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0:22 Spreker 5 Listeners supported community radio for Prince William Sound and the Copper River Valley.

0:27 Spreker 2 Good morning. President Trump rejected Iran's proposal to stop the war with the U.S. The idea was to resume a truce. Trump says Iran is losing badly, though oil prices remain elevated. It's Morning Edition from NPR News.

0:47 Flood warnings are still in place along the New Jersey coast. Some towns have waist-deep water during a weekend nor'easter. I'm Layla Fulton.

0:54 Spreker 6 And I'm Steve Inskeep. The storm is weakening now, but thousands of homes are without power.

1:01 Also, Durham, North Carolina sends mental health workers, not police, to some 911 calls. How successful is that? And Kentucky's Andy Beshear applies biblical lessons to governing. It's Monday, September 28th. This day in 1941, Ted Williams became the last major league player to bat 400 for a season.

1:23 The news is next.

1:25 Spreker 2 Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The Trump administration has announced it is rolling back fuel economy standards for new vehicles.

1:34 Spreker 3 It says less efficient vehicles make cars more affordable for Americans. As NPR's Willa Rubin reports, this is a step that weakens Biden-era climate policies.

1:45 Spreker 5 The Corporate Average Fuel Economy, CAFE, standards, have been around since the 70s. These require American carmakers to make each year's new vehicles more fuel-efficient on average across their entire fleets. But how much more efficient? Under the Biden administration, fleets needed to get 2% more efficient every year. That meant carmakers needed to make electric vehicles, balance out their gas guzzlers, otherwise they were subject to a fine. That fine went away last July as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Now, a much smaller increase in fuel efficiency will be required every year. Willa Rubin, NPR News.

2:25 Spreker 2 Voters may soon feel more economic pain. There are upcoming cuts to safety net programs such as SNAP. Along with that, President Trump is going to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from programs he opposes,

2:39 Spreker 4 even though Congress has approved funding for them.

2:43 Spreker 2 NPR's Mara Liason reports this is called a pocket veto or pocket rescission.

2:48 Spreker 5 According to the White House, the canceled funds include over $550 million from programs that provided services to refugees and other non-citizens. Later this week, the cuts to Medicaid and food stamp snap benefits that were in Trump's one big beautiful bill are going to kick in. And this pocket rescission has been called illegal by the General Accounting Office.

3:09 Spreker 1 So together, all of these cuts add up to more economic pressure on voters.

3:15 Spreker 3 NPR's Mara Liason reporting. Iran's embassy in London is denying any involvement in a suspected plot that was foiled near an air base in western England. It's one of the bases where U.S. military bombers take off for attacks on Iran.

3:32 Spreker 5 NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.

3:34 Spreker 2 The Iranian embassy in London says it categorically rejects what it calls malicious speculations that it was involved in a suspected terror plot near Royal Air Force Base Fairford. In the middle of the night early Sunday, a farmer alerted police to three suspicious vehicles near that British airbase. Police intercepted them and arrested five men whom they say are British nationals all in their mid-20s living in London. They've been detained on suspicion of both explosives and terrorism offenses. British counterterrorism officials say they are aware that, quote, geopolitical questions are being raised, but that the idea that the base may have been targeted because of its role in U.S. attacks on Iran is just one of many threads they are investigating. Lauren Fryer, NPR News, London.

4:21 Spreker 3 You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

4:25 Spreker 2 The White House has started airing a new ad featuring President Trump.

4:29 Spreker 3 In it, he asks people to join him in his fight to expel warmongers from government. The ad says it was paid for by the U.S. government. This is the second such ad released by the White House in recent days.

4:43 Spreker 2 Critics say these appear to violate federal law.

4:47 Spreker 5 Weather forecasters say that the nor'easter that pounded the East Coast over the weekend is now weakening. One person was killed in New York State by a falling tree this weekend.

4:57 Spreker 3 The powerful storm brought winds that were near hurricane strength.

5:01 Spreker 4 It is still pouring rain from New York to New England.

5:05 Spreker 3 The smoke billowing off a wildfire can travel hundreds or thousands of miles. A new field of study is trying to understand how that smoke may be disturbing wild places and creatures, such as birds.

5:17 Spreker 5 Here's NPR's Ari Daniel.

5:19 Spreker 3 Having repeatedly experienced wildfire smoke herself, Olivia Sanderfoot, who's based at Cornell University, has long wanted to know how birds handle it.

5:30 Spreker 4 It's not just about what they're inhaling, which is inevitably bad for them.

5:33 Spreker 5 It's also about how the cues that they use to navigate their world are upended when it gets smoky outside.

5:40 Spreker 3 Sanderfoot's teamed up with researchers in other disciplines to create a new field called smoke ecology. It relies in part on birders already on the ground collecting bird activity data when smoke happens to blow in. A top priority is to determine where birds go when it's smoky and what can be done to help them. Ari Daniel, NPR News.

6:02 Spreker 4 You're listening to NPR.

6:04 Spreker 5 Support for NPR comes from NPR stations. Other contributors include BritBox with a new season of Ludwig. John Ludwig Taylor solves murder cases like a game of chess in this BritBox original mystery.

6:18 Spreker 3 Ludwig Season 2, streaming October 13th at BritBox.com.

