Category: International

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the formal annexation of four territories in Ukraine on Friday, after the conclusion of what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “sham” referendums and “a complete farce.”

NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf talked with Ukrainians near the frontline about how the turmoil is affecting them.

Dara Massicot, a Russian military analyst with the RAND corporation, says, with this move, Putin has “burned bridges behind him,” leaving him with few options to force a closure to the war. She says that makes this the beginning of a dangerous new phase.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Hurricane Ian carved a path of destruction through central Florida, with extreme winds, heavy rains and a torrent of waters flooding in from the Gulf of Mexico.

Roads and bridges were washed away, coastal cities were swamped and electrical systems were wrecked – leaving millions of homes and businesses without power.

While the full scope of the disaster is not yet known, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says it will take years to rebuild.

We’ll hear an eyewitness account of the destruction in Ft. Myers and check in with NPR’s Greg Allen in Sarasota, where many neighborhoods are flooded.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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The widespread protests in Iran were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.

The fuel that’s keeping them going is a broader, deeper resentment at life under the regime.

Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains what risk the protests pose to the regime, and why he believes it is incapable of reform.

This episode also features excerpts from NPR’s Steve Inskeep’s interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and reporting from NPR’s Peter Kenyon.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Every year, more than 300,000 U.S. families have infants who require advanced medical care in neonatal intensive care units.

Specialized treatments and round-the-clock care rack up enormous bills for parents as they try to navigate their baby’s care. And in the worst case scenarios, some families are left with millions of dollars in medical bills long after their child has passed.

We talk to Kaiser Health News correspondent Lauren Weber about her reporting on how steep medical bills have impacted families and what resources are available for parents with infants in the NICU.

We also hear from Kingsley Raspe about the bills that piled up from treatments for his daughter, Sterling, and the heartbreak of dealing with insurers after she passed away at eight months old.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Ruby Bridges was just six years old in 1960 when she became the first Black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.

She was escorted by four federal marshals and greeted by a mob of angry white protesters.

Today, Bridges is a civil rights activist and author, and she is sharing her experience with a new generation of kids in her latest children’s book, I Am Ruby Bridges.

Bridges tells her story through the eyes of her six-year-old self and talks about what today’s children can learn from her experience.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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This week the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force announced recommendations that doctors screen all patients under 65 for anxiety.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve heard about sharp increases in the number of people suffering from mental health problems.

With a health care system already overburdened and seemingly unable to deal with the rise in mental health issues, America is facing what is being called a mental health crisis.

But are we losing sight of another crisis – the issues causing increased anxiety and depression in Americans?

Host Michel Martin speaks with Dr. Danielle Carr about her recent essay in the New York Times, Mental Health Is Political.

The NFL has dealt with plenty of scandal this century, but this offseason was pretty rough.

Accusations of racist hiring practices, star players charged with sexual assault, and owners behaving badly have all been embarrassments for the league.

None of that has affected the bottom line. TV ratings are as high as ever and NFL programs dominate the Nielsen top ten.

Our host Juana Summers talks to Kevin Draper, sports reporter for the New York Times, about what, if anything, can slow down the NFL juggernaut.

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 [email protected].

More than 55,000 people in the U.S. are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, according to research from The Sentencing Project.

Behind bars, they are largely unseen and unheard.

The Visiting Room Project is an effort to change that. It’s a collection of first-person testimonials of people who are serving life sentences.

We hear inmates tell their stories and talk with Calvin Duncan, co-creator the project, which invites the public to sit face-to-face with people who have no chance of parole.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated billions of dollars to Puerto Rico to help it rebuild from Hurricane Maria with more resilient infrastructure. Five years after the storm, only a tiny fraction of it has been spent, and Hurricane Fiona has again left much of the island in the dark.

NPR’s Adrian Florido explains how Fiona has left some Puerto Ricans feeling like their recovery has gone “back to zero.”

Sergio Marxuach, with The Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think tank, explains why the island’s power grid is so fragile, despite dedicated federal funding to improve it.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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As record numbers of people in the U.S. die from drug overdoses, communities are searching for tools to prevent them. A new program in Canada could serve as a model.

Over the past few years, government-approved clinics have opened across the country, where people can use street drugs under medical supervision. If they overdose, they can get life-saving care immediately. Some doctors are even prescribing powerful opioids to patients to keep them from using street drugs that may be laced with deadly chemicals.

It’s a controversial program, and some in the medical community argue that it could encourage drug use.

NPR’s addiction correspondent Brian Mann visited some of those supervised injection sites in Ottawa, to see how the program is working.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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