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The Biden administration said Tuesday that the U.S. was on pace to meet an August 31 deadline to fully withdraw from Afghanistan, but that "contingency plans" are being developed in case they do not complete evacuations in time. Some Afghan evacuees will wind up in America, where one of their main destinations is the Seattle area. NPR's Martin Kaste reports on the resettlement effort ramping up th...

School districts can't find bus drivers. The TSA is short on security screeners. Ports can't find enough workers to load and unload shipping containers. Across many different sectors, the unavailability of workers is holding the economy back, and sending prices even higher. NPR's Scott Horsley reports. Fuel truckers are another critical job that employers can't fill fast enough, explains NPR's Cam...

Antioch police officials suspected one of their veteran detectives of leaking operational details as far back as 2010. But they didn't fire Santiago Castillo for another seven years. During that time, he investigated hundreds of cases including several homicides, and his testimony helped put dozens of people behind bars. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal...

Across the country, it looks like this time, last year. Schools — some days or weeks into the start of the new year — are forced to close temporarily over COVID outbreaks. In many cases, the closures are necessary because too many teachers and staff members are sick or quarantined. Audie Cornish talks to three teachers about their fear, exhaustion, and hope at the start of a new school year. For m...

As many as 100,000 Afghans — those who worked with the U.S. military over the years, and their families — are trying to get out of the country. But access to the Kabul airport is controlled by the Taliban, and the American military says evacuating American citizens is its 'first priority.' Among the Afghans trying to flee are those who've applied for or been granted a Special Immigrant VISA. James...

Just weeks after the shock of a presidential assassination, Haiti was hit by a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday. The death toll is nearing 2,000 — and still rising — while thousands more are injured and homeless. Haiti's last major earthquake was in 2010. It killed an estimated 200,000 people and injured 300,000 more. This week's quake struck farther from major population centers,...

Hospitals like the University of Mississippi Medical Center are overwhelmed. Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of the Jackson hospital, told NPR they are nearly out of beds — and treating patients in hallways. Meanwhile, Biden administration health officials are coalescing around a plan that would advise most Americans to get a COVID-19 booster shot eight months after their last dose. A booster...

The Taliban now control Afghanistan. How did the country's government fall so quickly — and why didn't the U.S. see it coming? NPR put those questions to the former commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus. Afghanistan's future remains unclear, especially for its women and girls. One of them is Freshta Karim, a Kabul resident and founder of a mobile library projec...

In the agricultural town of Salinas, Calif., Police Officer William Yetter repeatedly makes mistakes. First there's a stolen bike he doesn't investigate. Then, his bosses discover he's not filing police reports on time. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

In the last week, the Taliban have gained control of large sections of Afghanistan faster than most people expected. The Pentagon is dispatching troops to assist in evacuating staff from the American embassy in Kabul, where refugee camps are growing more crowded. The U.N. says the country may be on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told Audie Cornish...

What struck John Kerry the most about this week's landmark U.N. report on climate change? "The irreversibility" of some of the most catastrophic effects of global warming, he tells Audie Cornish. Kerry, the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate, tells NPR the U.N. report underscored the need for the world to respond more forcefully to climate change — and he's called an upcoming U.N. climate summit in Sc...

In the next few weeks, millions of children will head back to school. Many of them are too young to be vaccinated. At the same time, children are being hospitalized with COVID-19 in small but growing numbers — and approaching rates higher than the winter surge. Dr. Marcos Mestre with Niklaus Children's Foundation Hospital in Miami told NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday many of the children his hospital...

The Tigray region in northern Ethiopia is at the center of a civil war that broke out last November, after rebels there attacked a military base. Since then, the political fight has become an ethnic one, with troops no longer distinguishing civilians from rebel fighters. NPR's Eyder Peralta visited the war-torn region in May and spoke with the people at the center of the conflict. The United Natio...

A landmark new report from the United Nations warns that the world is running out of time to avoid the catastrophic effects of global warming. Those effects are already becoming clear as extreme weather, drought, and fire become more common. One of the latest examples: wildfires are raging amid a record heat wave in Turkey, Lebanon, Italy and Greece. Durrie Bouscaren reports for NPR from Istanbul...

Episode four of On Our Watch from NPR and KQED investigates the case of a plainclothes Stockton police officer who grabbed a Black 16-year-old, took him to the ground and punched him, knocking the teen's two front teeth onto a convenience store floor. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences...

After months of bipartisan negotiation, the Senate may finally vote this weekend on a 2,700 page infrastructure bill that includes $1 trillion in spending on things like roads, bridges, public transit, and broadband. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is refusing to resign after this week's explosive report from the state's attorney general. It detailed multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Cuomo. Cuomo has categorically denied harassment and groping allegations. And he said that people have "sought to unfairly characterize and weaponize everyday interactions." Multiple high profile politic...

It's been exactly one year since a massive explosion in Beirut's port killed over 200 people, injured thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

At the stroke of midnight last Saturday, a federal moratorium that had been in place for nearly eleven months expired. After the Supreme Court ruled that the CDC could not extend that moratorium, the Biden administration asked Congress to take action. But Congress failed to maintain protections for renters before the House went into August recess. Now, many renters fear eviction could coming knock...

The United States has reached yet another turning point in this pandemic—one that may feel particularly unrelenting and confusing. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

In episode three of On Our Watch , we examine the records that were unsealed by this transparency law to piece together what exactly happened on September 14, 2014 when Pedie Perez was shot and killed outside a liquor store by a police officer, Wallace Jensen. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship pr...

The Delta variant is more dangerous and contagious than many experts initially realized. In response to the uptick in cases and hospitalizations countrywide, some government leaders are implementing mask mandates. President Biden announced on Thursday that federal government employees will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients expl...

When Simone Biles dropped out of her Olympic competitions this week, the whole world took notice. At 24 years old Biles is the most decorated gymnast ever, she's won 36 medals—27 of those are gold. And she said via Instagram that it can feel like she "has the weight of the world," on her shoulders at times. When an athlete performs on a stage as hallowed and renowned as the Olympics, it's not surp...

Four police officers offered harrowing testimony of their experiences protecting the U.S. Capitol on January 6th during the first hearing for a new Democrat-led House Select Committee investigating the attacks. The committee was proposed as a bi-partisan effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi but after she rejected two nominees from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the hearings have begun without sup...

Rising seas are threatening coastal communities around the world, which will need billions of dollars to protect themselves. It's clear the water is coming. What's not clear is who pays. This tension is playing out on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay, where the wealthiest companies in the world have built their headquarters next to low-income communities of color. Both need protection, but as ci...