NPR - Breaking News, Analysis, Music, Arts & Podcasts Top stories in the U.S. and world news, politics, health, science, business, music, arts and culture. Nonprofit journalism with a mission. This is NPR.

Latest Stories

Watch

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks to journalists during the eighth EU-South Africa summit in Cape Town, South Africa in March. Nardus Engelbrecht/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Nardus Engelbrecht/AP

South Africa's president heads to the White House. Can he charm Trump?

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa heads to the White House today for conciliatory talks with one of his country's most persistent critics: President Trump.

South Africa’s president heads to the White House: Can he charm Trump?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5404667/nx-s1-5465759-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

WATCH

ARTEMIS: Tiny Desk Concert

This jazz supergroup has super powers and they're on full display from beginning to end during this Tiny Desk.

An employee holds a full-size prototype LMR battery cell at the General Motors Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center. GM has prototyped approximately 300 full-size LMR cells as it worked with LG Energy Solution to crack the code on the chemistry. Handout from GM: Steve Fecht for General Motors/Handout from GM hide caption

toggle caption
Handout from GM: Steve Fecht for General Motors/Handout from GM

The great battery race: China and the U.S. compete over the future of EVs

The car you drive years in the future might run off a battery being invented in a lab today. Companies in China and the United States are racing to perfect and scale up next-generation technologies.

President Trump speaks alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office on May 20, 2025, announcing plans for the "Golden Dome," a national ballistic and cruise missile defense system. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump unveils ambitious and expensive plans for 'Golden Dome' missile defense

The plan includes a vast array of space-based sensors and interceptors.

Trump unveils ambitious and expensive plans for 'Golden Dome' missile defense

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5405038/nx-s1-5466672-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Churchgoers pray during service at the Evangelical church Sunday, May 11, 2025, in Tampa, Florida. The service focused on celebrating the mothers in attendance, as well as Maurilio Ambrocio's continued detention in an immigration facility. (Lexi Parra for NPR) Lexi Para for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Lexi Para for NPR

In Florida, an immigrant pastor's detention sends a community reeling

In one weekend in May, more than 1,000 immigrants were arrested in Florida. The massive crackdown has Trump supporters asking why their neighbors were detained and must be deported.

Florida community rallies around immigrant pastor swept up in crackdown

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5387457/nx-s1-5460928-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

A mobile medical station in New York City offers updated Covid-19 vaccines while raising awareness that the illness is still active. There is also rapid or PCR tests on site to test for Covid-19. Deb Cohn-Orbach/Universal Images Group Editorial/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Deb Cohn-Orbach/Universal Images Group Editorial/Getty Images

A stricter FDA policy for COVID vaccines could limit future access

Federal officials unveiled a rigorous regulatory approach to future COVID vaccines that could make it harder for many people under 65 to get immunized.

A stricter FDA policy for COVID vaccines could limit future access

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5405013/nx-s1-5466101-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

The damaged front of the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic stands following a bomb blast on May 17 in Palm Springs, California. A suspected bomber is believed to have post a manifesto to social media before the explosion. David McNew/Getty Images/Getty Images North America hide caption

toggle caption
David McNew/Getty Images/Getty Images North America

'Nihilism' is in the news. What's behind this 'nothing' philosophy?

The weekend bombing of a Palm Springs, Calif., fertility clinic has cast a fresh spotlight on a 19th century philosophy linked to Russian revolutionaries. What does "nihilism" mean?

President Trump met with House Republicans on Tuesday to push members to back a massive bill meant to advance much of his domestic policy agenda. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America hide caption

toggle caption
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America

Trump personally presses House Republicans to get behind massive tax bill

President Trump spoke to House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to persuade holdouts in his party to back a massive tax bill that includes cuts to Medicaid.

Trump personally presses House Republicans to get behind massive tax bill

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5400480/nx-s1-5461883-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Photographs from the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office show the escaped suspects, from top left: Dkenan Dennis, Gary C Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E Boyd. Bottom from left: Lenton Vanburen Jr, Jermaine Donald, Antonine T Massey, Derrick D. Groves, and Leo Tate Sr. AP/Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office hide caption

toggle caption
AP/Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office

A maintenance worker was arrested after a New Orleans jailbreak. Here's what to know

Six of the 10 men who escaped from a New Orleans jail through a hole behind a toilet on Friday are still missing. Authorities believe they had help from the inside and made an arrest on Tuesday.

Norway's chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen gestures during a game in the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in Kolkata on Nov. 17, 2024. Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via Getty Images

Team World manages a draw in marathon chess showdown against grandmaster Magnus Carlsen

Carlsen squared off against 143,000 players from around the world — but the chess grandmaster was unable to clinch a victory over Team World.

Team World manages a draw in marathon chess showdown against grandmaster Carlsen

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5405430/nx-s1-5466498-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

What are you looking for in a summer read? At a minimum, do you want the book to actually exist, and not be made up by AI? A syndicated summer reading list featuring fake books by real authors was published in major newspapers this week. Above, a reader enjoys the sunshine in Hyde Park in London in 2009. Oli Scarff/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Oli Scarff/Getty Images

How an AI-generated summer reading list got published in major newspapers

Newspapers around the country, including the Chicago Sun-Times and at least one edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer, published a syndicated book list featuring made-up books by famous authors.

President Trump hopes to encourage more U.S. manufacturing with his import taxes on foreign goods. But an online experiment suggests most people aren't willing to pay a premium for a "Made in the USA" product. Angela Weiss/AFP hide caption

toggle caption
Angela Weiss/AFP

What a Texas showerhead salesman discovered about 'Made in the USA' labels

A showerhead salesman wanted to know how much more customers would pay to buy a product made here. The answer could pour cold water on Trump's plan to encourage companies to open factories in the U.S.

A Texas salesman discovers the truth about 'Made in the U.S.A': no one's buying

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5403514/nx-s1-5461587-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

(Left to right): Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images; Lauren Leigh Bacho/NBAE via Getty Images; Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images; Brian Fluharty/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images; Lauren Leigh Bacho/NBAE via Getty Images; Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images; Brian Fluharty/Getty Images

The NBA playoffs will end a years-long title drought. The only question is: whose?

It's impossible to predict what will happen in the NBA's conference finals matchups. But one thing is for certain: One long-suffering fanbase is about to have something to celebrate.

The NBA playoffs will end a years-long title drought. The only question is: whose?

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5403623/nx-s1-5464781-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Cartoonist Scott Adams, pictured in 2014, said Monday he has metastatic prostate cancer and does not expect to survive the summer. Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams says he's dying of 'the same cancer that Joe Biden has'

Adams said he expects "to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer." The controversial cartoonist, a vocal supporter of President Trump, expressed compassion for former President Biden.

more from