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After threatening massive attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure, Donald Trump is agreeing to a ceasefire to end the war in Iran. On Tuesday morning, the president posted on social media that “an entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” referring to his Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for trade. Tuesday evening, the president extended that deadline and agreed to a two-week pause in fighting, writing in a social media post that h...
More than 80 million people rely on Medicaid. It’s the single largest source of funding for health coverage for low-income Americans. But President Donald Trump’s massive 2025 spending bill is expected to cut the program by nearly a trillion dollars over the next decade. Hospitals could be among the hardest hit. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all their spending, according to KFF Health News. And a new report from progressive think tank Public Citizen shows that more than 440 hospitals are at r...
Both Iran and the U.S. have been accused of committing or planning war crimes since “Operation Epic Fury” began in late February. Targeting electricity-generating stations, schools, and water-purifying plants is illegal under international law. Pretty much any civilian infrastructure is supposed to be off limits. But what does it actually mean to label military action a war crime in today’s conflicts? We sit down with a panel of experts to talk about it. Find more of our programs online . Listen...
The episode covers President Trump's address on the war in Iran, revealing mixed signals and public disapproval, alongside the controversial firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi and concerns over her replacement, Todd Blanche. Discussions also delve into the war's economic impact, including rising gas prices and job market pressures, contrasted with the success of the Artemis II mission. Internationally, the panel examines NATO tensions, Russia's strategic gains from the conflict, and the escalating situation in the Middle East with US fighter jets downed, threats of war crimes, and Israel's actions in southern Lebanon and the West Bank, concluding with a look at US-Cuba-Russia dynamics.
It’s been nearly four years since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Since then, abortion access across the U.S. has been in flux – and the fight around that care continues today. Now, 13 states have a total ban. And five have restricted abortion after six weeks of gestation. The latest state to do so is Wyoming. But legal challenges to such bans are swift and constant, leading to confusion and uncertainty for both those seeking abortions and those who provide them. And despite these partial or total b...
In 2024, many voters were frustrated with the state of the southern U.S. border. A growing share of the electorate thought the Biden administration was being too lax on illegal immigration. And Pew Research said roughly one in 10 Democrats were in favor of a national deportation effort. Over the past 14 months, President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has launched a strict and oftentimes violent crackdown on illegal immigration. While popular at first, especially among the MAGA b...
If you’re born in the United States – with a few exceptions – you’re a U.S. citizen. That principle is called birthright citizenship and it’s existed since the end of the Civil War. Some 160 years later, President Donald Trump wants to change that. On his first day back in office in 2025, he signed an executive order that tries to narrow the category of who is eligible. The Supreme Court is set to weigh in. It hears the case on Wednesday. What could the outcomes of this case mean for U.S. citize...
Is the Trump administration creating a centralized database that tracks the activities Americans? Americans who are not suspected of committing a crime? That’s the question at the heart of a new lawsuit filed against the administration by the Freedom of the Press Foundation. That’s an organization advocating for press freedoms. These allegations stem from an executive order signed by Donald Trump last year encouraging data sharing between federal agencies and the elimination of “information silo...
The Pentagon is planning on putting boots back on the ground in the Middle East. Some 2,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have received orders to deploy to the region despite President Donald Trump signaling last week that he was interested in ending his war in Iran via diplomatic means. As Democrats and Republicans continue to find themselves in a stand off over DHS funding, security lines at airports around the country continue to grow. Tech giants Meta and YouTube were found neglig...
The morning after major airstrikes by Israel on Iran’s oil facilities, black rain fell in Tehran. The city of nearly 10 million people was engulfed in thick black smoke. The World Health Organization is warning that “the conflict in the Middle East poses serious threats to public health.” A new report from the Climate and Community Institute finds that the war unleashed over 5 million tons of carbon in just two weeks. That’s more climate pollution than Iceland generates in a year. As the death t...
The United States Postal Service has delivered mail for 250 years, from the busiest cities to the most remote parts of the country. But decades of money troubles have left the USPS billions of dollars in debt. Now, the postmaster general warns that the agency could run out of money by October – and is urging Congress to save it. We explore the uncertain future of USPS with a panel of experts. Find more of our programs online . Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a...
Owning a house appears further and further out of reach for many people in the U.S. The problem is a national one. The median price for an American home is now just over $400,000. On average, houses cost five years of the median salary for someone working in the U.S. In some cities on the West Coast and in parts of Florida, that ratio is now eight years of salary to buy a home. Rents have also gone up significantly. Since 2020, the nation’s average rent is 27 percent higher. Some cities have see...
The U.S. has a long history of getting rid of foreign leaders it doesn’t like. But a new pattern has emerged in the Trump administration’s dealings with its foreign adversaries. In January, the president ordered a precision military operation that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. The next month, the administration launched a high-powered bombing campaign against Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader and dozens of its top officials. In both cases, Trump ...
As Israel and the U.S. continue to fire missiles at targets within Iran, the American military and President Donald Trump are weighing the costs and benefits of putting U.S. boots on the ground in the Middle East once again. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s Department of Homeland Security confirmation hearing saw him clash with his fellow congresspeople. Despite the meeting’s testy tone, the committee cleared Mullin by a single vote, sending his confirmation to the full Senate. A federal judge r...
Cases of colorectal cancer in young people have risen nearly 60 percent since the early 2000s. That’s according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute. And a new study out this month by the American Cancer Society found that colorectal cancer is now the deadliest kind for those younger than 50. But this rise isn’t being felt across all generations in the same way. People born around 1990 are four times more likely to develop rectal cancer than those born a...
