because of that, the president says he's lowering U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports by 10%. Trump also says she agreed that China would immediately begin purchasing soybeans and other goods from American farmers. President Trump says he's giving South Korea

permission to build a nuclear-powered submarine in the U.S. Trump's announcement follows talks with South Korea's president, Li Jiam Young, where the two finalized a trade agreement between the two countries. NPR's Deepa Shiverram has more. Trump posted on social media that Korea will be building the nuclear-powered submarine in the Philadelphia shipyards. On Wednesday, when Trump met with Lee, Lee asked the president to allow Korea to receive fuel for nuclear-propelled subs in order to better track North Korean and Chinese submarines. Trump said in his post that based on the trade deal South Korea agreed to and the investments they're making in the U.S., which totals up to $350 billion,

He gave support for them to build the new submarine. Deepa Chivaram, NPR News, Jiangju, Korea. More than two dozen deaths are being reported in the Caribbean from Hurricane Melissa. Storm fatalities occurred in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Florida say Melissa is now a category two storm with top sustained winds of 105 miles per hour. It's expected to move near or over Bermuda by tonight. Melissa made landfall in Jamaica this week as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour,

leaving widespread damage, flooding, and power outages. NPR's Greg Allen is in South Florida, which has one of the largest Jamaican communities in the U.S. At a warehouse in Durrell, 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. It's 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. This is NPR News. The Federal Reserve has lowered U.S. interest rates by another quarter point. This is the Fed's second such rate cut in six weeks amid concerns about a slowdown in hiring by employers. Fed Chair Jerome Powell says policymakers have widely differing views on whether an additional rate cut might be warranted at the central bank's next meeting in December. That disappointed investors on Wall Street who've been hoping for a third rate cut before the end of the year. Retail Coffee Giant Starbucks is reporting growth in its same store sales for the first time in nearly two years.

There's NPR's Alina Selyuk. Starbucks last year hired the former Chipotle CEO, Brian Nicol, and gave him a big paycheck to stage a recovery. The coffee giant had been steadily losing sales. Nichols' ideas to make Starbucks stores more like trendy cafes with sofas, ceramic mugs, refills, a slimmer menu, and shorter waytimes. Now, Starbucks for the first time, is reporting its global sales are up by about 1% in the latest quarter. In the U.S., the sales are flat instead of falling, with people still visiting a little less often, but spending a little more when they do. Starbucks is also reshuffling its costs. It's cutting 900 corporate jobs,

and in this past quarter closed more than 600 stores. Alina Seluk, NPR News. The Toronto Blue Jays are win away from their first World Series championship in more than 30 years. The Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Dodgers last night in game five to take a three games to two lead in the series. The final score was six to one. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News, in Washington.