1A

The United States’ national debt has now surpassed $40 trillion, a milestone that forecasters thought the country wouldn’t reach for months.

President Donald Trump drew the ire of many military families, lawmakers, and the public when he was asked if the deployment of the USS Lincoln to the Middle East had gone on too long. He responded by saying, “No no no no…not nearly long enough.”

Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off one of the biggest upsets of this year’s primary season. The Democratic Socialist beat former Army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman by more than 12 points in the state’s Democratic Senate primary.

And, in global news, President Donald Trump started this week by threatening Canada with drastic new tariffs, some as high as 50 percent, if negotiators from both countries didn’t reach a new trade deal.

Reporting from The New York Times indicates that the U.S. Navy is helping tankers sneak through the Strait of Hormuz by turning their ship transponders off. American Officials say around 10 million barrels of oil are now making their way to global markets.

And Trump is also pushing for another meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, potentially as soon as this fall. The two last met in 2019 during the president’s first term.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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On the night of Sept. 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene dropped a historic wall of rain on the southern Appalachian mountains.

Some 31 inches of water fell in three days. The Swannanoa River rose 27 feet. Roads, bridges, and entire communities – very little was left in the storm’s aftermath.  

More than 250 people died across the Southeast. More than a hundred of them in North Carolina alone. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since Katrina.

We check in on how much western North Carolina has rebuilt in the nearly two years since the storm. And how far it still has to go. 

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If you have a favorite wellness podcaster or influencer, you’ve probably heard about peptides. These injectable compounds are comprised of a string of amino acids and promise effects like weight loss, better sleep, muscle growth and more.

Given the potential benefits, it comes as no surprise that interest has exploded. The market is ready to provide. It’s already valued around $140 billion and by 2033 is projected to reach over $290 billion in value.

Last month, an FDA advisory panel voted to make six peptides more accessible to the public. But scientists warned against this decision, saying there’s not enough data concerning their safety and effectiveness.

Many people are already getting their hands on peptides through what’s been called the gray market. What does the FDA’s decision mean for access? And how safe are they really? 

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When was the last time you went to the doctor?

Not necessarily for something big, not for a broken finger or the flu. Just a checkup. A regular annual visit to make sure everything is ok with your health.

For about a third of Americans, it’s probably been too long. In 2024, more than 100 million people did not have a regular primary doctor at all, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.

The outlook is particularly bleak for young people. More than a quarter of people aged 18 to 29 polled in a national survey this summer said they didn’t have a primary care doctor. And over half of them who did have a doctor said they skipped or didn’t schedule an annual wellness check up in the past year.

But the blame shouldn’t fall solely on the patients. Primary care doctors are getting squeezed by the current healthcare system. There’s a growing shortage of primary care physicians. That can mean wait times of months just to get an appointment.

For today’s installment of our series, “In Good Health,” we’re unpacking the state of primary care—and what to do if you don’t have access to it.

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Donald Trump is adding billions of dollars to his personal fortune while he serves as president.

In 2024, the president made about $600 million. In his first year of his second term in office, that number jumped to more than $2.2 billion. The latest White House disclosures show most of those earnings came from cryptocurrency and crypto-related businesses.

He also continues to make millions from real estate and golf deals, many in foreign countries negotiating with the U.S. government he controls. And he’s received $117 million in legal settlements.

In this edition of our series, “If You Can Keep It,” we take a look at the scale of President Trump’s personal enrichment during his second term. What happens when the line blurs between the president’s personal wealth and the interests of the country?

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Haitians that used to have Temporary Protected Status are facing a new reality in the United States. Immigration operations targeting members of this community are currently underway at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced this week she would be leaving her post within the Trump administration.

And new reporting indicates that members of Congress are relying on AI chatbots to legislate more than ever before.

And, in global news, despite President Donald Trump promising to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for boat traffic, the number of ships traversing the waterway has fallen to a new three-month low.

As his country’s October elections approach, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to find the balance between appeasing Trump as he pushes for a solution in Gaza and keeping the Israeli right-wing happy.

And this Saturday marks the five-year anniversary of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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When Head Start was founded, the idea was simple: give low-income kids a running start before kindergarten — not just with preschool classes and childcare, but with health screenings and support for their families.

Some 60 years later, it serves more than 750,000 children — and their families — every year.

But the Trump administration thinks the program is too costly and inefficient. Last week, it proposed the most significant changes to Head Start in decades. The proposed rules would eliminate many of the federal standards for how programs are run and hand those decisions to the states. They would also cap how much programs can spend on administrative costs.

Officials say the changes would save money and open up new slots for hundreds of thousands of kids. Critics say stripping these standards is the first step towards dismantling the program entirely.  

What does the evidence say about whether Head Start works? And what happens if those federal standards go away?

