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Three years ago, the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. As the legal landscape shifted, the medical landscape of reproductive care was faced with a serious question. Where would people turn for abortions? Abby Wendle, from NPR's Embedded podcast team, has been reporting on self-managed abortions, and how the medical community's views on it have changed in recent years. The podcast has just released a new series about the history of self-managed abor...
On Monday, Iran struck back against the United States, firing missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar. The retaliatory strikes come two days after the U.S. attacked nuclear sites in Iran. In a twist, President Trump thanked Iran on social media for giving advance notice of the attacks, "which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured." Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR correspondents Aya Batrawy , who is on the ground in Dubai, and Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman , repor...
Following the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, this episode examines the significant escalation in conflict between the U.S. and Iran. It delves into the differing objectives of the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, explores Iran's historical perspective and survival strategies, and considers how global powers like China and Russia might react. The discussion also anticipates Iran's likely asymmetrical response and the crucial need for a diplomatic resolution.
Frank Langfitt has covered the world. Now he reports for NPR as a roving correspondent, focusing on stories that help us understand a changing America. Recently, he covered both the military parade that brought tanks and armored personnel carriers rolling through the nation's capital, as well as the No Kings protests where people in dozens of cities across the country rallied against politicization of the armed forces by someone they called a would-be autocrat. Many have dubbed the day as a spli...
Last weekend, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed at their home by a man impersonating a police officer. The attack comes amid a rise in political violence. Last year alone, Capitol Police investigated more than 9,000 threats against members of the U.S. Congress. Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords knows the horrors of gun violence only too well. The Arizona Democrat was shot at a constituent event in Tucson in 2011. Now a leading gu...
Many Afghans who helped the US military or who were persecuted by the Taliban for other reasons found refuge in the United States. They were granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, by the US government. Now the Trump administration has revoked TPS for Afghans. So what happens now? NPR's Monika Evstatieva reports that for thousands of Afghans in the United States, and many stuck in limbo abroad, the available options are dwindling. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C ons...
In 2003, the U.S. launched a war in Iraq based on what turned out to be bad intelligence about weapons programs, then spent years mired in a conflict with no clear end. Today, President Trump is threatening to bring the U.S. military into another Middle East conflict. As with Iraq, the justification for a potential attack on Iran is the alleged threat of a nuclear weapon. We talk to journalist Steve Coll, author of The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America's Invasion...
This episode explores the conflict between Israel and Iran through the lens of nuclear proliferation. Expert Aaron Stein discusses the history of US policy aiming to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, Israel's own opaque nuclear stance, and Iran's current capabilities. He analyzes whether Israel's recent attack risks accelerating Iran's nuclear ambitions and examines the potential for a broader nuclear arms race in the Middle East, considering other nations like Saudi Arabia.
Around this time every year, the U.S. Supreme Court ends its term with a bang. The Justices typically save their biggest rulings for June. Outstanding cases include the president's birthright citizenship executive order, a Tennessee law blocking gender-affirming care and a Texas law requiring age verification for porn sites. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg walks through the cases that may define this term. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via...
This episode examines President Trump's clash with federal courts, highlighted by his deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles protests despite state objections and a lawsuit. Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig discusses his concerns that Trump's actions and alleged disregard for court orders signal a potential end to the rule of law in America, exploring the limits of presidential emergency powers.
Kentucky is one of the poorest states and is likely to see billions of dollars cut from Medicaid and other government benefits if Trump's spending bill becomes law. For our weekly Reporter's Notebook series we hear from Kentucky Public Radio's Sylvia Goodman and Joe Sonka . The two reporters traveled through rural eastern Kentucky to gauge how cuts could impact people who rely on federal assistance and what that means for the health clinics that serve them. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider ...
Early Friday local time, Israel finally did what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening to do for years: It launched a massive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, killing top military commanders, nuclear scientists and — according to Iran — dozens of Iranian civilians. The attacks have once again plunged the volatile region into uncharted waters. NPR correspondent Hadeel al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv and NPR's National Security Correspondent Greg Myre discuss what this could mean for t...
Kilmar Abrego Garcia: a name that's become near-synonymous with the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown. Abrego Garcia was arrested by ICE agents on March 12th, as he was leaving his job in Baltimore. In the days and months that followed, the fate of the 29-year-old father of three was in the hands of the Trump administration and El Salvador's President. At the time of his arrest the administration alleged he was an active member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13. His family and his legal te...
The White House's message on what's happening in Los Angeles is simple: this is what President Trump was elected to do. It is true that polls have found people trust the Republican Party more to handle immigration. A CBS poll taken last week found that 54% approve of Trump's deportation policies. Trump is making a big bet on how far Americans want him to go. He mobilized National Guard and active-duty troops that the mayor and governor say they don't need. The administration says its immigration...
Fentanyl and other street drugs killed more than 230,000 people under the age of 35 in the U.S. over the last decade. But now new federal data shows drug deaths among young people are plummeting at an unprecedented rate – saving thousands of lives each year. What's driving the drop, and with federal funding cuts on the horizon, will it continue? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@npr.org . See p...
