Category: International

Who doesn’t love a lush, perfectly manicured grass lawn? It turns out, a lot of people are actively trying to get rid of their lawns, ripping out grass in favor of native plants, vegetables, and flowers to attract pollinators.

As the realities of climate change become starker, more and more people are looking for ways to create environmentally friendly spaces.

NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with research ecologist Susannah Lerman with the United States Forest Service about the impact of grass lawns on the environment and sustainable alternatives.

In the 1980s the U.S. Army launched a recruiting drive around the slogan, “Be all you can be.” They’ve relaunched the slogan now as the push is on to make up for a drop off in recruitment.

The Army is having a hard time convincing potential recruits that the military is the best place to reach their full potential. Last year, the Army was 15,000 soldiers short of its recruiting goal.

Army surveys have found that many potential recruits don’t want to join because they fear getting wounded or killed, even though the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over. And the tight labor market means recruits have lots of other job opportunities.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth about the struggle to staff up the largest branch of the U.S. military. NPR’s Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman provides additional reporting for this episode.

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It took just eight Republicans, voting with Democrats, to oust Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership. His removal may have been unprecedented, but for several years now the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives has been marked by chaos and unruliness. The job to lead them seems increasingly impossible.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with Rep. Matt Rosendale, of Montana, who was one of the eight Republicans to vote for McCarthy’s removal. Co-host Juana Summers speaks with NPR Congressional Correspondent Deirdre Walsh about the challenge Republicans face to replace McCarthy.

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The Supreme Court heard a case Tuesday that threatened the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports on the legal arguments in a case brought by payday lenders against the watchdog agency.

And NPR’s Scott Horsley walks through the track record of the CFPB since its founding in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

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Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a tenure marked by a relentless series of challenges. He served through the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China.

He also served under an American president with little regard for the norms that have historically separated politics from the U.S. military: Donald Trump.

In an interview shortly before his retirement last weekend, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly asked Milley about the relationship between the military and the executive branch — and how it was tested under Trump.

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Not too long ago, crypto was being trumpeted as the next big thing. Celebrities were getting in on it, including Kim Kardashian, Matt Damon and Tom Brady.

Now the former face of crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried, who ran the FTX exchange, is going on trial. He’s accused of orchestrating one of the largest frauds in history.

As his case gets underway it’s as if the whole crypto industry is on trial.

NPR’s David Gura speaks with Bloomberg reporter Zeke Faux who wrote the book “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall,” and Sheelah Kolhatkar, a staff writer for The New Yorker who has a new article out on Bankman-Fried and his parents.

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When the video game Mortal Kombat released in 1992, it took arcades — and later the American home — by storm. Thirty years on, the franchise is still going strong.

NPR’s Scott Detrow faces off against co-host Juana Summers in the latest version of the game, Mortal Kombat 1, and speaks with co-creator Ed Boon.

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The federal government will shut down on October 1st if Congress doesn’t pass funding legislation for the next fiscal year before then.

That looks increasingly likely as House Republicans continue to hold out for deep spending cuts before agreeing to any deal to keep the government running.

A shutdown could potentially affect millions of Americans, among them some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

Host Ari Shapiro speaks with a trio of NPR correspondents about the potential impact of a government shutdown.

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The U.S. government and 17 states sued Amazon on Tuesday in a landmark case that could take down the tech giant.

The Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general say that Amazon is a monopolist that chokes competitors and raises costs for both sellers and shoppers.

Lina Khan, the head of the Federal Trade Commission, has spent years arguing that a few big companies have too much control over corporate America. The new lawsuit against Amazon is the biggest test of these arguments yet.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks to FTC Chair Lina Khan, the driving force behind the case.

President Biden made history on Tuesday when he joined members of the United Auto Workers union on a picket line outside Detroit as they strike for better pay and benefits from the Big Three automakers.

Biden is walking a political tightrope. He wants a better contract for workers–and to win union members’ votes in battleground states. He also wants to support carmakers as they transition to a future of electric vehicles.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Micheline Maynard, the author of The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market, to understand how profitable the big carmakers are right now. And NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with historian Jefferson Cowie about the unprecedented nature of Biden walking the picket lines.

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