Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

NPR News Now

NPR News: 10-20-2025 1PM EDT

20 Oct 2025

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.098 - 14.04 Unknown

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.

0

15.978 - 22.265 Lakshmi Singh

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump is hosting the Prime Minister of Australia this hour.

0

22.365 - 43.008 Unknown

We are discussing critical minerals and rare earths, and we're going to be signing an agreement that's been negotiated over a period of four or five months. And it was sort of good timing that we got it done just in time for the visit. And we work together very much on rare earths, critical minerals and lots of other things. And we've had a very good relationship.

0

43.028 - 45.09 Unknown

We've been working on that for quite a while.

0

45.745 - 65.931 Lakshmi Singh

The leaders are discussing forging a stronger security and defense partnership, taking questions ahead of the talks, Trump told reporters. He's been invited to go to China, which is expected to happen early next year. Health officials in Gaza say Israeli airstrikes yesterday killed nearly 50 people in the enclave. NPR's Aya Batraoui reports the attacks.

66.265 - 69.15 Lakshmi Singh

threatened to unravel a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

69.31 - 79.007 Aya Batraoui

Israel's military says two soldiers were killed in an attack in southern Gaza, sparking a wave of airstrikes that killed Palestinians, many of them women and children, over the weekend.

Chapter 2: What is the significance of the meeting between President Trump and the Prime Minister of Australia?

79.367 - 95.606 Aya Batraoui

Israel says it also dropped more than 120 bombs on a Hamas tunnel. A Hamas official who spoke anonymously to NPR in order to brief the media says it was rogue militants who carried out the deadly attack on Israeli troops. President Trump also told reporters that, quote, rebels were behind the attack.

0

95.987 - 109.62 Aya Batraoui

Meanwhile, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are visiting Israel to discuss next steps of the ceasefire. A senior Hamas delegation is also visiting Egypt for similar discussions. Aya Batraoui, NPR News, Dubai.

0

109.988 - 127.011 Lakshmi Singh

Today is a deadline for a handful of universities to agree to a list of commitments that align with the Trump administration's political priorities in exchange for preferential access to federal funds. NPR's Alyssa Nadwani reports so far six schools have indicated they will not be signing the agreement.

0

127.031 - 146.374 Alyssa Nadworny

The White House sent the so-called Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to nine colleges, both private and public, on October 1st. It would require schools to freeze tuition for five years, limit international student enrollment, and require standardized tests for admissions, among other things. The University of Virginia is among the schools to decline.

0

146.794 - 169.695 Alyssa Nadworny

UVA's interim president said they wanted, quote, On Friday, the White House held a meeting with college leaders to discuss the compact. On X, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the meeting was, quote, positive and an important step. The White House did not provide details on how they will incorporate feedback or make changes to the compact. Alyssa Nadworny, NPR News.

170.84 - 193.759 Lakshmi Singh

Amazon Web Services is working to fully restore connectivity and access to services disrupted during an early morning outage. The system malfunction led to increased error rates and latencies and prevented users worldwide from accessing major websites and apps, affecting everything from banking to social media. From Washington, this is NPR News.

196.321 - 219.477 Lakshmi Singh

Japan could soon be led by a female prime minister for the first time after her governing party secured an important coalition partner. Sanae Takeichi is on track to replacing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday's parliamentary vote. Takeichi is an ultra-conservative security hawk and star in her male-dominated Liberal Democrats party.

219.457 - 240.489 Lakshmi Singh

But many women view her assent to prime minister as a serious setback in the fight for gender equality in Japan. In France, police are still searching for the criminals who used a moving truck with an extendable ladder to break into an upper floor window of the Louvre Museum yesterday and steal royal jewels worth millions.

240.83 - 245.397 Lakshmi Singh

NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports the museum is closed, but that has not stopped the crowds from coming.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.