Category: International

In his first round of interviews since President-elect Joe Biden announced John Kerry would be his special envoy for climate, the former Secretary of State tells NPR why restoring American credibility on climate issues will be a key challenge for the Biden administration. Kerry spoke to NPR’s Steve Inskeep.

NPR’s Nathan Rott reports on another climate ambition for the incoming administration: conserving 30% of America’s land and water by 2030.

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President Trump once told veteran CBS journalist Lesley Stahl why he attacks the press.

“I do it to discredit you all and demean you all,” he admitted to her in 2017, “so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”

Trump made attacks on the press a central fixture of his campaign for president, and of his four years in the White House. As his term comes to a close, three members of the White House Press Corps reflect on what it’s been like to cover the 45th president since the beginning.

NPR’s Tamara Keith, Jeff Mason of Reuters, and Yamiche Alcindor of the PBS NewsHour spoke to NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly.

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2020 has been a year of resilience in the face of tragedy. But for much longer, resilience in the face of tragedy has been a defining story of the Middle East.

In her final conversation for NPR, international correspondent Jane Arraf reflects on what it’s been like to watch that story unfold.

Arraf is departing NPR to take on the role as Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times. Follow her on Twitter here.

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“What has this pandemic been like for you?”

NPR host Sam Sanders and his team at It’s Been A Minute put that question to their listeners and heard from people all over the world with ages ranging from 0 to 99.

Their stories will stay with you.

Listen to more episodes of It’s Been A Minute on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Health care facilities in rural areas hard-hit by the coronavirus are running out of ways to provide safe care to patients. Unlike earlier in the pandemic, it’s more difficult to find hospitals with capacity to spare.

A travel nurse shares an audio diary recorded for NPR in Fargo, N.D., and two health care workers from North Dakota and Utah describe the unique challenges they’re facing.

WPLN’s Blake Farmer and NPR’s Carrie Feibel have reported on the staffing challenges hospitals are facing.

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President Trump and his allies have spent nearly a month promoting an alternate reality of rigged elections and stolen votes.

Now, there’s concern in Georgia that some of the president’s supporters may sit out a crucial runoff election on January 5, which will determine the balance of power in the Senate, as Lisa Hagen with NPR member station WABE reported.

Turnout isn’t the only concern for some Republicans in the state. Election officials like Gabriel Sterling have been the target of death threats. Sterling spoke to NPR’s Ari Shapiro.

Trump’s conspiratorial denials of his own defeat have been bolstered by allies from some relatively new media sources — including the right-wing network Newsmax. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reported on the network and its efforts to outfox Fox News.

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Every 10 years after the U.S. Census, lawmakers in most states have the power to redraw congressional and state legislative districts. It’s called redistricting. The party in power can do it in a way that benefits them politically — and it’s perfectly legal. That’s called gerrymandering.

Now that the 2020 election season is nearly over, a picture is emerging of how redistricting and gerrymandering will unfold in states across the country.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro spoke to reporters in three state capitals: Ashley Lopez with member station KUT in Austin, Texas; Dirk VanderHart from Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland; and Steve Harrison of member station WFAE in Charlotte, N.C.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week that it’s likely that any healthy American who wants a coronavirus vaccine will be able to walk into a drugstore and get one by April. The challenge will be convincing enough people not to put it off.

While the vaccine is months away for most, health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities will be able to receive the first doses when they become available, a committee from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended this week. NPR’s Pien Huang has reported on that decision and others by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.

NPR’s Andrea Hsu reports on the debate over mandatory vaccines in the workplace.

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Lawmakers have been deadlocked for months on another coronavirus relief package. Now millions of Americans who have relied on emergency spending programs during the pandemic are about to see their benefits expire at the end of the year — unless Congress and the White House can agree to a spending deal before the holidays.

NPR correspondents Scott Horsley and Chris Arnold explain what could happen weeks from now if American workers, homeowners, renters and student loan borrowers lose key economic lifelines.

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Millions of Americans traveled for Thanksgiving despite pleas not to do so from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force says if you’re one of them, assume you’re infected, get tested and do not go near your friends or family members without a mask on.

Because COVID-19 is a largely invisible threat, our brains struggle to comprehend it as dangerous. Dr. Gaurav Suri, a neuroscientist at San Francisco State University, explains how habits can help make the risks of the virus less abstract.

Emergency room doctor Leana Wen discusses why it’s tempting to make unsafe tradeoffs in day-to-day activities and how to better “budget” our risks.

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