6:57 Spreker 1 millions plan for retirement online estimate your future benefits apply for retirement and manage your benefits all from the comfort of your home and give yourself the freedom to do what you want offline social security's online services help put you in control with secure access to your information anytime anywhere allowing you to spend more time with family friends or simply just enjoying the day social security securing today and tomorrow see what you can do online at

7:23 Spreker 6 socialsecurity.gov

7:57 NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep in Washington, D.C.

8:00 Spreker 2 And I'm Leila Fadil in New York City. Good morning. President Trump says he rejected an Iranian offer to suspend hostilities for seven days and immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

8:11 Spreker 6 The president said the Iranian offer, quote, would not be acceptable and that Iran is, in his words, losing so badly.

8:17 Spreker 2 Joining us to discuss this and more is NPR international correspondent in the Gulf, Aya Batraoui. Good morning, Aya. Good morning, Leila. OK, so today marks seven months since the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran and killed its supreme leader. Where do things stand right now? So Iran's latest offer, which you mentioned, is basically that the two sides agree to something similar to the memorandum of understanding that they had agreed to back in June. And that deal barely lasted a few weeks. So what Iran wants is the U.S. to lift its naval blockade on its oil exports and to unfreeze billions of its dollars in foreign banks in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. But Trump already says he rejects those terms. Now, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Arakci, he was on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. And I'd like you to listen to how he describes his country's position seven months into this war.

9:04 Spreker 4 We are fully prepared for the war to be resumed. And I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war. But at the same time, we are ready, we stand ready for diplomacy.

9:19 Spreker 5 It is up to President Trump to choose.

9:21 Spreker 2 So as you heard there, he talked about being ready for a doomsday war or for diplomacy. Now, Trump says Iran is desperate to make a deal because U.S. sanctions are strangling its economy. And he says that massive amounts of oil are already flowing through the Strait of Hormuz now. Is that true? Are massive amounts of oil coming through the Strait? So, Leila, flows coming out of the Strait are really not consistent. They do swing from one week to another. other, but the most recent data by Kepler shows a seven-day average last week of around 13 million barrels a day of oil coming out of the Strait. Now, that's compared to around 15 to 17 million barrels a day of crude exports before the war. But there's two things to keep in mind. One is that Iran can and still does attack ships transiting through that narrow waterway. So these ships are running dark with their transponders off to hide their location. And that leads to the second point, which is that it's very expensive for ships to export oil oil through the Strait of Hormuz because of those risks without a deal in place. Brent crude is trading at around $107 a barrel today. That's more than 50% higher than before the war. And we heard last week Qatar's energy minister saying that the Strait of Hormuz is indispensable, that pipelines are not a solution, and they're vulnerable to attacks. Saudi Arabia's key pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz was attacked this month. And it needs the Strait of Hormuz open because because its secondary route to export oil through the Red Sea remains blocked by Yemen's Houthis. That's right. Tell us about that war between the Houthis and the Saudis. Is Saudi Arabia getting support from allies?

10:48 So, Leila, the U.K. has stepped in with a refueling aircraft to support the Saudi Air Force in its bombing of the Houthis, who are supported by Iran. The U.K. says these wars in the Gulf are having an impact on prices at home. And as France looks to another winter and its needs for gas and oil, it is sending soldiers, radar, and defense systems to help the Saudis defend against Houthi attacks. Now, the Houthis say their attacks will continue until Saudi Arabia ends its attacks. And this past weekend, Saudi Arabia says the Houthis again fired at its capital, Riyadh. But, you know, seven months into this conflict, which remains unresolved, there is an absence of peace in the Gulf, and it's Washington's Gulf allies that are the ones paying the heavy price of this continued uncertainty and instability. That's NPR's Aya Batrawi in Dubai. Thank you. Thanks, Leila.

11:32 Spreker 6 Let's pick up on that point and go further on this with Dana Stroll, who's with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East during the Biden administration. Welcome to the program.

11:45 Spreker 5 Good morning, Steve.

11:45 Spreker 6 We just heard at the end of that report a reference to U.S. allies in the region. Do they suffer? And if so, how as this conflict goes on?

11:55 Spreker 5 Absolutely. Absolutely. So U.S. allies in the region, particularly Jordan and our Gulf countries who host U.S. military bases, have been attacked by Iran from the beginning of this war. So not only at those military bases, but then Iran expanded its retaliation by targeting civilian energy infrastructure, civilian hotels, desalination plants. And then, as Aya mentioned, we also had some of Iran's proxies, like the ones based in Iraq, targeting Saudi Arabia's oil

12:23 Spreker 6 infrastructure, that east-west pipeline. So U.S. allies, instead of being more secure because they

12:29 Spreker 5 have a U.S. base, are less secure? They are certainly suffering the consequences of Iran seeking to punish the region for the war that was started by Israel and the United States. However, there is alignment that Iran is really the problem in the region. It's nuclear program, it's missile and drone program. We've seen the consequences of such a vast arsenal, and its support for terrorists all across the region have made and continue to make the region less safe.

12:59 Spreker 6 Oh, there was reporting early in the war that Saudi Arabia was supportive of the United States even though Saudi Arabia was suffering. It sounds like you buy that line of reasoning by the Saudis.