Big changes are coming to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. With Kristi Noem out at the Department of Homeland Security, all eyes are on FEMA to roll out millions of dollars in stalled federal funding for disaster responses. That’s especially true in North Carolina, where the western part of the state is still grappling with the effects of Hurricane Helene. We sit down with a panel of experts to find out what the future holds for FEMA in the Tar Heel state. Find more of our programs onlin...
Wars are fought by militaries — but they’re usually ended by diplomats. So, what happens when diplomacy is sidelined? Officials from Washington and Tehran engaged in talks for weeks, trying to avoid war before the U.S. and Israel fired missiles targeting Iran weeks ago. Now, as President Donald Trump publicly muses about why the military is engaged in another conflict in the Middle East, experts are wondering why talks were abandoned in the first place. And about the off ramps for all sides invo...
President Donald Trump and his administration and allies have sent mixed messages about the war with Iran in the first two weeks of the operation. The Secretary of Defense called it war. Now, the Speaker of the House said thus conflict with Iran is not a war. Whatever the president decides to call the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign – it’s cost the lives of 13 American troops and more than 2,000 people in the Middle East, both civilians and military personnel. Congress has voted on a resolution to l...
Two weeks into the war with Iran, the United States has spent more than $10 billion dollars. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Iranians and seven American service members. Those numbers are likely to grow if there are boots on the ground, a possibility that Trump Administration officials refuse to rule out. The president traveled to Kentucky and Ohio this week where he went on the defensive, justifying the increase in gas prices and touting the drop in drug prices. Americans’...
Waging war is not cheap. Experts estimate that the U.S. has already spent more than $10 billion launching missiles at Iran in the past few weeks. Meanwhile, thanks to fighting in the Strait of Hormuz disrupting the global energy supply trade, the price of oil is rising sharply worldwide. With no clear end in sight, how will Congress wrangle the high price tag of the war – economically and politically? We try and make sense of the cost of war, especially as more and more Americans feel the squeez...
Religion keeps coming up when Trump administration officials discuss their joint military operation with Israel against Iran. This kind of rhetoric comes as concerns grow over the crumbling of the separation between church and state in the Trump administration’s military. Now, more than two dozen democratic congresspeople are requesting an investigation into a report that some military leaders are using apocalyptic theology in briefings about the conflict – saying that Trump is anointed by Jesus...
Donald Trump made a clear promise on the campaign trail. “I will tell you you’re not going to have a war with me and you’re not going to have a third world war with me, that I can tell you,” he said. And the president doubled down in his inaugural address last year. These have been key promises for much of his MAGA base who’ve applauded his domestic policy focus. But since taking office, President Donald Trump has ordered military action in Venezuela, Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, and no...
Days before the United States dropped its first bombs on Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired members of a team that monitored threats from the Islamic Republic. The reason? They had investigated President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. That move came amid a year of layoffs, budget cuts, resignations, and shifting priorities across America’s national security agencies — including the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security. Now, as U.S. officials warn that Iran cou...
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Kristi Noem, his pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was leaving the agency amidst serious questions surrounding funding and the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in cities around the country. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s war with Iran has now claimed the lives of six American. And Iran’s Red Crescent society is saying the death toll in Tehran is well above 1,000. All politically-inclined eyes were on Texas this week...
It’s been a month since the Justice Department released more than 3 million documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In that time, dozens of people were scrutinized for their close ties to Epstein, who died by suicide while in prison in 2019. Among those named in the documents is Donald Trump. The president has long denied any crimes related to Epstein. And there’s no public evidence that the allegations against him are credible. But a new NPR investigation reveals that the Justice Dep...
Over the past year, the United States government has deported hundreds of people using a rare method of removal: putting them on a plane and sending them to a country to which they have no connection. It’s called a “third country deportation.” When the deported immigrants arrive, the “third” country detains them. Or it ships them right back out to their country of origin. And the U.S. foots the bill. Why is the Trump administration relying on this policy as part of its immigration crackdown? And...
For months, the Department of Homeland Security has been plagued by allegations of chaos. Meanwhile, the funding fight over DHS and a partial government shutdown continues. Now, U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in Iran over the weekend are adding pressure for Congress to reach a funding agreement for the agency amid national security concerns. What’s happening at DHS? We sit down with a panel of experts to find out. Find more of our programs online . Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at...
The United States is once again at war in the Middle East. The Trump administration, with support from Israel, made targeted air strikes against high-profile targets in Iran this weekend. Tehran responded by firing its own missiles at nearby Israeli and American military bases. This all comes after weeks of talks between Washington and Tehran over the latter’s nuclear program and a major military buildup on the part of the U.S. in the Middle East. Several U.S. service members have been reported ...
President Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term in office, lauding the strength of American economy. But even though wealthier Americans are benefiting financially from the positive economic trends, lower-income households are increasingly finding themselves left behind. Meanwhile, Democrats are holding government firm over funding the Department of Homeland Security as they demand reforms to ICE. And Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump admin...
Millions of people struggle to become pregnant in the U.S. And in 2024, fertility rates reached a new low, according to CDC data. Women are also waiting longer to have kids, while a growing number are deciding to opt out entirely. That’s part of the reason the Trump administration is pushing for a baby boom and promising to make in-vitro fertilization more accessible. Earlier this month, the administration’s new discounted prescription drug website, TrumpRx, went live. But fertility treatments c...