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Nationwide, students, teachers, and parents are gearing up for the school year.

And measles is spreading. The U.S. has already logged more cases this year than in all of 2025. It’s the highest count in 35 years. That’s in large part because measles vaccination rates have slipped below 95 percent – the threshold public health experts say is needed to stop community spread.  

Last week on CNN, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said children should be vaccinated for measles after being pressed on-camera, even as he used the same interview to push a debunked claim about respiratory syncytial virus.  

And on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at upending the childhood vaccine schedule, including changes to the measles vaccine and others. But what will actually change at the doctor’s office?

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Journalists often say, “Follow the money.” But what if we said, “Follow billions of dollars to understand who controls this country’s political policy, technology and culture” instead?

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk dropped $200 million on the 2024 election and later headed up the now defunct Department of Government Efficiency.Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’s company paid $48 million to license and distribute first lady Melania Trump’s documentary. And Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund and was appointed to the Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to help shape national innovation and AI policy.

Could the key to understanding the economic and political tides in the U.S. today come down to understanding the wealthiest among us?

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From school board officials and city council members, to decisions over roads and disaster relief budgets, local elections make a direct impact on your day-to-day life.

But state and local elections get less attention, less media coverage, and lower voter turnout. In November’s municipal elections in Dallas, Texas, some 14 council seats were up for the vote but turnout was just 8 percent. And average voter turnout for mayoral elections in the U.S. is 20 percent or less.

What can voters do to stay more informed on a local level?

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Progressive Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed won his Michigan primary this week, sending a strong message to the Democratic party establishment that backed his opponent.

Dr. Anthony Fauci was found in contempt of Congress on Thursday. The vote by the Senate Homeland Security Committee came after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right over 100 times during a recent hearing.

And reports indicate the U.S. missile stockpile is running low. President Trump and the Pentagon have denied the story.

And, in global news, illegal settler activity is expanding across the occupied West Bank. And this week Israeli prosecutors charged a Jewish settler over the killing of a Palestinian community leader – the ⁠first such indictment in nearly three years.

Following a rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister is facing criticism from other European Union leaders over his country’s immigration policy.

And Russia is overhauling its military strategy, taking advantage of Ukraine’s current lack of missile interceptors.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we work, live, and engage with the world. Whether that’s using ChatGPT to do our taxes or spending hours sifting through AI generated images on social media. 

It’s also reshaping our education system. Roughly half of U.S. students said they used AI in some way for school, according to a 2025 survey from the Rand Corporation. But some students aren’t on board.

So, how are students and teachers around the country using this new tool? And what does this mean for the future of school, and how we define what it’s actually for?

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Affording groceries is becoming a struggle for many Americans.

Food prices are up 33 percent since 2019. That’s according to federal data analyzed by the Associated Press. It’s led some people to change their diets or where they shop. Others are taking more drastic measures by dipping into their savings or going into credit card debt.

A 2025 survey from the Urban Institute found that one in four people using credit cards to buy food had trouble paying those bills.

What’s behind the jump in grocery prices? How is it affecting Americans’ financial stability? And how is all of this affecting our economy as a whole?

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Data centers.

They’ve been all over the news. Last month, protesters showed up in 125 cities across the country on a single Saturday to demonstrate against these structures, either proposed or completed.

But are the politicians listening? We sit down for the second part of our data center deep dive. This time, we talk politics. Why have data centers become a political flashpoint so quickly? And who is calling the shots at the local, state, and federal level?

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Should judges be elected?

That’s the question Kansas voters are answering on the ballot this month. A constitutional amendment aims to change how judges are chosen in the state – abandoning the 68-year-old system of appointing judges.

Proponents of the change say elections put the choice back in voters’ hands. And their arguments aren’t new: Republicans in Kansas have long argued for judicial elections.

Critics of the amendment say elections politicize the process of picking judges. More than $10 million has been spent in total campaigning in Kansas – and those against the amendment are outspending those for it by huge margins.

As part of our weekly series “If You Can Keep It,” we take closer look at how judges are picked in this country and what it means for the rulings they issue.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week for his first visit to the White House since the war in Iran began.

Former CDC head Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights as he sat in before Congress during a hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul concerning the doctor’s COVID diaries.

And Temporary Protected Status lapsed for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the U.S. this week.

We cover the most important stories from around the nation in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.

And, in global news, reports suggest that Russia is assisting Iran target U.S. troops as the war between the United States and Iran rages. There are few if any signs of diplomacy from either Washington or Tehran.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington to meet with President Donald Trump.

And in what could be a new normal, wildfires are raging across Spain and France.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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If you’ve been on the internet lately, you’ve probably been fooled by AI at least once. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. One poll by the data security company, All About Cookies, found that 77 percent of Americans have been duped by artificial intelligence at some point.