13:09 Spreker 5 I think for the leadership of Saudi Arabia, what they need is stability in the Middle East in order to deliver economic growth and social reform for their country. And the best way to do that is de-escalation and the absence of war. But through all of these cycles of negotiations with Iran, what's very clear is that the Iranian regime is not prepared to make meaningful concessions that would make the region more stable. And because of that, Saudi Arabia and the other governments across the Middle East still need the military support that the U.S. security umbrella provides.

13:47 Spreker 6 Okay, you mentioned the possibility of Iranian concessions, of their reluctance to make concessions. We've been following these meetings. Is this a serious negotiation between Iran and the United States?

13:58 Spreker 5 This continues to be testing of the water. I don't see it as serious at all. What the Iranians proposed were terms that were even before the actual MOU that stopped the big part of the war in June. It's just recycled, offers nothing that's real flexibility or meaningful concessions. And frankly, we heard the same thing from the Trump administration. Both sides are willing to continue these talks, but neither side is willing to show flexibility at this point.

14:26 Spreker 6 We discussed this on the program. We heard Iranian President Peshkin last week win in New York, saying we have no trust in the United States and saying Iran is only negotiating to prevent the U.S. from claiming that they refuse to negotiate. And meanwhile, President Trump said he doesn't expect a deal now, maybe after the midterms.

14:44 Spreker 5 I think that's basically par for the course in a very typical Iranian playbook, which is continue to give the perception of being open to talking, but not being willing to show flexibility on the core areas of concern. CERN, its nuclear program, its missile program, its support for terrorism, and now its attempts to close the Strait of Hormuz. And what this means is that we're going to be stuck in this muddled middle, not peace, not war, which probably does set both sides up for escalation again at

15:15 Spreker 6 some point in the near future. Let me test something else that the president said. He said Iran is, quote, losing so badly. How would you assess who's winning or losing right now?

15:23 Spreker 5 Well, if the Iranians were losing so badly, you'd probably see them more desperate to get some sort of agreement. What President Trump is likely referring to is the current strategy of this naval blockade against Iran, which means nothing is getting in and out of its ports. And then this new economic pressure campaign, which clearly is putting enormous pressure on the Iranian economy and straining Iran's leaders. But it has not yet generated sufficient pressure for the leadership to truly be willing to enter a meaningful negotiation.

15:57 Spreker 6 Yeah, I was thinking about that because I'm thinking about the analogy with Russia. The United States, and in that case much of the world, tried to isolate Russia's economy. And there certainly was economic suffering. And a couple of years passed, and they never gave up the war. And the Russian economy has recovered to some extent. Could you envision the same thing happening with Iran?

16:16 Spreker 5 Iran? We're seeing, again, with the cancellation of flights coming from and going to Iran, they can't get things into the country through air or via sea. But this is a regime who it's victory if they survive. And what they've done is survive against the most capable professional military the world has ever seen, which is the United States. And so for them, just minimal minimal reconstitution of their programs and limping along economically is enough to say they

16:46 Spreker 6 stood up to the United States. And just briefly, are we, meaning the United States, also limping along here because, as Zeya pointed out, the United States is getting oil through the Strait, but not keeping down the price of oil. It's well over $100 a barrel. This is really serious. The

17:03 Spreker 5 U.S. military has done incredible work in facilitating up to 15 to 22 million barrels arrows of day out of the Strait of Hormuz. But that doesn't answer the question about refined capacity, diesel, the things that Americans need to keep our economy going and our cars going. It doesn't feel like winning here at the United States, and I think that's why we're seeing increasing criticism of this war here at home. Dana Stroll of the Washington Institute for Near

17:29 Spreker 6 East Policy, thanks for your insights. Thanks for having me. In South Africa, police are

17:34 Spreker 2 are investigating who was behind two separate mass shootings that killed at least 27 people. NPR's Kate Bartlett reports mass shootings are an increasingly common occurrence, usually related to gangs.

17:47 Spreker 5 It's been a bloody weekend in South Africa. South African police spokeswoman Brigadier Brenda Muradili said 17 people were killed in the one shooting, which took place at a bar in a township near Johannesburg.

18:00 Spreker 3 The suspects, who were reportedly armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols, fled the scene in two vehicles.

18:06 Spreker 5 A separate shooting at a shishunyama, a local restaurant selling barbecued meat, near Cape Town, killed 10.

18:14 Spreker 2 The two shootings come just days after an attack on a house party in the coastal city of Durban killed 12 people, including a pregnant woman.

18:22 Spreker 5 South Africa has some of the highest violent crime rates in the world, recording about 60 murders a day.

18:29 Spreker 2 Often, mass shooting incidents like these are linked to gangs and organized crime, sometimes surrounding activities involving illegal gold miners known as zamazamas.

18:38 Spreker 4 President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the shootings.

18:41 Spreker 5 We cannot be a country where people just pick up guns and start shooting at people at random.

18:49 Spreker 2 Earlier this year, he deployed the army in some of the worst affected areas.

18:53 Spreker 4 Separately, there has been a spate of femicides in Johannesburg.

18:57 Spreker 6 On Saturday, a 10th woman's body was discovered, despite police promises to crack down on gender-based violence.

