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The delta variant now makes up an estimated 83% of coronavirus cases in the U.S., a sharp increase over recent weeks. Cases are rising more rapidly in places with low rates of vaccination. Arkansas is one of those places. The state's Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, tells NPR what he's doing to try to convince more people to get a shot. Amid those localized surges and reports of breakthrough i...

Tens of millions of American families are beginning to receive direct cash payments as part of the expanded child tax credit, which was part of the COVID relief bill passed back in March. Those payments top out at $3,600 a year per child — an amount experts say could lift tens of millions of children out of poverty. But the expanded credit is only scheduled to last one year. The question now is: w...

Medical education must always keep up with the times. But the pandemic forcing medical students to learn virtually revealed new fault lines and opportunities to rethink the way medical professionals should learn. The medical field is grappling with which of those changes should become permanent and which ones could jeopardize the quality of healthcare. To get a better understanding of how technolo...

From police officer misconduct to deadly shootings, internal affairs investigations are how law enforcement agencies investigate their own and promise to hold themselves accountable. In California, those investigations were secret — that is, until a new police transparency law unsealed thousands of files. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsor...

Jodie Turner-Smith in Anne Boleyn . Mindy Kaling in Scooby Doo . Dev Patel in The Green Knight , and last year's David Copperfield . It seems like Hollywood gatekeepers are opening up more traditionally white parts to other performers. But as NPR film critic Bob Mondello explains, cross-cultural casting isn't new — and it's always raised eyebrows. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local...

The protests that erupted in Cuba over the weekend are the biggest the country has seen in decades. Cubans are suffering through a summer of shortages, from food and electricity to medicine. All of which have been made worse by the pandemic. Officials in the authoritarian government are tying to stamp out the unrest quickly. These demonstrations present a political opportunity for President Biden....

In a speech this week, President Biden said Democrats must 'vigorously challenge' what he described as the '21st Century Jim Crow assault' on voting rights, attacking Republican-led state efforts to pass new voting restrictions. Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harris told NPR, must respond on multiple levels: "It will be litigation, legislation, it will be activating the people." Harris spoke to...

The U.S. military will be fully out of the country by August 31. The Taliban already control more than half of it. A U.S. intelligence assessment reportedly says the Afghan government could collapse in as little as six months. Some members of the Afghan military feel "abandoned and alone," Commanding General of the Afghan Army Sami Sadat tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly . Additional reporting this ep...

The Biden administration is emphasizing vaccine outreach by 'trusted messengers' — community volunteers, faith leaders, and primary care providers — who are best-positioned to convince people to get vaccinated. NPR's Maria Godoy reports on that kind of outreach in Maryland, one of just a handful of states where at least half of the Latino population is vaccinated . In participating regions, you'll...

'Cancelling' is a term that originated in young and progressive circles, where it was used to mean 'boycott,' University of Pennsylvania linguist Nicole Holliday tells NPR. Now the term 'cancel' has been co-opted and weaponized by some conservative media and politicians. Something similar happened in the 1990s with the term 'politically correct.' John K. Wilson wrote about that time in a book call...

All over the east coast and Midwest, forests are getting hotter and drier. Many are also overgrown and overdue for wildfire. And increasingly, Americans are moving to areas where these forests and their homes tangle close together. The fastest such growth is in the Southeast, where few consider wildfire much of a threat. Molly Samuel with member station WABE reports from Tate City, Georgia. Additi...

NPR's Tom Dreisbach reports on the story of Alan Hostetter, a former police chief and yoga instructor from California who's now facing conspiracy charges for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot. Hostetter is one of more than 500 people facing charges related to January 6th. Hear more about how prosecutors are proceeding from NPR's Ryan Lucas and the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen via Apple , G...

Critical race theory is a legal framework developed decades ago at Harvard Law School. It posits that racism is not just the product of individual bias, but is embedded in legal systems and policies. Today, it's become the subject of heated debate on Fox News and in local school board meetings across the country. Adam Harris , staff writer at The Atlantic, explains why. Harris has traced the debat...

In 1969, during the same summer as Woodstock, another music festival took place 100 miles away. The Harlem Cultural Festival featured black musicians like Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder — stars who we might not have glimpsed at this point in their careers. Footage of the festival had been locked in a basement for 50 years, because TV and film companies were not interested in it at the time. Quest...

The Star-Spangled Banner is the official anthem for the United States, but there are plenty of songs that have become informal American anthems for millions of people. On this episode of NPR's Throughline , we share three stories from NPR Music's American Anthem series , which explored the origins of songs that have become ingrained in American culture. Throughline is NPR's history podcast. Listen...

Cases are surging in countries around the world as the more transmissible delta variant spreads rapidly. Also growing: pressure on vaccine-rich countries to help people in countries where vaccines are still scarce. NPR's Will Stone reports on the waiting game. And Harvard's Junaid Habi argues vaccine hesitancy in America is a peculiar privilege. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local n...

The former Secretary of Defense was a chief architect of the conflict that came to be known as America's 'forever war.' After his death this week at age 88, that conflict has now officially outlived him. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports on one group of people still living with the consequences: thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military over the past 20 years. More from that story, which ai...

Los Angeles County — America's most populous county — recently recommended mask wearing even for vaccinated people, just two weeks after the state relaxed most COVID restrictions. County officials say masks will help protect unvaccinated people from the more transmissible delta variant, which is spreading rapidly across the country. CDC director Rochelle Walensky tells NPR the federal government m...

Late last year the Senate passed a bill that required U.S. intelligence agencies to share what they know about "unidentified aerial phenomena," the technical term for UFOs. That report was released last week. Spoiler alert — it doesn't confirm the existence of alien spacecraft. But it doesn't rule them out either. Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich recounts her first-hand encount...

Susana Alvarez, a survivor of the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, explained to NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Weekend Edition Sunday that residents were told in a late 2018 meeting that the building was safe — despite evidence it wasn't. NPR confirmed Alvarez's account. An engineering report issued five weeks before that meeting warned of "major structural damage" to the building that would req...

Alicia Argelia met Army veteran Matt Lammers when he rolled into the store where she worked. Matt had lost both legs and one arm during a deployment to Iraq. Strangers often approached him to awkwardly thank him for his service or ask him what happened; his physical injuries made him a living reminder of the cost of war. But Alicia was different. She offered friendship without pity, and he was cha...

What's behind the 20-year success of the Fast & Furious franchise? Casting, storytelling and reinvention. NPR's Linda Holmes — who wrote an owner's manual to the franchise — explains. Linda is one of the hosts of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour . Find their episode about F9 on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or Pocket Casts . F9 premiered overseas last month while waiting for pandemic-shuttered cinemas to o...

For the second weekend in a row, parts of the American West will be gripped by historic heat, coming in the second decade of megadrought that has gripped the region for 22 years. Wildfire is an obvious threat — but there are other consequences of extreme heat and drought, as smaller snowmelts and lower reservoirs lead to water cutbacks and more expensive electricity. And climate change is making i...

Back in March, Congress approved nearly $50 billion in aid for people who need rental assistance to avoid eviction. At the same time a federal moratorium on evictions is expected to be extended till the end of the July. 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

From the beginning of the pandemic, the debate about the origins of the coronavirus was immediately politicized by former President Donald Trump. But now international efforts to investigate and find answers have stalled. NPR's Will Stone explains why. Despite a new focus on the lab leak theory, many scientists still believe the virus emerged naturally, reports NPR's Geoff Brumfiel . NPR media cor...