NPR News: 10-19-2025 2AM EDT

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across the country at No Kings rallies on Saturday to protest Trump administration policies.

And in the small agricultural city of Watsonville, California, a few thousand people also had the rare chance to hear from a bastion of labor rights from member station KAZU Elena Neal-Sachs reports.

In the blazing mid-afternoon sun, 95-year-old Dolores Huerta stepped up to a microphone at the Watsonville City Plaza.

Let's welcome the one in Huerta.

Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

What we are seeing right now is called fascism.

No?

It's fascismal.

Speaking to a crowd of protesters that included many farm workers and immigrants, Huerta denounced the Trump administration's ICE raids.

To end her speech, Huerta led a chant of the famous slogan she coined in 1972, si se puede, or yes we can.

For NPR News, I'm Elena Neal-Sachs in Watsonville.

Federal prosecutors in California are charging a labor leader with a misdemeanor in connection with actions near an immigration raid in the state.

But as NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, the Justice Department is downgrading the charge after juries balked at some similar cases.

Federal authorities detained David Huerta for days after a June immigration raid and ultimately charged him with a felony for resisting law enforcement.

Now they've pared down that charge down to a misdemeanor, which carries a maximum of one year in jail.

Huerta's attorneys say he's being singled out for being an advocate for workers and an outspoken critic of President Trump's immigration policies.

They argue the Justice Department is weaponizing against Trump opponents to try to silence them.

In recent weeks, grand juries in California have declined to charge some people accused of resisting immigration officers.

Kerry Johnson, NPR News.

President Trump continues to insist that Russia and Ukraine should stop fighting immediately, and after discussions with both Russian and Ukrainian leaders on Friday, he hinted once again that Ukraine may have to give up territory to have peace.

But as NPR's Dranika Kissis reports from Kyiv, Ukrainians want to make sure that any ceasefire is fair.

Ukrainians certainly want a ceasefire.

They want an end to the war, which Russia started.

And they certainly see that this is a war of attrition, and Russia is larger and has more resources.

In Kyiv, we spoke with Vladislav Havrilov, who investigates Russian war crimes here, and here's how he put it.

He's saying that the war is depleting Ukraine, that there are not enough people or resources or emotional bandwidth to keep fighting indefinitely.

However, like many Ukrainians, he says that a ceasefire favoring Russia would only open Ukraine to future Russian attacks.

That's NPR's Jeruanika Kissis reporting from Kyiv.

And you're listening to NPR News.

As the government shutdown drags on, American farmers are getting increasingly worried about federal payments getting cut off for everything from disaster insurance to price supports.

NPR's Kirk Siegler reports from the inland northwestern northwestern U.S., where wheat farmers were already dealing with high costs due to inflation and President Trump's tariffs.

Farmers here have been waiting for the Agriculture Secretary's promised aid package to commodity growers who have seen their export markets cut off due to the administration's trade war.

So far, no word or specifics, and each day that passes makes financing for next year even less certain.

Byron Beani is with the Northwest Grain Growers Co-op.

Not just the farmers, but the banks supplying the farmers with the money to operate needs some insurance that the farmers are not going to be going broke.

During Trump's last trade war in 2018, federal taxpayers spent about $12 billion on relief to farmers affected by retaliatory tariffs from China.

Some growers say they still haven't recovered.

Kirk Zigler and PR News, Boise.

U.N.

officials say 15 international staff members are safe after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels raided a UN compound in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a on Saturday.

Back in August, a similar raid led to the detention of 19 employees.

The Houthis still hold more than 50 people, including many associated with aid groups and civil society organizations.

A passenger bus crashed in northeastern Brazil this weekend.

At least 17 people were killed in the accident.

Officials say the driver lost control of the bus before crossing into the opposite lane and crashing.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, but police say that the driver tested negative for alcohol.

I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.

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