Month: May 2021

On Thursday, Scots vote in Regional Parliamentary elections. That’s not usually an international story, but the ruling Scottish National Party is running on a platform to hold another independence referendum. Another vote on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland and Wales could follow their lead.

Scotland voted to stay in the U.K. during the last independence referendum in 2014. But then the Brexit vote happened. Scots heavily voted against leaving the European Union but were outnumbered by the British. Ultimately, the U.K. voted to leave the E.U.

NPR’s London correspondent Frank Langfitt has been driving across Scotland over the past few days, asking people how they feel about another referendum and the reviews are mixed.

Ailsa Henderson, a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, describes what might happen after this week’s vote and what, if anything, is still keeping the U.K. together.

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The pandemic economy has left different people in vastly different situations. Today, we follow up with four American indicators — people whose paths will help us understand the arc of the recovery. You first heard their stories back in February. Now, we’re talking to them again to ask how the American Rescue Plan has affected their lives — or not.

Brooke Neubauer in Nevada, founder of The Just One Project; Lisa Winton of the Winton Machine Company in Georgia; Lee Camp with Arch City Defenders in Missouri; and New Jersey-based hotel owner Bhavesh Patel.

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A record 172,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in March. Those numbers are fueled, in part, by smuggling organizations that exploit desperate migrants, most of them from central America. NPR’s John Burnett and KTEP’s Angela Kocherga report on their tactics.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tells NPR about a new multi-agency effort to crack down on smugglers.

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Things have gone from bad to worse in the pandemic’s global epicenter. India reported nearly 400,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday — and the death count is likely higher than current estimates. Lauren Frayer, NPR’s correspondent in Mumbai, explains why. Follow more of her work here or on Twitter @lfrayer.

The surge in India may be due, in part, to new coronavirus variants circulating in the country. NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff reports on one that’s been referred to as a “double mutant.”

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Any one of President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar spending packages would be among the largest ever enacted by Congress. He has passed one — the American Recuse Plan — and proposed two others in his first 100 days.

NPR Congressional correspondent Susan Davis explains his latest proposal — the American Families Plan.

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin tells NPR that in times of crisis, past Presidents have had success enacting ambitious agendas.

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Fully vaccinated people can ditch the mask outdoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week — unless they’re at a crowded event. Dr. Anthony Fauci explains the new guidance to NPR and weighs in on how soon children under 16 might be eligible for vaccines.

NPR’s Joe Palca reports on the scientific effort to learn more about how long vaccines protect us.

Additional reporting in this episode from NPR’s Allison Aubrey.

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The first set of results from the 2020 census are in, and according to the count, the official population of the United States is 331,449,281.

Israel and the United Kingdom are among the most-vaccinated countries in the world. Their success is due in part to public health campaigns designed to fight vaccine disinformation in faith and minority communities.

As part of NPR’s series on fighting disinformation, London correspondent Frank Langfitt visited a mosque-turned-vaccination center on the frontline of that battle. In Israel, NPR’s Daniel Estrin followed the man who helped lead the public health campaign for vaccines.

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Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. As the trial of Derek Chauvin plays out, it’s a truth and a trauma many people in the US and around the world are again witnessing first hand. But this tension between African American communities and the police has existed for centuries. This week, the origins of policing in the United States and how those origins put violent control of Black Americans at the heart of the system.