Consider This from NPR

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, there has been intense focus on Russian oligarchs - elites with enormous wealth and close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United States and international allies have imposed travel bans and economic sanctions on the billionaires, freezing accounts and impounding yachts and private jets. The goal is to disrupt the covert money funneled to Putin and his re...

Binge watching a show you love is enjoyable, but not always productive. But artists Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear turned their binge into a Grammy nomination. They were inspired by Season 1 of Netflix's series Bridgerton , and used that inspiration to write a full musical theater album. They didn't intend to write a full album, but as they workshopped the songs on social media, fans everywhere wat...

Researchers say the intersection between far-right movements and environmentalism is bigger than many people realize — and it's growing. Blair Taylor , researcher at the Institute for Social Ecology, explains. Alex Amend , who researches eco-fascism, says climate change will only fuel the link between the far-right and environmentalism. Dorceta Taylor of Yale University traces the rise of the Amer...

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is a longtime conservative activist who has been public about her views and support of former President Donald Trump. And text messages that surfaced last week showed that she went as far as peddling falsehoods about the 2020 election directly to former White House staff and urging them to overturn President Joe Biden's victory. Earl...

An omicron subvariant known as BA.2 could soon become the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. It's not more deadly, but it is more transmissible. At the same time, the Biden administration has authorized a second booster shot for people over 50 and other people vulnerable to infection. But against that backdrop, Congress has so far refused to authorize more COVID spending measur...

In 2008, Russia invaded another former Soviet republic: Georgia, a small country on the southeast edge of Europe. Today, Georgia is seeing an influx of Russians who are fleeing their home country in opposition to its invasion of Ukraine. Mary Louise Kelly traveled to Georgia to hear how people who live with Russian troops on their doorsteps are feeling as they watch the war in Ukraine play out. In...

Even if you're not a fan of celebrity gossip, you've probably heard that there's something going on with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. He's exhibited increasingly erratic behavior, including relentless online harassment of his ex-wife, reality TV queen Kim Kardashian and her current boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson. Now he's been banned from performing at the Grammys, and was recen...

The film Flee has already made Oscars history: it's the first to be nominated for best documentary, animated feature and international film. Flee tells the story of a boy whose family left Afghanistan in the 1990s. Now an adult and identified by an alias to protect him and his family, Amin Nawabi reveals a painful secret about his childhood journey to Denmark—a secret he has told almost no one. Th...

This week, the average price for a gallon of gas in L.A. County crested six dollars — the highest in the country. The national average is up around 70 cents in the last month. The are a lot of complicated reasons why gas is more expensive — and a lot of ideas for how to make this easier on consumers. But none of them are quick or easy. NPR's Scott Horsley explains why drivers who are newly interes...

The NCAA's March Madness Tournament is upon us, and after over two years of pandemic restrictions at sporting events, stands are packed to full capacity with fans. Transformative changes are happening off of the court too: for the first time in March Madness history, college athletes can cash in on endorsement deals because of changes to the NCAA's Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policies, which ar...

Tuesday was the second day of Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearings. She would be the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice, and the first Democratic nominee to be confirmed since Elena Kagan in 2010. A vote on her nomination could come in weeks, and Democrats have the votes to confirm her without Republican support. NPR political correspondent Juana Summers s...

Inside Ukraine, millions of people have been displaced, with millions more living in increasingly dire conditions. In the city of Maruipol, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped — with dwindling supplies of food and water and no electricity. Mariupol has been bombarded by the Russians for weeks now. Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor, told NPR civilians in bomb shelter...

Senate confirmation hearings begin next week for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. If she is confirmed she will be the first Black woman on the high court and the first public defender. Judge Jackson served as a federal public defender between 2005 and 2007. She defended several Guantanamo detainees and others accused of crimes, a fact that her critics use to suggest that she work...

It's been one year since a white man opened fire at three spas in the Atlanta area killing eight people — six of whom were Asian women. Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been an alarming rise in hate crimes against Asian people in America, and a majority of the victims are women. Harmful stereotypes of Asian Women play a huge role here — often portrayed in pop culture as demure, exotic...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants America to help impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The U.S. favors other avenues of support, providing weapons and equipment. Now there are signs the Russian advance is stalling. Could there be a diplomatic endgame in sight? Marie Yovanovitch is skeptical. The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine tells NPR a no-fly zone should be kept on the table, citing...

The pandemic created a spike in demand for housing that sent real estate prices through the roof. Which means a lot of Americans could no longer afford to buy, while many of those who could are now experiencing buyer's remorse. NPR heard from many new homeowners who made compromises as they rushed to buy. Some even waived inspections or moved sight-unseen. Hyojung Lee, a professor at Virginia Tech...

In the U.S., with key COVID metrics trending rapidly downward, the pandemic's third spring is already looking very different. But concerns remain about future variants as China and Hong Kong battle new outbreaks . NPR's Tovia Smith reports on workers heading back to the office — where employers are figuring out how to give them new flexibility. NPR's Will Stone reports on a recent change to the wa...

The scenes of devastation in Mariupol, a southeastern port city in Ukraine, are increasingly reflected in cities across the country as Russian forces advance. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the port city since the start of Russia's invasion. A humanitarian crisis is deepening, as residents say they can't find drinking water or food, and the International Committee of the Red Cross says...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that could impose fifteen years in prison on anyone who publishes or broadcasts what the Russian government considers "false information" about the invasion of Ukraine. The law makes it illegal to use the word "war" or "invasion," a move aimed at shutting down the last remaining independent Russian media outlets. Even as news is being censored and...

The movement to ban books from public school reading lists is not new, but lately it's been gaining momentum throughout the country. In part, because fights over children and schools is a tried and true political tool. Revida Rahman, with One WillCo , discusses efforts to ban books in her children's school district in Williamson County, Tennessee and how this just the newest iteration of parental...

Governor Greg Abbot has directed the state's Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate certain gender-affirming care as possible child abuse, leaving parents of transgender youth feeling caught between two choices: support their children or face a possible CPS investigation. Annaliese and Rachel are mothers living in Texas, both have transgender children. They speak to NPR about...

More than two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia attacked two weeks ago - at least half of them children. It's a dangerous journey for anyone, let alone premature babies who were already fighting for their lives. This is the harrowing story of some of the youngest evacuees - babies less than two weeks old who were born prematurely. Each day, they've been growing stronger as Kyiv grows w...

Throughout the pandemic, the The Federal Bureau of Prisons has maintained that they have a plan to keep the pandemic under control. But federal prison records tell a different story. NPR's Meg Anderson dug into those those records. Many high risk inmates applied for compassionate release, or Home Confinement, where they could live at home while being monitored by the prison. But since the beginnin...

In what the U.N. refugee agency calls the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, more than a million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded less than two weeks ago. The bulk of them have traveled through Poland and many are staying there. That's where Ari Shapiro spoke with acting United States ambassador to Ukraine Kristina Kvien. She and her staff relocated...

President Richard Nixon has a plan: He wants to go to China. The only problem? The U.S. and China have had zero contact since the Communist Party took over China two decades before. In this episode of The Great Wager from NPR and WBUR's Here & Now , host Jane Perlez digs into the beginning of Nixon's improbable diplomatic mission. Listen to the rest of The Great Wager here. See pcm.adswizz.com for...