From school board officials and city council members, to decisions over roads and disaster relief budgets, local elections make a direct impact on your day-to-day life.But state and local elections get less attention, less media coverage, and lower voter turnout. In November’s municipal elections in Dallas, Texas, some 14 council seats were up for the vote but turnout was just 8 percent. And average voter turnout for mayoral elections in the U.S. is 20 percent or less.What can voters do to stay more informed on a local level?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Progressive Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed won his Michigan primary this week, sending a strong message to the Democratic party establishment that backed his opponent.Dr. Anthony Fauci was found in contempt of Congress on Thursday. The vote by the Senate Homeland Security Committee came after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right over 100 times during a recent hearing.And reports indicate the U.S. missile stockpile is running low. President Trump and the Pentagon have denied the story.And, in global news, illegal settler activity is expanding across the occupied West Bank. And this week Israeli prosecutors charged a Jewish settler over the killing of a Palestinian community leader – the ⁠first such indictment in nearly three years.Following a rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister is facing criticism from other European Union leaders over his country’s immigration policy.And Russia is overhauling its military strategy, taking advantage of Ukraine’s current lack of missile interceptors.We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we work, live, and engage with the world. Whether that’s using ChatGPT to do our taxes or spending hours sifting through AI generated images on social media. It’s also reshaping our education system. Roughly half of U.S. students said they used AI in some way for school, according to a 2025 survey from the Rand Corporation. But some students aren’t on board.So, how are students and teachers around the country using this new tool? And what does this mean for the future of school, and how we define what it’s actually for?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Affording groceries is becoming a struggle for many Americans.Food prices are up 33 percent since 2019. That’s according to federal data analyzed by the Associated Press. It’s led some people to change their diets or where they shop. Others are taking more drastic measures by dipping into their savings or going into credit card debt.A 2025 survey from the Urban Institute found that one in four people using credit cards to buy food had trouble paying those bills.What’s behind the jump in grocery prices? How is it affecting Americans’ financial stability? And how is all of this affecting our economy as a whole?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Data centers.They’ve been all over the news. Last month, protesters showed up in 125 cities across the country on a single Saturday to demonstrate against these structures, either proposed or completed.But are the politicians listening? We sit down for the second part of our data center deep dive. This time, we talk politics. Why have data centers become a political flashpoint so quickly? And who is calling the shots at the local, state, and federal level?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Should judges be elected?That’s the question Kansas voters are answering on the ballot this month. A constitutional amendment aims to change how judges are chosen in the state – abandoning the 68-year-old system of appointing judges.Proponents of the change say elections put the choice back in voters’ hands. And their arguments aren’t new: Republicans in Kansas have long argued for judicial elections.Critics of the amendment say elections politicize the process of picking judges. More than $10 million has been spent in total campaigning in Kansas – and those against the amendment are outspending those for it by huge margins.As part of our weekly series “If You Can Keep It,” we take closer look at how judges are picked in this country and what it means for the rulings they issue.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week for his first visit to the White House since the war in Iran began.Former CDC head Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights as he sat in before Congress during a hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul concerning the doctor’s COVID diaries.And Temporary Protected Status lapsed for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the U.S. this week.We cover the most important stories from around the nation in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.And, in global news, reports suggest that Russia is assisting Iran target U.S. troops as the war between the United States and Iran rages. There are few if any signs of diplomacy from either Washington or Tehran.Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington to meet with President Donald Trump.And in what could be a new normal, wildfires are raging across Spain and France.We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

If you’ve been on the internet lately, you’ve probably been fooled by AI at least once. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. One poll by the data security company, All About Cookies, found that 77 percent of Americans have been duped by artificial intelligence at some point.Sometimes it can seem harmless – like that viral TikTok video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline, which raked in over 25 million likes. But AI has also been used maliciously, creating misinformation in the realm of politics, health, and breaking news events.The use of AI has also duped people within the creative fields – from music to visual art. And it’s being used within education as teachers raising concerns over widespread cheating.How can detection tools keep up with all the fast-changing technology and its varied uses?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard died today in a motorcycle crash in Ireland at the age of 56. We sat down with him in April to talk about his storied career and his final album, "Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West." Here's what we wrote about that conversation at the time.–The song “Falling Slowly” first debuted in the 2007 indie romance film “Once” starring Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and Czech-Islandic singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová. It tells the story of a dramatized version of their own musical partnership.That song won an Oscar for best original song and the musical duo became a hit in the U.S. when they recorded and toured as The Swell Season.But long before any success stateside, Hansard was a fixture of the Irish music scene, first busking on Dublin streets at age 13. And in 1990 he formed the Irish rock group The Frames.Today, Hansard is reflecting on his decades of music-making and looking ahead. His new two-part album is called “Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West.” He sits down with us to talk about the first part.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Navigating a challenging moment in a friendship. Weighing a new job or changing your career. Seeing news about instability in our politics. A confusing diagnosis at the doctor’s office. Tending to a loved one in the hospital or in hospice.Uncertainty strikes us in every part of our lives, big and small. And about three quarters of the world’s more than 8 billion people turn to faith.In this edition of our series, “Pending,” we look at faith. When can it help with uncertainty? And how can we use it, whatever that means for us, in the face of problems we think we can’t solve?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy