Consider This from NPR

The number of overdoses from fentanyl continues to soar, as do concerns from those in Washington. Immigration authorities say illicit fentanyl is flowing into the U.S. from Mexico through official ports of entry. Not everyone believes that's the full story. NPR's Joel Rose traveled to the border to find out what's really happening. Fentanyl is largely smuggled by U.S. citizens and other authorized...

In past wars, updates have trickled out slowly — often tightly controlled by the militaries involved. In the war in Ukraine, every day is a firehose of nearly real-time information, in the form of cell phone footage captured by civilians, updates from satellite intelligence companies and embedded military bloggers. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre explains how that's shaping perceptio...

One Republican senator from Alabama is single-handedly holding up over 300 senior-level military promotions and appointments. Senator Tommy Tuberville says he's doing it to take a stand against a Defense Department policy that reimburses travel expenses for military personnel who have to leave their states to get an abortion or other reproductive care. Tonya Murphy is a military spouse who went to...

July was almost certainly the hottest month, globally, on record. It was also a month in which many lives were upended by weather related-disasters — the sort of disasters that are increasingly likely as climate change continues. So what do the people who lived through those disasters make of all this? We asked Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Ph...

For years, Russell Moore was one of the top officials in the Southern Baptist Convention. But after he criticized Donald Trump, Moore found himself ostracized from many other Evangelical leaders who embraced Trump and Trumpism. Moore eventually resigned from his post, and found himself on the outside of a denomination that had, up until that point, defined his life. Today, Moore argues that Christ...

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. And a member of his legal team told NPR that Trump plans to invoke the right to freedom of speech as part of his defense. To learn how a free speech defense would work for the former president in court, we hear from Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Stetson Uni...

The unions representing actors and writers in Hollywood have some differences in what they want from the big film studios. But one thing they agree on is the threat posed by artificial intelligence to their members' livelihoods. The threat of AI is something Hollywood was imagining long before it was real. NPR arts critic Bob Mondello tells the story of how AI became a movie villain. The threat of...

Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four counts related to the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to court documents. Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. Special counsel Jack Smit...

Two years ago, Mohamed Bazoum was elected as president in Niger's first peaceful democratic transfer of power. He enjoyed the backing of Western governments, including the United States. Then, last week, members of his own presidential guard detained him and seized power. The coup in Niger is part of a wave of attempted, and successful, power grabs in West and Central Africa, a region gripped by p...

There's a labor shortage on farms in the U.S., and that has implications for all of us who enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables. For farmers across America, finding enough labor has become a top concern. Decades ago, whole families of migrant farmworkers, the majority of them from Mexico, would travel around the U.S. in search of seasonal work. But over time, farmworkers began to settle. Now, many of...

Editor's note: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence. The U.S. military has consistently maintained that its troops didn't harm civilians during the 2019 raid on the Syrian hideout of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which lead to Baghdadi blowing himself up. It stuck to that version of events even after NPR reported on claims from Syrians that civilians were killed and maimed b...

The Supreme Court may have ended race-conscious admissions in higher education. But the end of affirmative action seems to have added fuel to another contentious debate around college admissions policies. For decades, many elite, private institutions have given prospective college students preference if a relative attended the school or, in some cases, when a major donor was involved. While the pr...

When Utah passed a ban on gender-affirming care for people younger than 18, Kat and their family had to make a tough choice. Should they uproot their lives and leave the state? Kat is 14 and transgender. The Utah law banned the medical care that Kat was considering. Around 20 states have passed similar laws — meaning many families could face the same tough decision: whether to leave their homes an...

When a fiery, toxic train wreck forced residents of East Palestine, Ohio to evacuate last February, the crash and its aftermath became a national flashpoint and a hot button issue on both sides of the political aisle. Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern - the freight railroad responsible - found himself in front of Congress, grilled by bipartisan lawmakers. Shaw insists the company is continuin...

On Monday, Israel's parliament voted into law a key measure to overhaul the country's judiciary. The measure prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are "unreasonable." The law strips Israel's Supreme Court of a key check on the power of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. This marks the first big move in a broader effort to weaken court oversight...

The United States' preeminent professional soccer league, Major League Soccer, has long lagged behind top European leagues. However, international soccer superstar Lionel Messi joining the Inter Miami might be the boost the league needs. NPR's Scott Detrow reports on the impact of Messi coming to the MLS and what the league's future could be. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news...

Tony Bennett, the crooner whose success spanned generations, died Friday. He was 96 years old. His voice was synonymous with the Great American Songbook, which he continued to bring to new audiences even as the country's musical tastes changed. NPR's Walter Ray Watson traces the arc of Bennett's life, from his days as a singing waiter in Astoria, New York, to his Billboard- charting hits as a nona...

We know that climate change is making all sorts of extreme weather events more likely all around the globe. So what can we do about that? In this episode, NPR's Allison Aubrey gives us tips on how to avoid heat-related illnesses when temperatures soar to dangerous levels. And we hear from a climate researcher about what steps we would need to take on a global scale to try and bring temperatures do...

It's easy to lose track of the seriousness of the legal cases involving Donald Trump, in part because there are just so many. This week the former president and current presidential candidate said he received a letter informing him he is a target in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Such a letter often precedes an indictment. And a...

One of the most cutting-edge and controversial fields of biomedical research right now is the quest to create eggs and sperm in the lab for anyone with their own DNA. And now, private companies have jumped into the race to revolutionize the way humans reproduce. In vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, would enable infertile women and men to have children with their own DNA instead of genes from the sperm...

Carlos Alcaraz's victory over Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final was the latest coronation of a tennis great from Spain. NPR's Rob Schmitz looks into how the country became such fertile ground for outstanding players. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community. Email us at considerthis@npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com...

Since the 2024 Presidential election may ultimately be decided by a handful of votes in a handful of states, courting young voters will be key. Gen Z has been turning out in record numbers in recent midterms. Often much of the political conversation focuses on young voters in and around big cities. But since young voters are so key for Democrats' success, and rural voters are an essential bloc for...

James Barber is scheduled to be executed on Thursday in Alabama, for the murder of Dorothy Epps in 2001. It's the first execution since Governor Kay Ivey paused capital punishment in the state and ordered a "top-to-bottom" review of death penalty protocols after the state failed to execute two inmates last year. Host Scott Detrow speaks with The Atlantic's Elizabeth Bruenig. She reported extensive...

Six years ago when former Obama staffer Brian Wallach was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - ALS - a rare neurological disease that kills most people who contract it within a few years, he and his wife Sandra Abrevaya quickly got to work. They launched a non-profit advocacy group I am ALS and a battle to try and fight for increased funding and research that they hoped would lead to a c...

As we confront the realities of a changing climate, a group of scientists says we're living in a world of our very own making - a world altered by the burning of fossil fuels, the explosion of nuclear weapons, plastic pollution and environmental degradation. The scientists call it the Anthropocene. And they have identified a geological site in Canada they say best reflects this new epoch in Earth'...