Category: International

Using data from several states that have published their own maps and lists of where vaccination sites are located, NPR identified disparities in the locations of COVID-19 vaccination sites in major cities across the Southern U.S. — with most sites placed in whiter neighborhoods.

KUT’s Ashley Lopez, Shalina Chatlani of NPR’s Gulf States Newsroom, and NPR’s Sean McMinn explain their findings. Read more here.

Also in this episode: how one county in Washington state is trying to make vaccine distribution more equitable. Will Stone reports.

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.

People of color experience more air and water pollution than white people and suffer the health impacts. The federal government helped create the problem, and has largely failed to fix it.

In this episode of Short Wave, NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher talks about the history of environmental racism in the United States, and what Biden’s administration can do to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Read Rebecca’s reporting on how Biden hopes to address the environmental impacts of systemic racism.

Why does Whitney Houston’s 1991 Super Bowl national anthem still resonate 30 years later? In this episode of NPR’s It’s Been A Minute, host Sam Sanders chats with author Danyel Smith about that moment of Black history and what it says about race, patriotism and pop culture.

Smith wrote about the significance of that national anthem performance back in 2016 for ESPN.

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

The pandemic leveled live performance, and the industry is last in line for a return to normal.

Musician Zoe Keating and production designer Terry Morgan describe how their work has changed with live venues nationwide shuttered for nearly a year.

Venue owner Danya Frank of First Avenue and Jim Ritts of the Paramount Theatre explain why the gears of the performing arts economy are not designed for a slow return to normalcy.

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.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is one of President Biden’s priorities with the newest COVID-19 relief package. But Republicans say it will hurt small businesses too much and some swing voting Democrats are hesitant too.

The history of the minimum wage in the U.S. is tied closely to civil rights. Ellora Derenoncourt, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, says one theme of the 1963 March on Washington was a call for a higher minimum wage.

Many states have a higher minimum wage than the federally mandated $7.25. Arindrajit Dube from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst discusses how those states have fared.

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.

A third COVID-19 vaccine could receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration this month. The vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe disease, according to a global study.

Combined with the two vaccines currently in circulation, the U.S. could have three vaccines that are all highly effective at preventing death or hospitalization due to COVID-19.

Despite that promising news, NPR’s Richard Harris reports on why the journey to herd immunity still won’t be easy.

And Rae Ellen Bichelle goes inside a Colorado long-term care facility that has vaccinated nearly all of its residents. They say the initial steps to a return to normalcy feel great.

Additional reporting in this episode on the spread of coronavirus variants from NPR’s Allison Aubrey.

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.

For months, Myanmar’s military party has claimed — without evidence — that its poor performance in the country’s November parliamentary elections was the result of voter fraud. This week, when the new Parliament was scheduled to convene, the military launched a coup, detaining top civilian officials including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Michael Sullivan reports from Thailand on the uncertainty over what happens next. Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria explains why the coup represents a test for the Biden administration. Zakaria is the author of Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World.

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.

This past week, President Biden signed executive orders that represent his administration’s first actions in the fight against climate change. Some changes will take longer than others — and many more will not be possible without help from Congress.

Correspondent Lauren Sommer of NPR’s climate team explains the likelihood of that happening — and what Biden could do if it doesn’t.

NPR’s Kirk Siegler reports from Wyoming on Biden’s ban on federal oil and gas leasing. Most of the oil and gas drilled in Wyoming comes from federal land and communities there are bracing for job losses and school funding cuts.

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.

In 2019, GameStop seemed to be just another failing brick-and-mortar business. But a couple of internet dwellers at Wall Street Bets, in a strange corner of the giant forum, reddit, thought the hedge funds were making a mistake.

On this episode of NPR’s Planet Money: how a standoff between big market movers and an irreverent community of anonymous traders erupted into an epic showdown that is changing the way people think about power on Wall Street.

Listen to Planet Money wherever you get your podcasts, including NPR One, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

There’s is a reckoning happening across the media. Major news organizations are reconsidering what they cover and how. The Trump presidency is one big reason for the self-examination. But this new scrutiny goes beyond politics — beyond Washington, D.C.