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The number of overdoses from fentanyl continues to soar, as do concerns from those in Washington. Immigration authorities say illicit fentanyl is flowing into the U.S. from Mexico through official ports of entry.

Not everyone believes that’s the full story.

NPR’s Joel Rose traveled to the border to find out what’s really happening.

Fentanyl is largely smuggled by U.S. citizens and other authorized border crossers. We hear the story of one of the smugglers.

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 past wars, updates have trickled out slowly — often tightly controlled by the militaries involved. In the war in Ukraine, every day is a firehose of nearly real-time information, in the form of cell phone footage captured by civilians, updates from satellite intelligence companies and embedded military bloggers.

NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre explains how that’s shaping perceptions of the war in Russia, in Ukraine and around the world.

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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One Republican senator from Alabama is single-handedly holding up over 300 senior-level military promotions and appointments.

Senator Tommy Tuberville says he’s doing it to take a stand against a Defense Department policy that reimburses travel expenses for military personnel who have to leave their states to get an abortion or other reproductive care.

Tonya Murphy is a military spouse who went to Capitol Hill to hand deliver a petition signed by hundreds calling on lawmakers to stop the impasse. She explains how this political standoff is impacting military families.

And NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman gives us the big picture overview of how all of this is affecting the Pentagon and, potentially, national security.

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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July was almost certainly the hottest month, globally, on record. It was also a month in which many lives were upended by weather related-disasters — the sort of disasters that are increasingly likely as climate change continues.

So what do the people who lived through those disasters make of all this?

We asked Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz., about trying to keep people alive who spent too much time out in the deadly heat.

And Michelle Eddleman McCormick, general manager at the Marshfield Village Store in Vermont, about living through extreme flooding.

And Will Nicholls, of the Cree Nation of Mistissini, editor-in-chief of The Nation magazine, about how historic wildfires in northern Quebec have affected his community.

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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For years, Russell Moore was one of the top officials in the Southern Baptist Convention. But after he criticized Donald Trump, Moore found himself ostracized from many other Evangelical leaders who embraced Trump and Trumpism.

Moore eventually resigned from his post, and found himself on the outside of a denomination that had, up until that point, defined his life.

Today, Moore argues that Christianity is in crisis in America, and he explores a way forward for the faith he loves in his book, “Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call For Evangelical America.”

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. And a member of his legal team told NPR that Trump plans to invoke the right to freedom of speech as part of his defense.

To learn how a free speech defense would work for the former president in court, we hear from Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Stetson University’s College of Law in Florida.

And former acting solicitor general of the United States, Neal Katyal, tells us about Tanya Chutkan, the U.S. district judge assigned to Trump’s case.

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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The unions representing actors and writers in Hollywood have some differences in what they want from the big film studios. But one thing they agree on is the threat posed by artificial intelligence to their members’ livelihoods.

The threat of AI is something Hollywood was imagining long before it was real. NPR arts critic Bob Mondello tells the story of how AI became a movie villain.

The threat of AI is something Hollywood was imagining long before it was real. NPR arts critic Bob Mondello tells the story of how AI became a movie villain.

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Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four counts related to the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to court documents.

Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.

Special counsel Jack Smith has been leading the investigation into Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election and his role in the insurrection that played out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.

We hear from presidential historian Tim Naftali about the significance of the new charges against the former president.

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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Two years ago, Mohamed Bazoum was elected as president in Niger’s first peaceful democratic transfer of power. He enjoyed the backing of Western governments, including the United States. Then, last week, members of his own presidential guard detained him and seized power.

The coup in Niger is part of a wave of attempted, and successful, power grabs in West and Central Africa, a region gripped by political instability. Now, a group of West African nations imposed sanctions on Niger, and threatened military action if the coup leaders don’t reinstate the president within the week.

NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu reports from neighboring country Nigeria, and he brings us the latest developments. We discuss what this means for the Sahel, and for democracies around the world.

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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There’s a labor shortage on farms in the U.S., and that has implications for all of us who enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables.

For farmers across America, finding enough labor has become a top concern. Decades ago, whole families of migrant farmworkers, the majority of them from Mexico, would travel around the U.S. in search of seasonal work. But over time, farmworkers began to settle. Now, many of them are aging out. And their children and grandchildren are finding opportunities in other sectors.

Who will replace them? And what is Congress doing to solve this issue? This summer, two NPR reporters visited some farms to see how this is playing out: NPR’s Ximena Bustillo who reports on food and farm policy, and NPR’s Andrea Hsu who covers labor.

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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