NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-30-2025 7AM EDT

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Corvick Coleman, President Trump is flying home after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. Trump says the leaders are close to a trade agreement. He says China will do more to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., and he says the U.S. will immediately lower tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump says he will hash up more details with Xi next spring. I'll be going to China in April, and he'll be coming here sometime after that. whether it's in Florida, Papua, or Washington, D.C. Trump also attended the start of an Asian economic forum in South Korea.

The president says the U.S. will start testing nuclear weapons on an equal basis with Russia and China. As NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports, the announcement could mark a reversal of decades-old policy. The president made his announcement in a lengthy post on truth social. The U.S. has not conducted a test of a nuclear weapon since 1990. Instead, it uses scientific experiments and computer simulations to make sure its bombs still work. The voluntary test moratorium has been in place since the end of the Cold War as part of an effort to maintain nuclear stability. It's not entirely clear what resuming testing on an equal basis means. The U.S. is not prepared to conduct a nuclear test in the near term, and China and Russia haven't tested their nuclear weapons in decades either,

though both nations have been modernizing their arsenals in recent years. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth says the U.S. has attacked another boat in the Eastern Pacific. He says four people were killed and that they were smuggling narcotics. He didn't provide any evidence. The Trump administration has been destroying small boats in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean. Critics in Congress say the administration is executing people without a trial. The federal government shutdown is now a month old, and no end is in sight.

Now, more than 65,000 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are at risk of losing access to Head Start. NPR's Corey Turner reports this is the federal program that provides child care and early learning for low-income families. Head Start programs all over the country are on different federal funding cycles, and the National Head Start Association says 134 of these programs are supposed to get their next round of funding? November 1st. But they can't if the government is shut down. These at-risk programs are in more than 40 states, but the hardest hit will likely be in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Ohio. Overall, Head Start serves about 750,000 children providing high-quality preschool, health screening, and free meals. If the shutdown continues, more and more centers will run out of money each

month. That had forced many working families to choose between taking care of their kids and going to work. Corey Turner, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The National Hurricane Center says forecasters and say that Hurricane Melissa is steaming out into the Atlantic Ocean with top sustained winds of 105 miles per hour. The storm rolled over Cuba yesterday after smashing into Jamaica on Tuesday. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is telling the state's public universities and colleges to pull the plug on using H-1B visas. when they hire international workers. From Central Florida public media, Daniel Pryor, explains.

Governor DeSantis says he only wants Florida's public universities and colleges to employ American workers, not foreign workers on H-1B visas, and that's why he's directing the Board of Governors to stop using the program to hire workers. At a press conference, DeSantis read off a list of H-1B workers employed at the state's universities. Assistant swim coach from Spain. an H-1B visa. Are you kidding me? We can't produce an assistant swim coach in this country. United Faculty of Florida President Robert Casinello pushed back saying there aren't enough native-born candidates to fill jobs in fields like engineering and the sciences. For NPR

news, I'm Danielle Pryor in Orlando. The site Dictionary.com has revealed its word of the year. It's 6-7, a popular term with kids. It actually doesn't have a defined. meaning, some people say it's like saying so-so. It originated with the rapper Scrilla, and it's been used to feature online clips of pro basketball player La Molo Ball. He is 6'7. This is NPR.