The VPM Daily Newscast contains all your Central Virginia news in just 5 to 10 minutes. Episodes are recorded the night before.
Listeners can subscribe through NPR One, Apple Podcasts, Megaphone, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.
Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of May 29, 2025:
Refugees work to create new lives in US despite Trump’s immigration shakeup
Reported by Chris Suarez for VPM News
After evacuating Afghanistan in 2021, Abdullah Zarify has made a life for himself in Richmond. He spends most of his time running his own market to support his wife and three children. He’s even made friends playing in a regional cricket league.
Refugees like Zarify find comfort in the stability and security absent in their native lands. But the pain of leaving home endures. “I never wanted to come to the United States this way,” he said. “Suddenly, you leave everything and come to a country where you don’t know anyone.”
At the start of his new administration in January, President Donald Trump paused the government’s refugee resettlement program, freezing payments to resettlement agencies and halting travel plans for thousands of previously approved refugees.
But earlier this month, Trump admitted about five dozen white South Africans — largely descended from Dutch colonists whose heirs dominated government in the apartheid era — as refugees. In the same week, the US Department of Homeland Security terminated Temporary Protected Status for Afghan nationals who fled their country after the chaotic US withdrawal four years ago.
The shakeup of immigration policy has led to protests and allegations of racial discrimination. While Trump and his allies say they are saving victims of a “genocide” against white Afrikaner farmers, opponents say the federal government is misguided and ignoring vulnerable civilians and former allies in danger of persecution and violence.
Clean drinking water: Why it takes so long to ensure Richmond's taps are safe
Reported by VPM News’ Meghin Moore
Editor’s note: We originally ran this piece in January and have since updated it to reflect May’s water disruption.
As of May 28, the boil advisories in select Richmond neighborhoods remain in place.
As VPM News previously reported, each round of testing requires pulling multiple samples from multiple points across the entire distribution network. Once that is done, those samples are prepared and submitted to the lab to be placed in an incubator over 24 hours to see if there’s any bacterial growth.
The 16-hour/24-hour timeframe needed between tests is “not based on anything the lab does or doesn’t do,” Avula said in January. “It’s really based on what grows out, what bacteria may grow out, and if we have negative growth for enough hours that we can affirmatively say this is a negative test.”
Once the May 2025 advisory is lifted, flushing the pipes in your home may be necessary. Click here for an explainer on flushing your pipes after a boil advisory.
News you might have missed from around the commonwealth:
- Youngkin vetoes $1.37M for Biscuit Run trail in Albemarle County (The Daily Progress)*
- Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of 10th U.S. president and longtime Richmonder, dies at 96 (The Richmonder)
*This outlet utilizes a paywall.