Category: International

NPR’s Tom Dreisbach reports on the story of Alan Hostetter, a former police chief and yoga instructor from California who’s now facing conspiracy charges for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Hostetter is one of more than 500 people facing charges related to January 6th. Hear more about how prosecutors are proceeding from NPR’s Ryan Lucas and the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen via Apple, Google, Spotify, or Pocket Casts.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

All over the east coast and Midwest, forests are getting hotter and drier. Many are also overgrown and overdue for wildfire. And increasingly, Americans are moving to areas where these forests and their homes tangle close together.

The fastest such growth is in the Southeast, where few consider wildfire much of a threat. Molly Samuel with member station WABE reports from Tate City, Georgia.

Additional reporting in this episode from Annie Ropeik of New Hampshire Public Radio and from NPR’s Nathan Rott, who reported on fire risk in Wisconsin, home to the deadliest fire in American history.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

In 1969, during the same summer as Woodstock, another music festival took place 100 miles away. The Harlem Cultural Festival featured black musicians like Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder — stars who we might not have glimpsed at this point in their careers.

Footage of the festival had been locked in a basement for 50 years, because TV and film companies were not interested in it at the time.

Questlove and his fellow filmmakers speak to Audie Cornish about bringing the concert festival to the big screen in their movie, Summer Of Soul, which is also out on Hulu.

NPR’s Eric Deggans also reviewed the film. Some descriptions of the film from his review are heard in this episode.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

The Star-Spangled Banner is the official anthem for the United States, but there are plenty of songs that have become informal American anthems for millions of people.

On this episode of NPR’s Throughline, we share three stories from NPR Music’s American Anthem series, which explored the origins of songs that have become ingrained in American culture.

Throughline is NPR’s history podcast. Listen via Apple, Spotify, Google, or Pocket Casts.

Cases are surging in countries around the world as the more transmissible delta variant spreads rapidly. Also growing: pressure on vaccine-rich countries to help people in countries where vaccines are still scarce.

NPR’s Will Stone reports on the waiting game. And Harvard’s Junaid Habi argues vaccine hesitancy in America is a peculiar privilege.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Los Angeles County — America’s most populous county — recently recommended mask wearing even for vaccinated people, just two weeks after the state relaxed most COVID restrictions. County officials say masks will help protect unvaccinated people from the more transmissible delta variant, which is spreading rapidly across the country.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky tells NPR the federal government may “encourage” states to return to more mitigation measures in places where vaccination is low and the delta variant is driving cases up.

That describes the situation in Missouri. Rebecca Smith with member station KBIA reports from Columbia.

Shalina Chatlani of the Gulf States Newsroom looks at the challenge of getting more people vaccinated in southern states.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

The former Secretary of Defense was a chief architect of the conflict that came to be known as America’s ‘forever war.’ After his death this week at age 88, that conflict has now officially outlived him.

NPR’s Steve Inskeep reports on one group of people still living with the consequences: thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military over the past 20 years. More from that story, which aired on Morning Edition, is here.

Additional reporting in this episode from NPR’s Greg Myre.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Susana Alvarez, a survivor of the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, explained to NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Weekend Edition Sunday that residents were told in a late 2018 meeting that the building was safe — despite evidence it wasn’t.

NPR confirmed Alvarez’s account.

An engineering report issued five weeks before that meeting warned of “major structural damage” to the building that would require “extremely expensive” repairs.

Jenny Staletovich with member station WLRN reports on efforts by rescuers, which include Miami’s own world-renowned search and rescue team.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Late last year the Senate passed a bill that required U.S. intelligence agencies to share what they know about “unidentified aerial phenomena,” the technical term for UFOs. That report was released last week. Spoiler alert — it doesn’t confirm the existence of alien spacecraft. But it doesn’t rule them out either.

Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich recounts her first-hand encounter with a UFO off the coast of Southern California. It’s one of 144 sightings mentioned in the new unclassified report.

Historian and University of Pennsylvania professor Kate Dorsch explains some of the possible reasons why Americans report more UFO sightings than any other county in the world.

For the second weekend in a row, parts of the American West will be gripped by historic heat, coming in the second decade of megadrought that has gripped the region for 22 years.

Wildfire is an obvious threat — but there are other consequences of extreme heat and drought, as smaller snowmelts and lower reservoirs lead to water cutbacks and more expensive electricity. And climate change is making it all worse.

Colorado Public Radio’s Michael Elizabeth Sakas reports on another consequence: what happens when there isn’t enough water to build new homes.

Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains how extreme heat can affect the human body,

Additional reporting in this episode:

• Jordan Kern spoke to NPR’s Scott Detrow about hydropower in the West.
• Michael Elizabeth Sakas reported on western snowmelt.
• NPR’s Kirk Siegler reported on record high temperatures.
• NPR’s Lauren Sommer reported on dwindling water supplies.
• NPR’s Nathan Rott, Luke Runyon of KUNC in Colorado and Annie Ropeik of New Hampshire Public Radio discussed the growing consequences of heat and drought.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.