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After three and a half years, the pause on federal student loan payments is coming to an end. Getting more than 40 million borrowers back into repayment will be an enormous challenge, especially because many students who graduated when the pause was already in place have never made a payment.

We put borrowers’ questions to two experts: NPR Education correspondent Cory Turner, and Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program, a non-profit funded by New York State to help residents navigate repayment of their student loans.

Read Cory’s list of 12 things every student loan borrower should know.

And if you’re having an issue with your student loan servicer, Cory wants to know. Email him at dcturner@npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Hundreds of towns, cities and counties across the country impose curfews on young people.

On September 1st a curfew went into effect in seven neighborhoods across the District of Columbia that will affect those aged 17 and under.

Like many other cities, the nation’s capital has seen an increase in violent crime. And some of the most shocking crimes have been committed by young people.

Teens as young as thirteen as well as pre-teens have been suspected of, or charged with carjacking. In the past couple of months a 14 year-old and a 16 year-old have been charged with murder. And young people are also the victims of violent.

Keeping kids inside at night may seem like a good strategy for cities facing a surge in youth violence. But experts say that research doesn’t back up the effectiveness of curfews.

Host Scott Detrow speaks with Kristin Henning, director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Georgetown University about what does and doesn’t work.

For the second time this summer the top Republican in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, abruptly went silent at a news conference.

He was about to answer a question from a reporter when he suddenly froze up. He seemed unable to speak. An aide then stepped in, trying to keep things moving along.

The senator’s silences have raised concerns about his mental fitness – and larger questions about an aging Congress.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Dr. Ann Murray, the Movement Disorders division chief at the Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute at West Virginia University.

When people find themselves in the path of a hurricane they are faced with the question: should they evacuate or not? Who makes that call and how?

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate about the decision-making process behind evacuation orders and why people should heed them ahead of hurricanes making landfall.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration released a list of 10 medications that it’s planning to negotiate prices for Medicare in an effort to bring down the costs of some of the most expensive drugs. It’s part of a reform included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Many on the list are life-saving drugs that treat diabetes, cancer and other major health problems.|

The new prices that the federal government will eventually negotiate for these prescription drugs won’t actually go into effect until 2026, and that’s only if it doesn’t get tied up in court with drugmakers. Six pharmaceutical companies who have filed lawsuits against the administration are calling these provisions unconstitutional.

Juana Summers speaks with NPR’s pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin and Deepa Shivaram at the White House about the battle lines being drawn between the Biden Administration and pharmaceutical companies.

The latest mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida left three people dead.

All of the victims were Black and the white gunman left behind racist, hate-filled letters.

The Justice Department is now investigating this shooting as a hate crime.

A big part of the conversation now is what role state politics play in crimes like this.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has loosened gun laws in recent years and put restrictions on how race is taught in public schools.

NPR’s Juana Summers talks with Mutaqee Akbar, president of the Tallahassee branch of the NAACP, about how much responsibility lies with politicians.

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.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is preparing for the next major climate summit, in Dubai. He’s calling for an end to permitting new, unabated coal-fired power anywhere in the world. We ask him about whether the U.S. has lived up to its climate commitments.

We also talk to Vox climate reporter Rebecca Leber about Biden’s signature climate legislation, which was passed a year ago this month.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

The South Pole of the Moon is the coolest place to be.

And nearly every country with a space program is vying for a spot there – for a chance to explore the shadowy, polar craters in hopes of finding usable quantities of water ice.

On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 probe near the moon’s south pole. It was the first time India had landed a spacecraft on the moon, and the first time any country had successfully landed at the coveted moon’s south pole.

Many have tried including, Japan, Israel, and most recently Russia, whose Luna-25 spacecraft crashed onto the surface just days before India’s successful landing.

NASA is preparing its ARTEMIS mission to return to the moon. Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia have also set their sites on moon missions.

A new space race is underway. But why exactly are we racing to the moon again?

NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks to space lawyer Michelle Hanlon to find out.

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.

With the wildfires in Maui contained, the recovery process has begun.

The focus has also turned to how the island can prepare for similar disasters in the future

Officials and experts hope to address Hawaii’s emergency alert system, as well as the construction of more fire-resistant homes.

But what of the fires themselves? We often hear about forest fires, but the deadliest fire in the US in more than a century was a grass fire. Co-host Ailsa Chang talks to Jeva Lange, who wrote a story called “Most Wildfires Aren’t Forest Fires,” about how wildfires largely occur in grasslands.

Also Rebecca Thiele with Indiana Public Broadcasting reports on how certain native plants can help combat the deadly effects of climate change.

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.

Russia’s state news agency Tass reported that the country’s most famous mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was on the passenger list for a flight that crashed on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Wednesday, killing all ten people on board. Despite being on the passenger list, it’s not clear Prigozhin was on the flight.

As head of the Wagner Group, Prigozhin led an unsuccessful mutiny against the Russian military in June. He quickly stood down and struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that would see him exiled to neighboring Belarus. That exile never came and questions swirled about what punishment, if any, Prigozhin would face for crossing Putin.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Nina Khrushcheva. She is a professor of international affairs at The New School in New York City, and she’s also the great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

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.