Category: International

Late last year the Senate passed a bill that required U.S. intelligence agencies to share what they know about “unidentified aerial phenomena,” the technical term for UFOs. That report was released last week. Spoiler alert — it doesn’t confirm the existence of alien spacecraft. But it doesn’t rule them out either.

Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich recounts her first-hand encounter with a UFO off the coast of Southern California. It’s one of 144 sightings mentioned in the new unclassified report.

Historian and University of Pennsylvania professor Kate Dorsch explains some of the possible reasons why Americans report more UFO sightings than any other county in the world.

For the second weekend in a row, parts of the American West will be gripped by historic heat, coming in the second decade of megadrought that has gripped the region for 22 years.

Wildfire is an obvious threat — but there are other consequences of extreme heat and drought, as smaller snowmelts and lower reservoirs lead to water cutbacks and more expensive electricity. And climate change is making it all worse.

Colorado Public Radio’s Michael Elizabeth Sakas reports on another consequence: what happens when there isn’t enough water to build new homes.

Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains how extreme heat can affect the human body,

Additional reporting in this episode:

• Jordan Kern spoke to NPR’s Scott Detrow about hydropower in the West.
• Michael Elizabeth Sakas reported on western snowmelt.
• NPR’s Kirk Siegler reported on record high temperatures.
• NPR’s Lauren Sommer reported on dwindling water supplies.
• NPR’s Nathan Rott, Luke Runyon of KUNC in Colorado and Annie Ropeik of New Hampshire Public Radio discussed the growing consequences of heat and drought.

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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What’s behind the 20-year success of the Fast & Furious franchise? Casting, storytelling and reinvention. NPR’s Linda Holmes — who wrote an owner’s manual to the franchise — explains.

Linda is one of the hosts of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. Find their episode about F9 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Pocket Casts.

F9 premiered overseas last month while waiting for pandemic-shuttered cinemas to open in the U.S., where it’s supposed to restart the Hollywood blockbuster. NPR’s Bob Mondello has more in his review of the film.

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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Alicia Argelia met Army veteran Matt Lammers when he rolled into the store where she worked. Matt had lost both legs and one arm during a deployment to Iraq. Strangers often approached him to awkwardly thank him for his service or ask him what happened; his physical injuries made him a living reminder of the cost of war. But Alicia was different. She offered friendship without pity, and he was charmed by her from the start.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the debate about the origins of the coronavirus was immediately politicized by former President Donald Trump. But now international efforts to investigate and find answers have stalled. NPR’s Will Stone explains why.

Despite a new focus on the lab leak theory, many scientists still believe the virus emerged naturally, reports NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel.

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik has also reported on the media’s coverage of the lab leak theory.

Listen to Fresh Air‘s interview with Vanity Fair’s Katherine Eban on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Pocket Casts. Read Eban’s article about the lab leak theory here: The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins.

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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Back in March, Congress approved nearly $50 billion in aid for people who need rental assistance to avoid eviction. At the same time a federal moratorium on evictions is expected to be extended till the end of the July.

In June 1971, then-President Richard Nixon said the U.S. had a new public enemy number one: addiction. It was the beginning of America’s long war on drugs.

Fifty years later, during months of interviews, NPR found a growing consensus across the political spectrum — including among some in law enforcement — that the drug war simply didn’t work.

The stories in this episode are from NPR’s Brian Mann and Eric Westervelt as part of a special series: The War On Drugs: 50 Years Later.

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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This all started with a guest essay by Tom Hanks for The New York Times called “You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre,” in which Hanks made the case for a more widespread teaching of American history involving Black Americans, especially of events like the Tulsa Race Massacre. He wrote: “History was mostly written by white people about white people like me, while the history of Black people — including the horrors of Tulsa — was too often left out. Until relatively recently, the entertainment industry, which helps shape what is history and what is forgotten, did the same. That includes projects of mine.”

NPR TV and film critic Eric Deggans appreciated those words, but wrote in a column of his own that Hanks could do more from his powerful perch in Hollywood.

Eric speaks to host Audie Cornish about the reaction to his column, and how Hollywood reckons with its own power. (And no, he is not trying to cancel Tom Hanks.)

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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Remote learning simply didn’t work for many children with disabilities. Without the usual access to educators, therapists and in-person aides, the families of these children, and many like them, say they watched their children slide backward, losing academic, social and physical skills.

Now they’re demanding help, arguing to judges, state departments of education and even to the U.S. Department of Education that schools are legally required to do better by their students with disabilities.

NPR education correspondent Cory Turner and reporter Rebecca Klein have spent months reporting on complaints filed across the country from families who say schools need to act now to make up for the vital services kids missed.

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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Last month, President Biden laid out an ambitious goal: to get 70% of adults in the U.S. at least one vaccine dose by July 4. With less than three weeks to go, that goal may too ambitious, Harvard epidemiologist Bill Hanage tells NPR, and some states may see localized outbreaks this year.

Still — nearly two dozen states have already exceeded the 70% threshold. Many are clustered in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, while states with the lowest rates are largely in the South and Southwest. But there is one exception: New Mexico — where some counties report vaccination rates as high as 90%. NPR’s Kirk Siegler explains why.

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.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.