Famine in Gaza; Epstein recordsdata : NPR

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At the moment’s prime tales

A U.N.-backed panel of specialists on hunger has declared that Gaza is within the grip of famine. The announcement comes after almost two years of battle and Israeli restrictions on assist coming into the territory, and as Israel prepares to launch a brand new offensive on Gaza Metropolis. The Built-in Meals Safety Part Classification raised its classification of circumstances in Gaza to Part 5, the best stage of its meals insecurity scale, which the IPC says is “characterised by hunger, destitution and dying.” The IPC report says half one million individuals are dealing with that stage of hunger and warns that one other 1.07 million folks — over half the inhabitants of Gaza — are dealing with extreme meals deprivation.

• 🎧 Given the dearth of outdoor entry to Gaza, it is doubtless that these numbers are an underestimate, in accordance with NPR’s Jackie Northam. Israel has denied that there’s a starvation disaster in Gaza, the place it has been preventing Hamas because the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. Northam says the IPC help doesn’t assign blame for the famine, however says a ceasefire is required to finish the battle and flood the territory with assist. The help group Mercy Corps has warned of famine in Gaza for months, and calls it a “man-made” famine that could be a “direct results of months of deliberate restrictions on assist, the destruction of Gaza’s meals, well being, and water techniques, and relentless bombardment.”

The Home Oversight Committee is predicted to obtain a whole lot of paperwork associated to the Justice Division’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation at present. That is in response to a congressional subpoena issued earlier this month calling on the DOJ to supply information of its probe. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has mentioned among the recordsdata can be made public after victims’ names are redacted.

• 🎧 NPR’s Claudia Grisales says it is a “main step for Republicans,” who’ve fended off questions round Epstein for months. The social gathering base has been pissed off with President Trump and Republicans for not releasing these information. The Home left for its August recess early to keep away from votes on the difficulty. Democrats say they may proceed to push for extra transparency when Congress returns, and Grisales says they’ve an unlikely ally in Home Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie has mentioned he’ll pressure a Home vote on the total launch of the information on Epstein, the millionaire financier who died by suicide in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking costs.
• ➡️ The Trump administration has shifted its tone and message in response to strain to launch these paperwork. Here is a timeline of what the administration has mentioned.

The Division of Justice has employed a lawyer who represented rioters charged within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Lawyer Jonathan Gross is now working with the Trump administration’s “Weaponization Working Group,” which evaluations the prison and civil circumstances introduced towards the president by federal and native prosecutors within the final 4 years. Gross took an unconventional path to representing Jan. 6 defendants. Here is what to know concerning the legal professional.

Are tariffs elevating costs? Earnings calls from among the largest retailers within the U.S., together with Walmart, Residence Depot and Goal, reveal some solutions. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon says that whereas the corporate has been in a position to mitigate the price of tariffs thus far, they’re rising “every week.” Whereas some costs are up, objects like faculty provides are cheaper this yr than final yr, in accordance with Walmart.

• 🎧 NPR’s Alina Selyukh says large retailers are giving measured and nuanced takes. When Walmart issued a warning in Could that tariffs would elevate costs in weeks, Trump posted that the retailer ought to cease blaming tariffs and “EAT” them. Many retailers have executed that, and McMillon says tariffs took so lengthy to roll out that consumers have not dramatically modified their behaviors but. Selyukh says one query hangs over the state of affairs now: How lengthy till firms determine they can not afford to eat the tariffs anymore?

Residing higher

It may be laborious navigating modifications as folks age.

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SeizaVisuals/Getty Photos/E+

Residing Higher is a particular collection about what it takes to remain wholesome in America.

Getting older can convey a variety of modifications to folks’s our bodies, minds and relationships in methods they’re typically not ready for. As soon as folks begin to expertise among the realities of getting old, they could discover that youthful generations do not absolutely comprehend what they’re experiencing. This hole in understanding can result in frustration inside grownup child-older dad or mum relationships. Grownup youngsters can discover it laborious to know what their dad and mom are going by means of as a result of they have not skilled it but. Mother and father could keenly really feel that lack of empathy. Nevertheless, there are a number of methods grownup youngsters can assist getting old dad and mom alter to life’s developments.

• 👴 Listening is an important factor an grownup little one can do for an older dad or mum. Strive asking them how one can finest spend your time with them. If they’re battling well being modifications, ask them how they really feel about it.
• 👴 Many individuals have to change their diets as they age. Bear in mind, there’s a distinction between serving to them keep on observe and pressuring them with reminders.
• 👴 If you’re offering intimate care, attempt asking your dad and mom to inform tales about their lives. This can assist alter the dynamic of help, which might really feel humiliating for them.

Weekend picks

Buscabulla

Quique Cabanillas/Courtesy of the artist

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Quique Cabanillas/Courtesy of the artist

Take a look at what NPR is watching, studying and listening to this weekend:

🍿 Films: Lurker follows a sociopathic striver who maneuvers his approach into the interior circle of a rising pop star. NPR’s Aisha Harris says the strain within the parasocial relationship between the 2 major characters, Matthew and Oliver, is deeply satisfying in its unease. And, listed below are among the movies in theaters this weekend, together with a field workplace file setter you in all probability have not heard of.

📺 TV: Amanda Knox made headlines in 2007 when her British roommate was discovered useless in Italy. She’s the chief producer of the brand new eight-part collection dramatizing the story of her wrongful conviction, The Twisted Story of Amanda Knox.

📚 Books: Louis Sachar has spent almost half a century writing a few of my favourite youngsters’s books, together with Holes and the Wayside College collection. He hopes the adults who grew up on his books will really feel the identical connection to his newest launch, The Magician of Tiger Citadel. And, listed below are a few of this week’s publishing highlights.

🎵 Music: Puerto Rican duo Buscabulla joins NPR’s World Cafe to carry out a few of their new music and talk about the making of their newest album, Se Amaba Asi, which explores vulnerability and romantic hardships.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

Youngsters cool off in a mist fountain in central Paris amid a heatwave, on Aug. 13.

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Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Photos

1. As European summers develop hotter, a heated political debate is brewing in France over an unsuspecting equipment: the air conditioner.
2. Greater than 3.6 million youngsters have been born within the U.S. in 2020, through the COVID-19 pandemic. As these “COVID kindergarteners” enter faculty for the primary time, many dad and mom are anxious about how their time in isolation will influence their growth.
3. Far fewer Canadians are touring to the U.S. this yr. The dip comes as relations between the 2 nations are strained after Trump imposed steep tariffs on Canada and vowed to make it a U.S. state.

This article was edited by Yvonne Dennis.