Author: Matt

News broke overnight that President Trump and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus. The White House says they have mild symptoms.

Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, calls the diagnosis “a nightmare.”

NPR’s Rob Schmitz reports on reaction abroad.

John Fortier spoke to NPR about what could happen if the president gets sicker. Fortier is the former executive director of the Continuity of Government Commission, a group set up in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

For more on this story, follow our NPR politics team on their podcast and listen to Up First Saturday morning for the latest.

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Facebook and Twitter have plans for an election season rife with disinformation on their platforms.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg explains what lessons the company learned from 2016 and what they’re doing differently this time. She spoke to NPR’s Audie Cornish about that, and about the burden of work falling on women during the pandemic. Hear more of their conversation here.

Critics say the social media giants are too large to realistically enforce their own policies.

NPR’s Life Kit has a guide to voting by mail or in-person this election season.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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President Trump used Tuesday night’s debate to attack the integrity of the upcoming election with false claims about voter fraud and mail-in ballots. National security officials say claims like those are being amplified on social media by foreign countries — including Russia — and by bad actors in the U.S.

NPR’s Shannon Bond and Greg Myre report on how government officials and tech companies are handling that disinformation.

And NPR’s Pam Fessler explains why the President’s false claims about voter fraud have election experts worried about conflicts at the polls.

NPR’s Life Kit has a guide to voting by mail or in-person this election season.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

We’re working on an upcoming episode about pandemic precautions and we want to hear from you. Fill out the form on this page and we may follow up on your response.

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With 10 vaccine candidates now in phase three trials, one expert predicts another million people worldwide could die within three to six months.

One of those vaccine candidates is produced by Novavax. Dr. Gregory Glenn, head of research and development for Novavax, tells NPR he’s not concerned about politics tainting the vaccine approval process.

While the world waits for a vaccine, NPR science reporter Michaeleen Doucleff reports on a small but growing number of scientists asking: what if we already have a vaccine that could slow the spread of the virus?

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President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will meet Tuesday night in Cleveland for the first of three presidential debates. Michael McDonald, who runs the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, says almost 1,000,000 people have already voted in this year’s election.

NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson previews the debate, and political correspondent Scott Detrow looks at what to expect from Joe Biden based on his performance in past debates.

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The Kentucky attorney general said this week that police were “justified” in the shooting that killed Breonna Taylor during a botched narcotics raid, and no charges were brought against any officers in her death. The only charges brought were against one officer whose shots went into another apartment. That announcement touched off more protests in Louisville and around the country.

Jamiles Lartey of The Marshall Project explains the legal rationale behind the decision. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear explains why he supports the release of grand jury testimony in the case. And Ibram X. Kendi of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research discusses where the movement for racial justice goes from here.

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India is poised to overtake the U.S. as the country with the most COVID-19 cases. This week the Taj Mahal reopened to tourists for the first time in more than six months. NPR correspondent Lauren Frayer reports on how that’s not an indication that the pandemic there has subsided.

Across Europe, countries are also seeing cases surge. NPR correspondents Frank Langfitt, Eleanor Beardsley, and Rob Schmitz discuss the rise in cases, new restrictions and how people are coping in the U.K., France and Germany.

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This week Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. She’ll be the first woman in history to do so.

Ginsburg’s death sparked record political donations from Democrats, explains Jessica Taylor of Cook Political Report. Those donations may help Democrats in an uphill battle to retake the Senate.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans appear to have the numbers to fill Ginsburg’s seat with a conservative nominee, which would shift the balance of power on the court. Professor Mary Ziegler of Florida State University explains why that could change the outcome of several cases concerning abortion restrictions that could land before the Supreme Court.

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Daniel Prude was shot and killed by police in Rochester, N.Y., after his brother called 911 on March 23. Joe Prude told NPR his brother was having a mental health crisis.

Calls like that make up an estimated 20% of police calls. NPR’s Eric Westervelt reports that efforts to reform how police respond — with crisis intervention teams — have fallen short.

And as protests for racial justice have continued, public support for the Black Lives Matter movement has fallen — especially among white Americans. NPR’s Brian Mann and Elizabeth Baker explain why activists say they need more support from white protesters.

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The coronavirus has killed nearly 200,000 people in America — far more than in any other country, according to Johns Hopkins University. And experts are predicting a new spike of cases this fall.

It’s not clear exactly how many of the dead are health care workers, who remain especially vulnerable to the virus. Dr. Claire Rezba has been tracking and documenting their deaths on Twitter.

Christopher Friese with the University of Michigan School of Nursing explains how we all feel the effects of a health care system whose workers are stretched to the brink.

NPR science correspondent Richard Harris reports on a crucial advancements health care workers have made that mean ICU patients are more likely to survive now than they were at the outset of the pandemic.

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