Author: Matt

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 social media platforms are being shut down, some people in Russia are determined to be heard. The Russian independent human rights group OVD-Info reports that more than 13,000 protesters in 147 cities have been detained since the war began just over two weeks ago.

Yulia Zhivtsova is one of those protesters. She was detained in Moscow for taking part in protests the day after Russia invaded Ukraine. She’s one of the thousands of protesters across the country who are defying the threat of violence and prison to express their opposition to the war in Ukraine.

And we’ll hear how Russian immigrants and Russian Americans are showing support for Ukraine as attitudes among some in their community shift from acceptance of Putin to outrage.

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.

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 outrage on display.

And Elizabeth Bruenig, staff writer for The Atlantic, explains the political benefit of arguments over masks, critical race theory and book bans at schools. Especially as the U.S. nears midterm elections.

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.

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 the emotional and mental toll this order has had on their families. And Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the American Civil Liberties Union, explains the status of other anti-LGBTQ bills in other states.

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.

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 weaker.

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.

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 beginning of the pandemic nearly 300 prisoners have died from COVID-19, and almost all of them were elderly or had pre-existing conditions. What went wrong?

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.

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 to Poland soon after the fighting started, and she discusses the strain this new humanitarian crisis is putting on the bordering countries.

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.

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.

There’s a battle raging over the telling and teaching of Black history in the United States. Much of that fight has been playing out in schools. School board meetings erupt into fights as critics attack the teaching of what they call critical race theory or charge that teaching about racism is too upsetting to white children or casts students either as oppressors or the oppressed.

At the heart of these arguments is a much larger issue – whether or not the country can face the truth about its painful legacy of systemic racism.

In Montgomery, Alabama the National Memorial for Peace and Justice is dedicated to acknowledging America’s history of racial terrorism factually, honestly, and completely. Civil rights attorney and memorial founder, Bryan Stevenson, believes that embracing this truth is the only path to healing.

We tour the memorial with Stevenson, hear some of the stories immortalized there and discuss the ongoing battle over how students should be taught about race.

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.

Just one week into his presidency, Donald Trump announced an executive order banning people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., the so-called “Muslim Ban”.

This ban shut out travelers who were already on their way to the U.S. Visas were canceled, people were detained and sent back home, and protests ensued. Lawsuits were filed, but the Supreme Court upheld the policy.

On his first day in office, President Biden reversed the ban. But five years later, hundreds of families that were separated by it are still waiting to be united.

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.

It’s been exactly one week since Russia invaded Ukraine, which means one week since Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, became a wartime president. So far, he has mastered his message and has garnered praised from around the world, but there’s a lot more to winning a war than videos and viral tweets.

Emily Harding with the Center for Strategic and International Studies explains why Zelenskyy has been such an effective communicator and what challenges lie ahead.

And Angela Stent of the Brookings Institution discusses what the world is learning about the other leader in this war, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

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.