U.S.’ influence on Gaza; Minneapolis faculty capturing : NPR

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Immediately’s prime tales

As Palestinians undergo below famine, NPR reporters have spoken with over 24 former senior Biden administration officers who have been immediately concerned in shaping U.S. coverage in the direction of Israel’s conflict in Gaza. A lot of them shared a standard query: Did the U.S. do sufficient to forestall this? The interviews highlighted tensions inside two principal camps of the administration relating to the right way to strategy the problem of humanitarian entry. One group believes that the U.S. ought to strain Israel to observe the Geneva Conventions on civilian safety and help. The opposite helps giving Israel area to combat its conflict with Hamas whereas secretly advocating for elevated help for affected civilians. A U.N.-backed panel of specialists on meals insecurity final week confirmed famine in Gaza.

• 🎧 Some officers informed NPR that the Biden administration helped forestall famine from taking place in Gaza, based on NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf, who labored with reporters Fatma Tanis and Tom Bowman on the unique. Former officers mentioned with them the sturdy and typically bitter arguments about how far the U.S. was keen to go to strain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, together with presumably withholding U.S. weapons. There was frustration with Israel; very senior officers, together with Biden, would spend hours on the telephone with Israel, specializing in specifics of how a lot help Gaza was receiving every day. Officers stated these conversations typically meant that the U.S. was slowed down with these particulars, typically dropping the larger image.

A 23-year-old shooter opened fireplace yesterday on a Minneapolis church and faculty stuffed with kids. Two kids have been killed and 17 different folks have been wounded as they attended Mass to mark the primary week of college. The shooter has been recognized as Robin Westman, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the location of the capturing after firing by the home windows of Annunciation Church from exterior the constructing. This is what else we all know to this point.

• 🎧 Reporter Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio spoke with Pat Scallen, an alum of the varsity who lives close to the situation. Scallen says he ran to the scene after listening to the gunshots. When he arrived, he noticed a number of injured kids popping out of the constructing. He stayed and helped a boy and woman with gunshot wounds till ambulances arrived. Police Chief Brian O’Hara says the shooter left behind a video that was scheduled to be posted to YouTube on the time of the capturing. It seems to indicate Westman on the scene and contains disturbing writings. Regulation enforcement is working to decide a motive behind the assault.

The Division of Well being and Human Companies introduced yesterday that Susan Monarez, the brand new director for the Facilities for Illness Management, has been fired. Monarez was sworn in lower than a month in the past. She was President Trump’s second alternative after former Congressman Dave Weldon did not get sufficient help within the Senate. Her attorneys say she was focused for standing up for science.

• 🎧 NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin tells Up First {that a} senior CDC chief knowledgeable her that Monarez met with senior HHS management final week, and it went badly. The assembly appeared to contain a dispute centered round vaccines and the skin vaccine specialists whom Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had fired. She has additionally been pressured to fireside senior scientists and produce folks again to the workplace to work, quickly after a capturing that occurred in her first week within the function. She resisted these strain factors, which seems to have resulted in her firing, says Simmons-Duffin.

Immediately’s pay attention

Musician Troy Andrews, also called Trombone Shorty, in his studio in New Orleans, La. on August 26.

Lilly Quiroz/NPR

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Lilly Quiroz/NPR

Troy Andrews, higher often called Trombone Shorty, is paying tribute to New Orleans with a brand new album out tomorrow titled Second Line Sunday. The album comes out 20 years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, bringing destruction in its wake. When the storm hit Trombone Shorty’s hometown, he was 19 and on tour with Lenny Kravitz. He anticipated to take a brief break from the tour at residence, however as an alternative evacuated with different family and rented a spot in Dallas. New Orleans was residence then and nonetheless is now, and he expresses that along with his new music. The ten-track album is a collaboration along with his cousins and nephews, who make up the New Breed Brass Band. The songs encapsulate the raucous, joyous sound of New Orleans streets, the place festive and somber moments are celebrated with music and dance. Morning Version host Michel Martin visited Trombone Shorty in a studio in New Orleans, the place he talked about what his new music means. Hearken to snippets of the songs and learn extra about his tribute to town.

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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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South Africa’s artisan miners, who salvage coal from deserted mines with restricted instruments, stay a grueling and dangerous life. The nation is without doubt one of the world’s prime coal producers, primarily sourcing it from Mpumalanga, the place open-pit mines and getting old energy stations are prevalent. Whereas industrial coal mining within the area has generated important wealth for a choose few, many native communities stay among the many most marginalized within the nation. Tens of hundreds stay in tin shacks, missing primary facilities, resembling coal for cooking and heating their properties. That is why the communities depend on the hundreds of artisanal miners, who’ve been compelled by poverty into the world of unlawful coal mining. Nevertheless, the federal government views them as criminals and a risk to society. To function legally, these miners would want permits, however below South Africa’s present mining system, acquiring them is nearly unattainable. Goats and Soda paperwork an inside take a look at their arduous work and why it is essential.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

Screenshots of two movies about an adventurous kitten created by Mark Lawrence I Garilao utilizing generative AI for his “FUNTASTIC YT” YouTube channel.

@funntastic_AI/Youtube/Screenshot by NPR

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@funntastic_AI/Youtube/Screenshot by NPR

1. Social media is more and more stuffed with movies created utilizing synthetic intelligence. Critics say the “slop” movies, which garner hundreds of thousands of views, are sometimes repetitive, ineffective and litter folks’s feeds. Right here is how completely different platforms are grappling to unravel the problem.
2. The FDA has permitted the subsequent spherical of COVID-19 vaccines, however they’re limiting the shot to people in danger for severe problems.
3. A number of universities throughout the U.S. are reporting a big drop in worldwide college students enrolled within the fall semester. Delays and elevated visa screenings have prevented many college students from arriving on campus on time.

This article was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.