News from around the nation.

Trump and Xi ease off the trade war, but new nuclear threat brings a chill; Report outlines steps to strengthen rural Michigan amid shutdown; Clinic helps North Carolinians clear criminal records for free; IN youth want answers on their path to adulthood.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

After a 90-minute face-to-face meeting with Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, President Trump announced that the two leaders had sharply de-escalated their trade standoff, agreeing in essence on a year-long ceasefire that would roll back tat-for-tat measures including steep tariffs and shutting off access to rare earth metals.

That from the New York Times.

They report just minutes before he landed in South Korea to meet with Xi, Trump announced to the media, the U.S. would immediately restart nuclear weapons testing after a lull of more than 30 years.

Meantime, as the federal government shutdown continues, Michigan advocates say rural communities are being especially hard hit.

A new Rural Policy Action Report lays out steps Congress can take now to turn things around.

Levi Title with Progress Michigan says this report offers a road map for helping struggling rural families, including farmers, who are facing particularly difficult times.

If we keep going down this path of cutting food assistance and cutting purchasing agreements and also these willy-nilly trade agreements or tariffs, it's going to really decimate our independent farming community even more.

The report highlights ways to reverse health care cuts, expand local food purchasing, and rein in corporate influence.

Title says the goal is to invest in infrastructure, create good union jobs, and stop the wave of privatization hurting small towns.

Crystal Blair reporting.

And people in North Carolina were able to get their criminal records cleared for free at an expungement clinic.

After the success of the first event, more clinics are planned for the state.

The organization Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, or REPS, hosted its first expungement clinic in Raleigh last week, allowing people to clear their criminal records or charges against them that were dropped.

Head of REPS Kerwin Pittman says more than 330 people showed up to the event, and 169 had their records expunged.

He says it's important because criminal records can hinder folks from accessing employment, housing and social benefits.

We wanted to clear up those charges off people's records for those who were eligible statutorily, but most importantly we wanted to give people a new lease on life and a second chance at life without these different collateral consequences hanging around.

Pittman says additional re-entry resources were available at the clinic as well to help people access housing, second chance employment opportunities and drug harm reduction supplies such as fentanyl strips.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

Next, young people in Indiana encountering a more complex and difficult world than previous generations.

President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Lisa Lawson, believes the years commonly viewed as adolescence have changed.

It's different from puberty.

People often think that that is the same as adolescence, but it's not.

It includes cognitive, emotional, and social changes.

Traumatic childhood experiences from poverty to growing up in a violent household or neighborhood can also interfere with a child's healthy development as they grow into adulthood.

This is Public News Service.

Community action agencies across Massachusetts are still taking applications for winter heating assistance, although help may be delayed.

Annual funding for the low-income Home Energy Assistance Program is normally distributed to states by mid-October, but the continued government shutdown means vulnerable households will have to wait.

Lisa Spencer with the South Shore Community Action Council The moratorium for utility shutoffs has already been implemented to protect those struggling to pay their bills.

"So if someone was a household on fuel assistance last year, they would be protected from shutoff.

So that will be a big help."

The moratorium on service shutoffs also includes the state's roughly 45,000 federal workers.

Spencer says limited funds carried over from last year's program will help cover emergency situations only, including those homes with less than three days' supply of home heating oil.

I'm Katherine Carley.

And as the government shutdown poses immediate threats to food assistance programs, Colorado voters will have an opportunity to help fill some of the gaps by taxing residents earning over $300,000 a year.

Propositions LL and MM would fully fund Colorado's Healthy School Meals for All program and allow the state to use any extra revenues to offset cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program under the GOP signature tax and spending bill.

Pablo Rivera, a visual art teacher at Denver South High School, supports both measures.

He says when all students have access to nutritious food, they can show up at their best in the classroom.

We've seen how successful this program is by just the number of students who are using it.

This is an opportunity for Colorado to remain a leader in the country of providing free and healthy foods for our students.

The school meal program's unexpected popularity, alongside spending limitations under the state's taxpayers bill of rights has created a budget shortfall.

If approved by voters, propositions LL and MM are expected to generate over 100 million dollars for the program.

I'm Eric Galatas.

Finally the new 2025 conservation scorecard from the Nevada Conservation League ranks state leaders on environmental progress.

The report gives Governor Joe Lombardo a C+ citing his support for clean energy but also his opposition to some public land protections.

The governor also vetoed a bill to ban Styrofoam and another to declare Indigenous People's Day a holiday.

Christy Cabrera-Georgeson with the Nevada Conservation League says this sort of progress report provides accountability, which is important to a well-functioning democracy.

We want everyday Nevadans to be able to look at this, to reach out to their elected officials, thank those who did well on their scorecard, and maybe tell those who didn't do as well to do a little better next time.

Conservation advocates are celebrating the passage of 30 pro-environmental bills.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

Member and listener supported.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.