Sometimes it can seem harmless – like that viral TikTok video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline, which raked in over 25 million likes. But AI has also been used maliciously, creating misinformation in the realm of politics, health, and breaking news events.

The use of AI has also duped people within the creative fields – from music to visual art. And it’s being used within education as teachers raising concerns over widespread cheating.

How can detection tools keep up with all the fast-changing technology and its varied uses?

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Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard died today in a motorcycle crash in Ireland at the age of 56. We sat down with him in April to talk about his storied career and his final album, "Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West." Here's what we wrote about that conversation at the time.

–

The song “Falling Slowly” first debuted in the 2007 indie romance film “Once” starring Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and Czech-Islandic singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová. It tells the story of a dramatized version of their own musical partnership.

That song won an Oscar for best original song and the musical duo became a hit in the U.S. when they recorded and toured as The Swell Season.

But long before any success stateside, Hansard was a fixture of the Irish music scene, first busking on Dublin streets at age 13. And in 1990 he formed the Irish rock group The Frames.

Today, Hansard is reflecting on his decades of music-making and looking ahead. His new two-part album is called “Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West.” He sits down with us to talk about the first part.

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Navigating a challenging moment in a friendship. Weighing a new job or changing your career. Seeing news about instability in our politics. A confusing diagnosis at the doctor’s office. Tending to a loved one in the hospital or in hospice.

Uncertainty strikes us in every part of our lives, big and small. And about three quarters of the world’s more than 8 billion people turn to faith.

In this edition of our series, “Pending,” we look at faith. When can it help with uncertainty? And how can we use it, whatever that means for us, in the face of problems we think we can’t solve?

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At least 18 American service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded since the start of the Iran war.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump spoke little of the troops who’d recently been killed before giving updates on the war:

We feel very badly, but you know those great people, those great patriots who are out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They’ve lost everything almost militarily. They’ve got very little left. They’ve got some missiles. They’ve got some drones. They’ve got some manufacturing ability, not much. We control the strait. They don’t control anything, so we’ll see what happens.

We get into funding – whether Congress will exercise its powers over the flow of money and the president’s war powers.

The Pentagon is shutting out the free press and even downplaying troop deaths. Those four service members killed in Jordan and Iraq last weekend? The Pentagon scrubbed them from the war casualty record less than a week later. The Trump administration said their deaths don’t count toward the official Iran war death toll because they were killed after the president declared a ceasefire in April.

Over the weekend, after facing backlash from veterans and military families, the Pentagon restored those four soldiers killed in Iranian strikes last weekend to their casualty database and added more than 140 new wounded soldiers.

Today on 1A, what responsibility does the Pentagon have to communicate transparently with the media and the American public?

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Nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured since the resumption of hostilities between Iran and the U.S. The American death toll now stands at 18.

In Maine, Democrats have chosen their replacement candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins. Troy Jackson is a former state lawmaker and is stepping in to fill the void left by Graham Platner. Platner stepped aside after allegations of sexual assault.

And a Florida pastor is suing OpenAI over dangerous health advice he received from ChatGPT.

We cover the most important stories from around the country in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.

And, in global news, after the resumption of the war with Iran, both Washington and Tehran are digging their heels in over the Strait of Hormuz. This week President Donald Trump promising vengeance if Iran continues killing American service members.

Ukraine sent more than 400 drones to Moscow after Russia targeted Kyiv with ballistic missiles.

And French lawmakers approve a blanket social media ban for children under 15.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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Extreme heat isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a growing public health threat.

More than 40 million people across the U.S. have remained under heat alerts this month. Heat remains the deadliest extreme weather event in the United States. At least 44 people have died as a result of July heatwaves. And in Europe, heatwaves killed more than 10,000 people in June, according to health data published this month.

Climate change is making heatwaves hotter and more frequent. And high temps aren’t just being reported in daytime. Nighttime temperatures are higher than ever. And scientists say that’s raising the risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke – and taking away crucial time for you and the planet to recover.

What do you need to know about the effects of heat on your health? And how you can stay safe?

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How did you celebrate July 4 this year? What did the country’s landmark 250th anniversary, in honor of the founding of the United States, mean to you?

The next 50 years likely hold a lot of change for our country where democracy, economic uncertainty, technology, and our social fabric are concerned.

What do we want that change to look like? We opened the phones so that you, our listeners, can tell us.

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You may have heard of a parasite that’s causing some gastrointestinal distress.

Cyclospora has sickened thousands of people across 34 states this summer – more than six times the number reported at this point last year. The CDC has linked a major cluster to shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell in some states. And Taylor Farms de Mexico has now pulled all of its iceberg lettuce from the U.S. market despite an FDA finding that reports that its product contained the parasite were a false positive.

