NPR News: 10-18-2025 3AM EDT
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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org.
Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was at the White House Friday, where he had a lengthy meeting with President Trump. Afterward, Trump called on Russia and Ukraine to stop fighting and bring to an end their war. NPR's Michelle Kellerman has more on where things stand.
In a lot of ways, it's a war of attrition. You know, Russia has a lot more men to throw into this meat grinder, as Trump likes to say, has a lot of drones and missiles, much of it made by Iran. Zelensky and the Europeans have worked really hard to convince Trump That Russia is not winning this war. And again, it seemed like their strategy was working. You know, you heard Trump say this war is making Putin look bad. It's hurting its economy.
Trump, meanwhile, also had a phone call with Russia's president after he seemed to back off from an earlier indication that he might offer Ukraine Tomahawk missiles that could stripe deep into Russian territory. A count by Virginia's unemployment agency indicates that the pace of federal employees applying for jobless benefits may be increasing. From VPM News, Jad Khalil reports.
During the first week of the shutdown, 550 Virginia residents listed a federal agency as their employer when applying for unemployment. The next week, it was 700.
What recent developments occurred in the Ukraine-Russia conflict?
That's according to a Virginia Employment Commission spokesperson. These unemployment claims still need to be vetted, but it would account for varying reasons for a government worker to be out of work. That includes people who accepted a deferred resignation program, commonly known as the fork, and those who were furloughed in the shutdown. The spokesperson wrote in an email that most federal workers who applied for unemployment benefits had been furloughed. Virginia has about 150,000 federal employees, according to the Office of Personal Management. For NPR News, I'm Jad Khalil in Richmond.
Millions of people are expected to gather across 50 states Saturday to protest against Trump administration policies. NPR's Alana Wise reports on the No Kings demonstrations.
Organizers are planning for a wave of protests spanning from coast to coast. This comes as the government enters into its third week of shutdown, and viral video has shown masked ICE agents detaining people with little to no explanation. Saturday's planned demonstrations follow major No Kings protests this summer. Then, organizers claim they saw about 5 million people take to the streets. This weekend's protests could produce an even higher turnout. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded to the prospect of mass demonstrations, stating simply, who cares? Alana Wise, NPR News.
International shipping now accounts for about 3% of the yearly emissions of greenhouse gas. But a meeting by the world's largest maritime nations ended on Friday without new regulations to control those emissions. President Trump had urged the countries on Thursday to vote against regulations that would have imposed fees for emissions above a certain threshold. The shipping industry is a major user of fossil fuels. You're listening to NPR News. China's second-highest ranking general and eight other senior officials have been expelled from both the Communist Party and the military. The Defense Ministry says the nine are under suspicion of serious misconduct linked to corruption, and they say the misconduct involves large sums of money.
Government anti-corruption drives have become a major policy for Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he took office in 2012. A new report sheds light on how dependent the U.S. is on China for the raw ingredients needed to manufacture many medications. NPR's Gabriela Emanuel has more.
Nearly 700 U.S. medications require at least one ingredient that comes solely from China. This is the case for the very common antibiotic amoxicillin.
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