20:56 On the next Fresh Air, actor Kyle MacLachlan.

20:59 Spreker 3 He launched his career with a starring role in David Lynch's Dune and a multi-picture deal. Dune flopped, the deal was cancelled, but MacLachlan became a star with his leading roles in Lynch's Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, and they became lifelong friends.

21:14 Spreker 4 He has a new memoir.

21:25 Spreker 2 Support for NPR comes from this station and from Progressive with small business insurance for protecting a variety of business types with multiple coverage options designed to fit business owners' needs. More about small business insurance is at ProgressiveCommercial.com.

21:41 Spreker 5 From Odoo, an all-in-one business management platform with the goal of bringing every part of business together.

21:47 Spreker 2 Learn more about Odoo at odoo.com slash NPR. From Amazon Business, committed to helping customers unlock smart business buying, using AI for automating repetitive tasks to facilitate decision making. Learn more at AmazonBusiness.com.

22:05 Spreker 5 And from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation at MacFound.org.

22:16 Spreker 6 It's Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

22:19 Spreker 2 I'm Leila Faldin.

22:19 Spreker 3 And I'm A. Martinez. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is the author of a new book titled Go and Do Likewise, How We Heal a Broken Country.

22:28 Spreker 1 Go and Do Likewise are the last words of the parable of the Good Samaritan. What it means is it's not just a story, it's an instruction, and it's an instruction to be good to one another.

22:39 Spreker 3 The Democratic politician stands out in an otherwise majority Republican voting state.

22:44 Spreker 1 Governor Beshear leads in these pages and in his policies with his Christian beliefs.

22:49 Spreker 6 And I started our conversation by asking why religion remains an important way for him to connect with Americans, some who might not share in his faith.

22:58 Spreker 1 Well, I think it shows respect, respect to people who vote for me or never vote for me, that I explain not just my what, the decision I'm making on something, but the why, why I might believe something different than they do. do. I remember in 2023, I'm running for re-election, and my Republican supermajority passes the most anti-LGBTQ plus piece of legislation in our history. And they said out loud that this would be what would defeat me if I vetoed it. Well, I still vetoed it because it was the right thing to do. But I explained myself to the people of Kentucky. I said my faith teaches me that all children are children of God, and I didn't want people picking on those kids. And I'll never forget the next day having somebody come up to me saying, Governor, I'm not sure if I agree with what you did yesterday, but I know you're doing what you think is right. Explaining your why, as long as you're doing it authentically, can create grace and space to where we can disagree, but know we're coming from good places. Do you think we don't do enough of that explaining the why in what we do? Absolutely not. You know, we try to put people in buckets and people are so much more complicated than that. The American people are good people. We just need to be reminded of that sometime. What do you say to people who are cynical when they hear a politician, a leader talk about their faith as openly as you do? I'd say first, I get it. You

24:23 know, faith without action, you know, that is something the Bible tells you in right. You hear hear President Trump and J.D. Vance invoke faith, but then do things like cut SNAP benefits and leverage starving Americans during government shutdowns. I would say, you know, listen to what people are saying, but also judge them by their actions. You can talk the talk, but are you willing

24:47 Spreker 3 to walk the walk? Governor, one of the things I've heard that you are very proud of is being a Democratic governor in a Republican voting state with high approval rates. So I'm wondering what

24:57 Spreker 1 What have been some of the lessons that you have learned in working across party lines

25:01 Spreker 3 in times of crisis, say a pandemic or tornadoes that have recently hit your state?

25:06 Spreker 1 Those difficult moments, the tornadoes, the floods, the mass shootings, the plane crashes are the moments that strip away all the division that are pushed down on the people of America. And they can just be themselves. We just need to be reminded of who we are outside of those moments. and i believe that we can be so much better but how have you been able to manage this because one

25:31 Spreker 6 of the things i've always seen in that say someone thinks that something is a good idea but once they

25:37 Spreker 1 find out where that idea comes from if it's not my party's idea then it's not a good idea anymore how do you get over that well first it's a challenge and it's a challenge that sometimes i've been able to get over and admittedly sometimes i haven't right now i'm pushing to get pre-K for every four-year-old in the Commonwealth. This was something that my GOP supermajority was for under the last Republican governor. I think they're so worried about a win for me. They're willing to hand a loss to these kids. But the way I go about my job is it can't be about me. Somebody can disagree with me today. They can call me names. They can attack me politically. But if there's a chance to work together tomorrow to benefit our people, my job is about our people. And you can never let ego get in the way. Now, you're the chair of the Democratic Governors Association. It's been a complicated time for Democratic governors under

26:28 Spreker 3 the Trump administration who have at times been singled out. What would you say are the priorities

26:33 Spreker 1 of the association today? The priorities of our Democratic governors and our candidates is to make sure the American dream is still alive. Trump's unlawful tariffs are taxed on the American people. His war of choice in Iran has added $800 plus in gas costs for our families. We are a party that is going to stop those actions and make life more affordable. We believe in restoring that dream where you can hope, you can work, you can create a better life, and you can leave your kids better off. The last state governor to be U.S. president was Republican

27:08 Spreker 3 George W. Bush. And he took that handoff from the last Democratic governor to be president,