The last time a President deployed the National Guard over a governor's objections was more than 50 years ago. Over the weekend, President Trump did just that — in California. He ordered 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles, where people are protesting federal immigration raids. Today, governor Gavin Newsom said California is suing the Trump administration for what the governor called an unlawful action. Trump called the protesters "insurrectionists"; Vice President JD Vance suggested the...
Citing a rarely used law, President Trump bypassed California's governor Gavin Newsom, and ordered two thousand national guard troops to Los Angeles for sixty days. It's the first time in 60 years a president has used federal power to deploy national guard troops without the agreement of the state's governor. NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and hears how people in the city are reacting. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via Apple ...
In March, NPR Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson reported on problems with the way federal courts police sexual harassment and bullying . A culture of secrecy made reporting the story particularly difficult. With few protections, many who alleged mistreatment were afraid to speak out. For our weekly Reporter's Notebook series, Johnson takes us inside her investigation – and speaks with Consider This host Scott Detrow about the challenge of using anonymous sources to bring accountability to the...
House Republicans' reconciliation bill, which includes a first-of-its-kind national private school voucher program, is now in the hands of the Senate. The proposal would use the federal tax code to offer vouchers that students could use to attend private secular or religious schools, even in states where voters have opposed such efforts. Debates about voucher programs have raged on throughout the years. But what does the research say? NPR education correspondent Cory Turner unpacks it. For spons...
President Trump has signed a new travel ban. Travelers from 12 countries will be barred from entering the US, and people from an additional seven countries will face partial travel restrictions. The proclamation goes into effect June 9 — and fulfills something Trump has long-promised: to bring back the travel ban from his first term. But that ban was the subject of many legal challenges. Some legal scholars say President Trump has learned a lot since then. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider T...
Whether it was her history making win in 2017. Or the history she made as only the second woman elected to lead a country to give birth while IN office. Or her decision to step away from power after leading New Zealand through crisis after crisis. Jacinda Ardern could never be described as a TYPICAL politician. But perhaps the most norm-busting feature of her time as Prime Minister was her rejection of the old ways of leadership. Now as she reflects on her time as Prime Minister of New Zealand A...
Tuesday morning brought another shooting near a food distribution site in Gaza — the third in as many days. This time, more than two dozen people were killed as they tried to collect emergency food aid, according to Gaza health officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Israeli military acknowledged firing warning shots at "several suspects" moving toward their position, and fired additional shots at individual suspects who, they said, did not retreat. The violence may have ...
In the past, most military parades in the U.S. were staged to signal the end of a war and welcome home of those who fought. The last major military parade in the nation's capitol was in 1991. It marked the end of the Gulf War. The capital has not seen a military parade like the one planned by President Trump for June 14th in decades - a parade estimated to cost $45 million. NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with historian Joshua Zeitz. He's a contributing editor for Politico Magazine and has written abou...
President Trump wants to make a deal with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Putin says Russia wants to engage in peace talks, but Putin has also been ordering the most widespread and violent aerial attacks on Ukraine in years. This has led Trump to criticize Putin more and more in public — a step that's been rare over the course of Trump's two terms in office. Three years into his war on Ukraine, what does Putin really want? It's a question leaders around the world are trying to figure o...
The Trump administration has thrown so many curveballs at colleges and universities, it can be hard to keep track. But there's logic behind the many efforts, from cutting research grants to detaining international students involved in activism. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben and education correspondent Elissa Nadworny about what's at stake in the federal government's multi-pronged assault on higher education and what the administration hopes to accompl...
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new COVID recommendations this week, it raised questions among clinicians and patients: Will those shots still be available to people who want them — and will insurance cover it? NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, about the CDC's new guidelines for healthy children and pregnant women — and whether they could make it more difficult for t...
When ISIS was at its height, its ranks included several hundred Americans. They were often young men radicalized online by savvy marketing that promised free housing and the chance to meet a wife. When the Islamic State collapsed, some of them ended up in huge detention camps in Syria, and the U.S. has been trying to bring them home. NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer reports on one American family coping with the aftermath of the child they lost, and the children they found. What happened to the families of ...
NPR and three public radio stations in Colorado sued President Trump on Tuesday over his executive order that seeks to end federal funding for NPR and PBS. NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik breaks down the suit, and NPR CEO Katherine Maher answers Mary Louise Kelly's answers about the lawsuit, potential fall out, and future of NPR and public media. And a reminder about how NPR covers news about NPR: All Things Considered host Kelly and media correspondent Folkenflik, as well as the edit...
It's a classic Washington power move — the late-on-Friday news dump. This past Friday, at 4:30pm, start of a long holiday weekend, about half the staff of the National Security Council got emails asking them to leave by 5pm. Dozens of people abruptly dismissed. The restructuring of the NSC as Secretary of State and National Security advisor Marco Rubio has characterized it — continues a trend in this second term for President Trump, of radical downsizing. The Trump administration plans to cut th...
Misinformation originating from fringe internet communities and right-wing media ecosystems is increasingly reaching the highest levels of government. This episode examines how false narratives, such as the debunked claim of a white genocide in South Africa, are amplified by figures like Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk, influencing presidential statements, refugee policy, and executive orders. The discussion highlights the media landscape that supports these claims and the resulting breakdown of societal trust when fringe ideas impact policy.
