U.S. strikes Iran once more. And, DOJ expenses Google staffer over Polymarket trades

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As we speak’s high tales

U.S. forces shot down Iranian drones close to the Strait of Hormuz and struck an space alongside Iran’s coast in a single day, in keeping with a U.S. official who spoke to NPR. In retaliation for the assault on Bandar Abbas, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says this morning it focused the American base that launched the assault. U.S. and Iran peace talks proceed.

• 🎧 It’s troublesome to find out if a deal is imminent, however all indicators counsel that President Trump is pursuing a diplomatic resolution with Iran as a substitute of extra struggle, NPR’s Aya Batrawy tells Up First. The president has simply shared a draft of the Iran take care of Israel’s prime minister and a number of other regional leaders, in keeping with an individual aware of the matter who is just not approved to talk publicly. The interim deal would prolong the ceasefire and reopen the Strait, however it could not embrace particulars on Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has mentioned there can be no take care of the U.S. with out the struggle in Lebanon additionally coming to an finish. Israel, a key U.S. ally, has expressed that it would not favor making a take care of Iran and desires to proceed its struggle in Lebanon. Israel has issued evacuation warnings for Tyre, considered one of Lebanon’s largest cities, deepening the battle that has already displaced greater than one million folks within the nation.

The director-general of the World Well being Group is predicted to reach within the Democratic Republic of Congo at present, because the nation struggles to include an Ebola outbreak. Officers say there are greater than 1,000 suspected circumstances and over 200 suspected deaths within the nation. Congo’s neighboring international locations, Rwanda and Uganda, have closed their borders.

• 🎧 WHO’s director-general has described japanese Congo as the positioning of a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict,” and reporter Emmet Livingstone says catastrophic sums up the scenario. The area is affected by militia violence and excessive poverty. The outbreak’s epicenter is a distant gold-mining city referred to as Mongbwalu, the place well being employees and NGOs face vital challenges. Some residents do not imagine Ebola exists, and there have been violent assaults on hospitals and isolation tents. There are additionally sure areas of the city which have now turn out to be no-go zones. Livingstone spoke with Dr. Esther Sterk, a tropical illness specialist for Medical doctors With out Borders in Mongbwalu, who informed him that hospitals and NGOs within the space are struggling to maintain up with the size of the outbreak.

Extra folks in the US are experiencing starvation now than in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic six years in the past, in keeping with a survey launched yesterday by the Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York. The New York Fed periodically surveys People about their meals safety, inquiring about whether or not they skip meals, depend upon meals donations or obtain federal help for groceries. Replies from the latest survey, performed in February, present 10% of households nationwide reported lacking meals as a result of an absence of meals, and almost 16% relied on meals donations. For households incomes lower than $50,000 a 12 months, meals insecurity charges had been almost double, with virtually 20% having to skip meals or go with out meals.

A Google software program engineer has been charged with leveraging confidential firm data to make $1.2 million on the prediction market website Polymarket. This marks the second recognized case of the federal authorities submitting legal expenses in opposition to somebody for allegedly utilizing insider data on a prediction market website. Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, was arrested yesterday and is going through expenses of commodities fraud, wire fraud, cash laundering and different counts for allegedly putting bets on search tendencies based mostly on inside Google knowledge that tracked consumer searches. Working beneath the username AlphaRaccoon, the 36-year-old allegedly positioned numerous bets on Google’s most-searched individual for 2025 and knew the outcomes of those wagers earlier than the buying and selling public did, in keeping with prosecutors.

Church and State

“The Prayer at Valley Forge”, a 1975 portray by Arnold Friberg executed for America’s bicentennial celebration in 1976.

First Freedom Artwork Firm

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First Freedom Artwork Firm

This week at NPR, we’ll discover the elevated intermixing of God and authorities in a brand new sequence we’re calling Church and State. It is an concept that has been gaining momentum by way of the primary and second Trump administrations, not solely inside U.S. politics but in addition all through American tradition, in songs and work, schoolbooks and worship occasions infused with religion and politics.

The Trump administration is utilizing a portray that depicts George Washington praying to argue that the Founding Fathers had been religious Christians. Historians query whether or not the second within the portray really occurred. The picture has appeared in social media posts for the Protection Division, the Division of Labor, the Division of Homeland Safety and extra. It’s even on the market on a federal authorities web site that celebrates America’s 250th anniversary. Many conservative evangelicals have adopted the 1975 Arnold Friberg portray, “The Prayer at Valley Forge,” as a rebuke to mainstream historians. Nicholas Shrum, a doctoral scholar researching Latter-day Saint id in America, says that some historians level out that Washington was an Anglican and never a weekly churchgoer. The previous president was additionally obscure about his religion, by no means explicitly naming Jesus Christ, in keeping with some historians. Members of the administration have framed such viewpoints as secular assaults on the Christian beliefs of the Founding Fathers. Learn extra about Christians’ and historians’ views on this portray.

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Beirut, Lebanon : 25/09/25 : Palestinian ladies, descendants of the Nakba, collect to coach in jiu jitsu within the refugee camp of Bourj el Barajneh in South Beirut.

Aline Deschamps for NPR

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Aline Deschamps for NPR

Martial arts coach Mirella Atallah is utilizing fight sports activities to empower ladies in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. The coaching held within the makeshift gymnasium on the camp helps redefine the norms for a way women and girls ought to behave. As individuals full a two-month course in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, they confront and overcome adversity. Atallah considers the game extra than simply self-defense. She says it helps the ladies and ladies use their voices, which could be a problem for individuals who had been raised to be quiet, amongst different issues. Atallah estimates that she has taught about 1,500 pupils worldwide this 12 months. Check out pictures of the group and examine how they’re studying extra than simply self-defense.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

1. On this week’s version of Far-Flung Postcards, NPR’s Ricci Shryock brings greetings from Praia, Cape Verde, the place music is an integral a part of each day life. Each April, the capital metropolis hosts two worldwide occasions: the Atlantic Music Expo and the Kriol Jazz Competition. A couple of weeks after these concert events wrapped, the nation was named the African Capital of Tradition for 2028.
2. New York and New Jersey attorneys common introduced yesterday that they’re investigating ticketing practices by the worldwide governing physique for soccer and the upcoming World Cup matches, amid complaints about excessive ticket costs. (by way of Gothamist)
3. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce, who grew up in Ohio, is about to buy a minority stake within the Cleveland Guardians. (by way of WVXU)

This text was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.