27:14 Spreker 1 Bill Clinton. And actually, in the late 70s into the, I'd say almost 2000s, it seemed like governors were handing it off to other governors. Does America need a governor as commander in chief again? I think the next president needs to be one of our Democratic governors. So I believe our next candidate needs to be somebody who has the receipts, who has built housing, who's created better jobs, who's created jobs with better wages, who's expanded health care, even in this difficult time. That's what people are going to be able to see, touch, and feel, and believe that life can

27:46 Spreker 3 get better. What makes a governor uniquely qualified to be U.S. president? Well, I think

27:51 Spreker 1 you don't get to be as ideological as Congress. You don't vote on the rule to the amendment. You instead have to get out there and create results. I remember early on, somebody asked me something in my role as governor, and I said, oh, that's federal. But they looked at me and said, but you're the governor. Your job is to deliver for your people every day. I understand, Governor, you're still weighing a potential presidential run. So I'm wondering,

28:17 Spreker 3 what do you think you'd learn from the midterm elections that would otherwise help you make

28:22 Spreker 1 this call? Well, as head of the Democratic Governors Association, I know that the map in 26 for governors creates the map in 28 for the presidential. And so as we look at the elections in 26, it's critical that we flip the House and the Senate to have a real check on this president and a balance that our founding fathers thought we would always have regardless of party. But we also need to win a bunch of governor's races to make sure that we're set in 28 to change this country for the better. And that would help you decide what you might think about doing in 28? I think it'd help any candidate decide. You know, a better map is good for any Democrat, crap, but it's also good for America. That's Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. He is the author of Go and Do Likewise, How We Heal a Broken Country. Governor, thank you. Thank you very much.

29:23 Spreker 3 This is NPR News.

29:26 Spreker 5 American farms rely heavily on immigrant labor, yet they have mostly been spared from President Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown. But as ICE raids continue, farmers are anxious as they struggle to find enough workers. For all those individuals that say that Latinos are taking their jobs, go to a farm and I'm sure that you will be hired immediately.

29:45 Spreker 3 We'll take you to Idaho, one of the nation's top producing dairy states, to hear how farmers are dealing. Listen on All Things Considered from NPR News.

30:26 Spreker 2 Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Trump administration is now seven months into its war with Iran. NPR's Aya Batraoui reports on where things stand in the battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran basically wants the U.S. to lift its naval blockade on its oil exports and to unfreeze billions of foreign dollars that it has in foreign banks in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. But we know that Trump said he rejects those terms. Now, Trump says Iran is desperate to make a deal because U.S. sanctions are strangling its economy, and he says that massive amounts of oil are already flowing through the Strait of Hormuz now. Oil flows from the Strait are not consistent. The most recent data by Kepler shows a seven-day average last week of around 13 million barrels a day compared to 15 to 17 million barrels before the war. Britain is investigating a suspected terrorism plot against an Air Force base used by the U.S. military. Authorities say five men were arrested. arrested national security expert julia kayyem tells npr's morning edition authorities have yet

31:25 Spreker 1 to disclose the charges or whether they have anything to do with the u.s war with iran is this

31:29 Spreker 5 a sort of iranian sponsored attack on an an air force base a british air force base that is essentially holding united states air force assets including you know the b-52 the b-1 the large the large weaponry that is uh that is being used in the war in iran iran's embassy in london

31:50 Spreker 3 denies any involvement. This is NPR News. Pope Leo XIV appears to have turned his attention to

31:59 Spreker 1 Ukraine's defense against Russia's full-scale invasion without specifically mentioning the

32:04 Spreker 2 conflict. In his latest remarks during his multi-day visit to France, the American-born pontiff called for compromise in the interest of peace. He also repeated his opposition to increasing European military spending, advising leaders to, quote, guard against the illusion that but rearmament is the answer, end quote. The 2019 superhero epic Avengers Endgame was back on top of box office charts over the weekend, and Pierce Bob Mondello calls this encore edition

32:34 Spreker 1 a lucrative marketing gimmick.

32:35 Spreker 3 Marvel will be opening Avengers Doomsday in three months,

32:39 Spreker 4 and what better way to promote it than to bring back Endgame. Avengers!

32:44 Spreker 1 Assemble.

32:45 Spreker 2 With four minutes of unseen footage

32:47 Spreker 4 to stoke excitement for the new installment,

32:49 Spreker 3 fans showed up hoping to catch a glimpse of robert downey jr

32:53 Spreker 1 returning not as iron man but as a super villain

33:02 Spreker 3 this weekend's 86 million dollars in ticket sales puts endgame the second biggest earner in hollywood history within striking distance of avatar currently the biggest

33:11 Spreker 4 and it edged the total box office hall for the 38 film marvel cinematic universe

33:17 Spreker 3 above $35 billion.

33:20 Spreker 2 Bob Mondello, NPR News.

33:22 Spreker 5 This is NPR.

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34:37 Spreker 5 Learn more at hpe.com slash networking.

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35:01 It's Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Leila Fadl in New York City.