We answer your questions about what cyclosporiasis is, how you get it, and why investigators have had such a hard time finding the source.

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One of the most critical parts of a democracy is the right to dissent. But if democratic norms weaken, that right can become harder to exercise. And when authoritarianism creeps into a government, dissent can get dangerous.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for resisting Apartheid before becoming South Africa’s first Black president. Before becoming president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel was jailed for his dissident writing under Communist rule.

But there are also dissidents everywhere around us here at home. Protesters demonstrated against ICE in cities across the U.S. last week. And an estimated 8 million people turned up worldwide for “No Kings” protests in March.

So, what does it actually take to stand up to a government that’s stopped playing by the rules? And when does it make a difference? We speak with the authors of the new book “On Courage: How To Be A Dissident in an Age of Fear.”

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As ICE ramps up its operations in and around American communities, its agents were involved in the deaths of three men in the last week.

Trump Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton refused to answer Georgia Sen. John Ossoff’s question about the results of the 2020 presidential election during a confirmation hearing.

After weeks of silence, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell confirmed on Sunday that he was on the mend after suffering a fall and pneumonia. The 84-year-old posted a photo from the hospital this week to put an end to rampant speculation on his health. 

And, in global news, questions about the operational status of the Strait of Hormuz continue to echo around the globe. And President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders traded barbs following the lapse of the ceasefire and renewed strikes between the two combatants.

Following devastating Russian attacks, June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since 2022.

And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the U.S. will attempt to diplomatically dismantle the International Criminal Court.

We cover the most important stories from around the globe on the weekly News Roundup.

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Israel is expanding its command of Gaza and now controls almost 70 percent of the tiny enclave that’s home to more than two million people.

More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas nearly a year ago. Some 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in total since Israel’s military offensive began after Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023. Meanwhile, dozens of aid groups have been barred from operating in Gaza.

Almost every Gazan is dealing with hunger, with 77 percent of the population facing high levels of food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.

So, what do these shifting lines of control mean for those in need? And how could changing political tides affect the situation?

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An Alzheimer’s diagnosis can have a real impact on a person and their family. There’s a lot to consider — what the future will hold, what symptoms they’ll experience, and on what timeline.

About 7.5 million people in the U.S. currently suffer from Alzheimer’s. Every year, around half a million more are diagnosed with the disease or another form of dementia. As the population gets older, that figure will continue to rise.

For decades, researchers have struggled to understand these kinds of diseases. But when it comes to testing and treatment, particularly for Alzheimer’s, there have been significant advances in the past few years.

In this installment of our series, “In Good Health,” we tackle the revolution in dementia research. What will that mean for patients?

For more information on dementia research, find Pam Belluck’s latest reporting at the New York Times. And Dr. Karlawish’s “Neurotransmissions” column at STAT News, covering dementia care and research.

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What do gyms, TV shows, pet food, and smart doorbells all have in common?

Nowadays, you might use a monthly subscription or other recurring membership to access these goods or services. The average American spends $219 every month on subscriptions. That’s more than $2,600 a year. Those recurring payments mean predictable profits for companies. That is, unless you cancel.

Enter: subscription traps. That’s when companies make it easy for customers to sign up but difficult to be done. Some also use deceptive tactics to automatically enroll customers into a subscription after a free trial ends without making the terms clear. In recent years, cities and states have moved to crack down on subscription traps.

They’re also taking steps to regulate junk fees that companies can add to goods and services. That’s caused prices to soar far beyond what’s advertised. One of those leading the way is New York City, where authorities announced a ban on abusive subscription practices on Friday.

How are regulators around the country working to protect consumers?

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The Trump administration is threatening top election officials with criminal prosecution if any ballot is cast by noncitizens in their state. That’s according to a letter from the Justice Department sent last week to all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The president’s threats raise the specter of noncitizen voting. In Michigan, for example, officials found that only 16 noncitizens voted in the 2024 election. That’s 0.00028 percent of the state’s total votes. And in Texas, their state investigation found about 100 potential noncitizen voters in 2024, though Gov. Greg Abbot initially suggested that there were over 1,900 potential noncitizen voters in the state.

The Trump administration’s efforts to sow doubt in elections doesn’t stop there. Last Thursday, President Trump fired the remaining members of the bipartisan federal Election Assistance Commission, just months ahead of this year’s midterms. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned states it will withhold a percentage of antiterrorism preparedness funds if states don’t change the way they conduct elections, including implementing paper ballots, verifying citizenship, and running costly audits.

In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we look at the administration’s attacks on the election process. How is it affecting the way that Americans’ perceive their elections — and what that all means for freedom and fairness of our elections.

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