Author: Matt

This week the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol wrapped up its first set of public hearings. The final hearing focused on former President Trump’s actions – or lack of action – as rioters breached the Capitol.

As the hearings continue, the Department of Justice is conducting its own investigation. And Attorney General Merrick Garland is under pressure from the left to bring criminal charges against Trump.

We spoke to former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann about the evidence that the House Select Committee has presented and what the attorney general may be considering. Weissmann was a senior prosecutor on Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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.

Record high temperatures have wreaked havoc around the world this week. In Southern England, railway tracks bent from the heat. In China, the roof tiles on a museum melted. In Texas, heat and a dry spell have caused nearly 200 water main breaks over the past month.

And extreme heat puts lives at risk, too. It’s more deadly than tornadoes, hurricanes, and all other weather events combined.

Extreme temperatures, and the attendant misery, are connected to global warming, which is driven by human activity and accelerating.

Reporters from around the globe talk about what they’re seeing and how governments are responding. NPR’s Rebecca Hersher, who reports on climate science and policy from the US, NPR’s John Ruwitch in Shanghai and Willem Marx in London.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Franco Ordoñez.

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

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Talking about abortion can be difficult even among adults. So how do you talk to kids about it? We asked listeners to send us their questions — and brought together two experts to answer them.

Reena B. Patel, a parenting expert and licensed educational psychologist in San Diego, California, and Dr. Elise Berlan, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist in Columbus, Ohio, join us to talk about ways to broach the conversation around abortion with kids of all ages.

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.

How serious is the U.S. about investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine? They put Eli Rosenbaum on the case. He’s best known for directing the Department of Justice special investigations unit which tracked down Nazis who had gone into hiding after World War II.

He lays out the challenges of conducting an investigation in the midst of an ongoing war.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Jason Beaubien and Brian Mann on Russian airstrikes that killed Ukrainian civilians.

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

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Interest in birth control and emergency contraception has surged since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion. But safe and reliable birth control isn’t always easy to access.

Now the FDA is considering whether to make birth control pills available without a prescription. If approved, it would be the first over-the-counter oral contraceptive in the U.S.

We also hear from NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce about the most popular form of contraception for women in the U.S. – permanent contraception, colloquially known as “getting your tubes tied” – and why barriers to access leave many requests for this procedure unfulfilled.

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 televised probe into the mob attack on the Capitol has dropped plenty of bombshells as insider testimonies pull back the curtain on the efforts of former President Donald Trump and his allies to hold onto power after he lost his reelection bid.

But at Tuesday’s hearing, one of the most compelling witnesses was not a former staffer or official but Stephen Ayers. A staunch believer in Trump, Ayers came to D.C. on Trump’s command and stormed the Capitol. After his arrest, he looked at the facts about the 2020 election and realized he was fed and had believed a lie.

Polls, studies and surveys warn that Americans are deeply and bitterly divided by politics. Can the January 6 hearing help close that partisan gap? We speak with Didi Kuo, Associate Director for Research at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.

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

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Public health experts know what it takes to get a disease outbreak under control – widespread testing and treatment, and vaccines made available to communities most at risk.

But in the last two months of the Monkeypox outbreak, the response has not met the need. And there’s been criticism that the missteps look a lot like the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, with more than 1,400 confirmed cases in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more help is on the way. Testing capacity is increasing along with vaccine doses.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky about the federal government’s response to Monkeypox and whether it’s enough to contain the outbreak.

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

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Your vote is secret. But the fact that you voted in an election is typically public record.

So some people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen have tried to audit the results themselves by going door to door in neighborhoods across the country.

NPR’s Miles Parks and Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland report on this canvassing effort. It’s part of a controversial movement to galvanize everyday Americans to try to uncover voter fraud in their own communities.

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

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In a tweet sent on December 19, 2021, former President Trump issued what Democrats now say was a “clarion call” to his supporters. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” he wrote. “Be there, will be wild!” This week, in a hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol, we learned more about what happened in the days and weeks after the President sent that tweet — and the tense moments in the White House just hours before.

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a member of the House committee investigating January 6th, tells NPR that next week’s primetime hearing — the final scheduled hearing of the committee — will unravel minute-by-minute events at the Capitol and present an account of what President Trump was doing during that time.

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

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A new omicron subvariant is now the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. It’s called BA.5 — and it appears to evade neutralizing antibodies, making it easier for fully-vaccinated people to become infected or those who recently had COVID to get re-infected.

Dr. Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance, warns that more variants will follow unless global vaccine efforts get more aggressive.

Atul Gawande, head of global health for the U.S. Agency for International Development, says Congress needs to authorize a new round of spending to help get vaccines to countries where many people still have not been vaccinated.

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.