Month: June 2024

Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general, has called attention to what he has called the ‘youth mental health crisis’ that is currently happening in the U.S.

This week, he published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for social media warning labels like those put on cigarettes and alcohol. He hopes to warn young people of the danger social media poses to their mental wellbeing and development.

On average, teens in the U.S. are spending nearly 5 hours on social media every single day. And it is negatively impacting their health.

So what options do parents have? And will the government step in?

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As part of his ongoing look at groundbreaking films from 1999, host Scott Detrow speaks with Kimberly Peirce, the writer-director of Boys Don’t Cry.

The film starred Hillary Swank, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Brandon Teena, a young transgender man searching for himself and love in Nebraska.

Peirce talks about the challenges she faced in getting the movie made and her efforts to find a transgender man to play the lead role in the film.

Detrow also speaks with critic Willow Catelyn Maclay, who sees the film’s legacy as complicated.

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As the U.K. gears up for a July election, polls show the liberal Labour Party ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives by a hefty margin.

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After the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed more than 1,100 people, President Joe Biden expressed America’s backing for its Middle Eastern ally.

But that same month, polls showed that support for Israel among American voters was not unwavering. And that, in fact, support was split across generations.

That split between young voters poured out into the streets in November. Two big marches – one organized by pro-Palestinian groups and one by pro-Israeli groups – occurred in Washington.

Whether or not Joe Biden gets re-elected in 2024 will depend a lot on if he can repeat his 2020 success with young voters. But a split over U.S. support for Israel may get in his way.

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America is facing two very different futures on the world stage after November.

If former President Trump wins, he’s promised to fundamentally re-evaluate the NATO alliance, reshape global trade and overhaul the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies.

He’s largely avoided explaining how he’d handle the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, yet says he can settle the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, if President Biden wins, he’s signaled his commitment to fight global threats to peace and freedom, and he’s vowed to continue to help Ukraine and Israel fight in their respective wars.

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Michael Bommer likely only has a few weeks left to live. A couple years ago, he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.

Then, an opportunity arose to build an interactive artificial intelligence version of himself through a friend’s company, Eternos, so his wife Annet can interact with him after he dies.

More and more people are turning to artificial intelligence to create digital memorials of themselves.

Meanwhile Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a research assistant at the University of Cambridge, has been studying the field of “digital death” for nearly a decade, and says using artificial intelligence after death is one big “techno-cultural experiment” because we don’t yet know how people will respond to it.

Artificial intelligence has opened the door for us to “live on” after we die. Just because we can, should we?

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On Saturday, Israeli special forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, killing at least 270 Palestinians and injuring hundreds in the process.

The rescue of the hostages was a moment of triumph for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he didn’t have long to bask in it.

Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s unity war cabinet, announced his resignation on Sunday, over Netanyahu’s management of the war in Gaza. After Gantz’s resignation, Netanyahu will be even more reliant on far-right members of his coalition, who have vocally opposed efforts to broker a cease-fire.

The U.S. continues to push a cease-fire proposal outlined last month, and on Monday the U.N. Security council passed a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting that deal.

NPR’s Michele Kelemen and Daniel Estrin help us get a sense of what this weekend’s events might mean for the war and its ending.

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Billions of dollars in federal COVID funding is set to expire for K-12 schools.

Educators across the country say the extra money helped students catch up, and plenty of students still need that support.

Some schools say losing the the money, received over the last few years, will lead to cancelation of crucial programs, budget cutbacks and possible layoffs.

NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with Wall Street Journal education reporter Matt Barnum about the impact of expiring federal funds on schools across the country.

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With the presidential election approaching, some voters are wondering how we again ended up with Donald Trump and Joe Biden as the presumptive nominees.

Recent focus groups with swing voters put into words why some people are turning away from the main candidates, and polling gives us an insight into what this could mean in November.

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war in Gaza can’t end until Israel has destroyed Hamas.

NPR’s reporting from Israel and Gaza suggests that goal is still a long way off.

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