35:05 Spreker 6 And I'm Steve Inskeep in Washington, D.C. If you're like me, you were following messages from people up and down the East Coast over the weekend. Some people had power, some people did not, because of a slow-moving storm called a nor'easter. The name comes from winds that blow out of the Northeast. David Wright of Rhode Island's Ocean State Media has been covering the storm from Long Island. David, good morning. Good morning, Steve. How'd things go in Greenport, New York? It was pretty intense. I had to take a ferry across Long Island Sound to get here Friday afternoon.

35:38 Spreker 4 It turned out to be the last one.

35:40 Spreker 6 The storm just started to gather out on the open water.

35:44 Spreker 4 It was rough going, rough enough to set off all the car alarms.

35:48 Spreker 6 Wow. Yeah, the view out the window kind of lurched all the way across. one minute you're seeing white cap waves the next minute you're seeing the horizon all the way across and they ended up canceling all the ferries after that late friday and all day saturday mine was the last one and here in greenport the water at high tides spilled up over the docks it flooded the streets closest to the harbor but down in the south fork i think out by the hamptons is where you

36:16 Spreker 4 you saw a bigger impact. In Montauk, some of the waves were 18 feet high.

36:22 Spreker 2 Yeah. Now the winds have died down, still pouring with rain, but here, as in most places along the coast, I think, the storm's bark was worse than its bite.

36:32 Spreker 6 Okay, that's good, but are there other areas up and down the coast that were more deeply affected?

36:37 Spreker 2 For sure. Some coastal towns in New Jersey had water that was waist-deep. New York City, they clocked winds as high as 70 miles an hour and one Brooklyn man turned out to be a city worker walking near a playground was struck and killed by a falling tree in Boston the storm led to the

36:56 Spreker 6 cancellation of 20 percent of the flights out of Logan and the Red Sox had to move their season

37:01 Spreker 2 finale down to Florida they were playing against the Cubs supposed to be out of Fenway instead they

37:06 Spreker 6 played at the Rays Stadium in Tampa St. Pete's and out on Nantucket this may be the most interesting thing. The storm deposited a huge chunk of an old shipwreck onto the beach on the south shore.

37:17 Spreker 2 It's believed to be part of a schooner that sank in 1884 on its way from New Orleans to Boston.

37:25 Spreker 6 Amazing. Now, inland, people were losing power, including some relatives of mine. Where does that stand now? A lot of people lost power out in New Jersey. At the storm's peak,

37:34 Spreker 4 more than 180,000 customers. Those numbers tended to drop as the storm moved up the coast and

37:41 Spreker 6 inland. Still plenty of power outages. Work crews still busy trying to restore them. But to put it

37:47 Spreker 2 in context, in New Jersey, as of this morning, 3,000 outages, just a few fewer than that, actually,

37:53 Spreker 4 and fewer than Hawaii, where they're dealing with Hurricane Nolo. A lot of those outages caused by

37:59 Spreker 2 by falling trees. This was definitely a kind of weekend where you double-check your insurance policy and take seriously the phrase, don't park under a tree.

38:09 Spreker 6 Wow. David, I'm still thinking about your trip across in the ferry and just being able to see the whitecaps in the horizon. So I'm going to make a reading recommendation here.

38:19 Spreker 4 Not the perfect storm, I hope.

38:20 Spreker 6 No, not the perfect storm. It's a shorter one. Stephen Crane, The Open Boat, a short story about about four guys who are trapped on a boat on the water and they can't see anything beyond the next wave. Awesome, I'll check it out. Okay, David Wright with Rhode Island's Ocean State Media, currently in Greenport, New York. Thanks. Thanks, dude. There's been a quiet surge in the years

38:40 Spreker 2 after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 of a different kind of emergency response, sending unarmed mental health clinicians to answer 911 calls instead of police. These programs are now in nearly 100 cities across the U.S. NPR criminal justice correspondent Meg Anderson visited one of those programs in Durham, North Carolina that is doing this right and she joins us now to talk about that. Good morning, Meg. Good morning. So tell us about this program that you visited. How does it work? Yeah.

39:10 Spreker 5 So it's called Durham Heart and researchers who study these programs often point to this

39:15 Spreker 2 one as a success. It's a community response team and they usually go out in pairs. there's a mental health clinician and then another worker who has like lived experience

39:24 Spreker 5 something you know they've struggled with drug use or something like that and I saw some interesting

39:29 Spreker 2 calls there was one 9-1-1 call about a man trespassing on private property when we got

39:35 Spreker 5 there he was pretty agitated he was yelling he had garbage bags full of stuff and actually an

39:40 Spreker 2 entire sofa with him and he didn't want to leave but the heart workers stayed with him they calmed

39:46 Spreker 5 them down. They got him to take some supplies, a fresh pair of socks and bottled water, and they did get him to move his belongings off of that private property. Okay, that seems like a success.

39:57 Spreker 2 How are officials measuring success? Yeah, so I spoke with Anise Vance about that. He's an

40:03 Spreker 5 assistant director in the Durham Community Safety Department. That's the department that runs the

40:09 Spreker 2 HART program, and he put it pretty simply. Somebody receives us on a 911 call and is

40:14 Spreker 3 able to be deescalated and is able to view that in a way that is, oh, thank you for helping me get through this moment, as opposed to that call potentially ending up in handcuffs, that is a huge

40:26 Spreker 2 win. And, you know, theoretically, Hart showing up instead of police, like, also frees up police, right, to go do other things, to go solve violent crime. And a study this year also found that the

40:37 Spreker 5 Durham program leads to fewer arrests, that most officers find it helpful, and that police are

40:44 Spreker 2 are rarely called for backup. Okay, so those are the upsides. Are there limitations?

