NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2025 1PM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral is underway at the Washington National Cathedral. Some view Cheney as a polarizing political figure, including as a chief architect of the Iraq War post-9-11. But his daughter, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, remembered him as a Republican lion who put country over party. For him, a choice between defense of the Constitution. and defense of your political party was no choice at all. The late vice president became a fierce critic of President Trump's leadership, as was his daughter, former Representative Cheney,

who was among the Republicans in Congress who said Trump should be held to account for his role in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Europe's top diplomat says, to her knowledge, no one from the European Union was involved in the development of the late this reported Russia-Ukraine peace proposal drafted by the United States. Terry Schultz reports EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels with their support for Ukraine topping the agenda. EU foreign policy chief Kayakhalis says the bloc welcomes all attempts

to find a negotiated solution to Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine, but she was skeptical about anything drafted without engaging the Ukrainian government or the Europeans who would have to help implement such an agreement. For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians, and Europeans on board. Also, we have to understand that in this war, there is one aggressor and one victim. We haven't heard of any concessions on the Russian side. Polish foreign minister Roddick Sikorski echoed concerns about the contents of the proposal,

saying he hopes Ukraine would not be restricted in its ability to defend itself. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. Walmart says price-sensitive shoppers are searching for value, and the company is getting those dollars. The retail giant is raising its financial forecast for the year. NPR Zalina Selyuk has details. Walmart has drawn more higher income shoppers over the past year and continue to do so in the latest quarter. Executives say they're seeing lower income shoppers pull back a bit more while middle income spending is steady. Overall, Walmart's sales grew four and a half percent between August and October, with the holiday season described as off to a strong start. Executives say

the company has had to raise some prices because of tariffs, especially on electronics. but generally the impact has been less than many expected. Walmart also announced it's moving its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to NASDAQ to reflect its growing digital operations. NASDAQ tends to have more tech companies and has rivals, Amazon, and Costco. Alina Seluk, NPR News, Washington. U.S. stocks are trading lower this hour with the Dow Jones Industrial average now down more than 200 points or roughly half a percent at 45,917.

This is NPR News. The top Democrats in the House released a statement today, calling for President Trump to delete social media posts that accused Democrats of, quote, seditious behavior and suggested such behavior is, quote, punishable by death. Trump made a pair of posts on his side truth social in response to video posted by several lawmakers, including Representative Jason Crow, Christelousio, Maggie Goodland. Lender and others. Lawmakers addressed members of the military and intelligence communities and said, quote, you can refuse illegal orders, repeating the phrase several times before saying you must refuse illegal orders. The child advocacy nonprofit called Fairplay has released an advisory. The group is warning people against buying AI toys this holiday season. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports. Fairplay's advisory says play things like AI powered plushies and robots

collect sensitive data and disrupt human relationships among other harms. Rachel Franz is a fair play program director. These can have long and short-term impacts on development and it's ridiculous to expect young children to avoid potential harm here. The advisory echoes the Public Interest Research Group's latest annual Trouble in Toyland report. The Consumer Watchdog's findings reveal how AI toys allow kids to chat about sexually explicit topics and have few parental control. roles. That's NPR's Chloe Veltman reporting. The Dow is down 219 points. SMPs off 43 and the NASDAQ has

fallen 210 points. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.