40:49 Spreker 5 Yeah. So there are two big ones that are facing a lot of these programs across the U.S. Remember, there are like almost 100 of these. One of them is funding. They just can't operate at scale in the city. The other is what types of calls they're answering. So Amos Irwin is with the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. That's a criminal justice reform nonprofit. And he says says some teams are only authorized to respond to clear-cut mental health crises, things like suicidal ideation. But Irwin says, you know, it's not always that obvious.

41:24 Spreker 3 There are all kinds of calls that responders can handle that do not have mental health on the surface. They call and say, there's somebody panhandling really aggressively here. There is somebody loitering around my store refusing to leave.

41:40 Spreker 5 And Erwin says that all of the leading programs are handling calls like that, including Durham. But I should note, that kind of opens the door for some tension.

41:50 Spreker 2 What kind of tension?

41:51 Spreker 5 Well, some of those calls, right, about panhandling or trespassing, they often have really complex root causes, things like homelessness or drug addiction. It's hard to fully address those things with a 911 response, right? You need more. But addressing those things was not the original point of these programs, right?

42:11 Spreker 2 The original goal was to reduce the number of police interactions in communities.

42:15 Spreker 5 And so Durham and plenty of other cities across the country are actively trying to figure out how to balance that immediate response with those deeper long-term challenges.

42:27 Spreker 2 That's NPR's Maggie Anderson. Thank you, Maggie. You're welcome.

44:26 Spreker 3 Shana Casca, single parent, 45 years old, just bought her first home thanks to a $50,000 down payment from her mom and dad. Next time, here and now.

44:41 Spreker 5 Life is hard enough, so for an easy way to support public media and get perks from NPR

44:47 Spreker 2 podcasts, check out NPR+. Join us at plus.npr.org.

44:57 Spreker 6 Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep. Why should you care about the hair of a bear? As a question, that's fair. The answer is about how bear hairs compare. A researcher in England is studying fur from a 120-year-old taxidermied bear named Boris. us he's looking at how hair differs along a bear's body which could make it easier to identify animals during poaching investigations when he has results to share what he's learned he'll declare

45:22 Spreker 2 from this bear hair affair it's morning edition support for npr comes from this station and from the william and flora hewlett foundation investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people communities and the planet flourish more information is available at hewlett.org From the Lodestar Foundation, inspired by the principle that helping those in need is a path to a happier, healthier, and more meaningful life. Learn more at lodestarfoundation.org. And from the sustaining members of this NPR station.

45:58 Spreker 4 This is the Engines of Our Ingenuity, from Houston Public Media, News 88.7. Today, meet Roland Garros. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run and the people whose ingenuity created them.

46:26 World War I produced so many heroic pilots, names like von Richthofen, Rickenbacker, Bishop, but here's one you're less likely to know, a French pilot, Roland Garros. He died at age 29, just a month before the armistice, and having shot down only four airplanes, we cannot even call him an ace. But that's just the tip of an iceberg. Let's see what lies beneath. Garros was the rare pilot who entered that early air war as an experienced airman. He'd first flown in a Santos-Dumont airplane just six years after the Wright brothers. Two years later, he was first to reach an altitude of almost 13,000 feet. Things moved that fast. Two years later, he was first to fly the Mediterranean Sea from France to Tunisia. Then his France was plunged into World War I. He joined the army and immediately turned his attention to seeing how an airplane might shoot straight ahead. The pilots of the best early airplanes sat behind a whirling propeller, so machine guns commonly rode on the upper wing of a biplane. There, they could only aim the airplane itself. A leading French airplane was then a Moraine-Saulniere fighter, a monoplane. It was another version of the plane he'd used to fly the Mediterranean. Aerial dogfighting would soon turn in favor of the nimbler biplane.

47:55 But for now, a workable gun had to shoot through the propeller. The French tried to create means for stopping the machine gun each time a propeller blade moved past it. They failed. So, Garros installed metal deflectors on his propeller to keep bullet hits from damaging it. It worked with a shortcoming. Hammering the propeller's deflectors eventually bent an engine's crankshaft. Still, Garros took to the air and shot down the first enemy-to-fall victim to a bullet that had gotten by a whirling propeller. After two more aerial victories, he was brought down and taken prisoner. Worse yet, the Germans saw how he'd been shooting straight forward. Their airplane airplanebuilder Anthony Fokker immediately went back to work and developed means for pausing the gun as a propeller blade passed by it. And Garros? Well, he managed to escape after three years. He got to the Netherlands, then London, then back to his escadrille in France. By this time, the French were flying one of the most effective fighter designs of the war, the Spad VIII. Garros shot down another German. Then, three days later, a leading German airman brought him down, and so he died, having spent nearly a third of his life in the sky. He had been the rare, maybe the only, World War I pilot who'd actually pioneered the airplane from its early days.

49:24 I'm John Lienhardt at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

49:36 A transcript of this Engines of Our Ingenuity episode, number 3411, is online at uh.edu slash engines. Additional episodes are available by podcast.

49:48 Spreker 3 Valdez Museum and Historic Archive now offers a free basic membership to residents, Valdez Native tribe members, and Prince William Sound College students. They also offer new benefits for business partners, including advertising, marketing partnerships, VIP event tickets, guided group tours, event rentals, use of the pins-on bar, advance notice for raffles, and event sales. To learn more, visit ValdesMuseum.org or call 907-835-2764. This is Inside Passages, an exploration of the world.

50:31 James Wickersham was a trailblazing judge, politician, explorer, and advocate whose work laid the foundation for Alaska's development in the rough-and-tumble Wild West. Appointed as a federal district judge in Alaska in 1900, Wickersham brought law and order to the chaotic gold rush towns of the interior. He earned a reputation for fairness and fearlessness, often traveling days by riverboat, horseback, or dogsled led to remote settlements to uphold a system of civilized justice. Wickersham was known to stand up to powerful business interests such as the Guggenheim Mining Syndicate, defending public access to land and resources and the right to commerce and transportation. Wickersham also made history in 1903 by leading the first documented yet unsuccessful attempt to summit Denali. The infamous route is called the Wickersham Wall still today. He later helped author the legislation that formed Denali National Park. In 1909, Wickersham was elected as Alaska's delegate to the U.S. Congress. Though he lacked voting power, he became Alaska's most influential voice in Washington. His most enduring political achievement came in 1912 when, after years of tireless advocacy, Congress passed the Second Organic Act. This gave Alaskans their first locally elected legislature, and with it, self-determination.

51:59 Spreker 4 I shall hope to convince those who kindly hear me that the conditions in Alaska are far superior to those that ever existed in any American territory at the time of its formation and the creation of its first legislature.

52:11 Spreker 3 A passionate believer in education and opportunity, Wickersham introduced legislation founding the University of Alaska in Fairbanks as a land-grant college. He understood that education was key to building a self-sustaining, informed citizenry in the vast and remote territory. Beyond politics and law, he was a dedicated historian and writer. He said of the time before he and his contemporaries brought justice to the lawless district of of Alaska.

52:48 Wickersham's legacy is etched into Alaska's legal, educational and political foundations. His vision and persistence helped transform Alaska from a remote frontier into a self-governing society, earning him a lasting place among the most important figures in the era that that established Alaska as part of the American saga. For KCHU, I'm James Devins.

53:21 Spreker 4 Climate Overshoot. I'm Randy Simon and this is EarthWise, a look at our changing environment.

53:28 Under the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, more than 190 countries pledged to keep the global temperature less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the average during the pre-industrial period of 1850 to 1900. This period was before humans altered the atmosphere and the climate by emitting billions of tons of fossil fuel emissions and other pollutants. The level was chosen because climate models indicated that warming further would greatly intensify extreme weather events, ecosystem losses, and even potential submersion of small island countries. Current projections are that global temperatures will exceed the 1.5 degree increase on an ongoing basis within a few years. Of even greater concern is that once the global temperature is more than about 1.7 or 1.8 degrees higher, it may be nearly impossible to return below the 1.5 degree threshold level. This overshoot zone entails new dangers. Such high temperatures could push melting ice sheets and key heat-carrying ocean currents past tipping points that would be difficult or even impossible to reverse on any human time scale. The original Paris Agreement sought to begin to cut greenhouse greenhouse gas emissions immediately, halve them by 2035, and also find ways to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In order to avoid catastrophic climate effects, scientists warn that any overshoot in global

54:56 temperatures should be as small and short-lived as possible.

54:59 Spreker 6 It is essential to limit how high temperatures rise and how long they remain above 1.5 degrees

55:05 Spreker 3 Celsius.

55:08 Spreker 2 earthwise is a production of wamc find us on social media at wamc radio and listen anytime

55:15 Spreker 3 anywhere wherever you get your podcasts public radio is the intersection of insight and integrity it delivers trusted news and soul-soothing music blending information with artistry with its ad free model it prioritizes content over commercial interests public radio informs and entertains offering refuge from the noise of modern media. It's a haven for the curious, a space where minds expand, and where the power of sound connects communities. If public radio is important to you, consider becoming a member at kchu.org. You're listening to Nat Wills with If a Table at Rector's Could Talk from the 1913 Ziegfeld Follies, and you're on the sound beat.

56:14 Spreker 1 For laughter is the only thing that's free at Rector's.

56:17 Spreker 3 Charles Rector opened his restaurant in Manhattan in 1899. It became popular with the Broadway crowd, but its most well-known patron, especially with those working for tips, was Diamond Jim Brady. Diamond Jim made his money in railroads, but cemented his legacy at the dinner table, as well as lunch, breakfast, and snack tables. Catering to Brady's stomach was apparently worthy of investment. Upon hearing of Brady's fondness for the buttery, poached sole marguet, Rector allegedly pulled his son from his third and final year of Cornell Law School to go to Paris and master the technique.

56:57 Spreker 1 And a lot of men would pony up a lot of alimony

57:01 Spreker 6 if a table at Rector's could talk.

57:06 Spreker 3 How does your biggest meal ever stack up against Brady's? Find out now at soundbeat.org.

57:14 Soundbeat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.