Famine in Gaza; Epstein information : NPR

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As we speak’s prime tales

A U.N.-backed panel of consultants on hunger has declared that Gaza is within the grip of famine. The announcement comes after practically two years of battle and Israeli restrictions on support coming into the territory, and as Israel prepares to launch a brand new offensive on Gaza Metropolis. The Built-in Meals Safety Section Classification raised its classification of situations in Gaza to Section 5, the very best stage of its meals insecurity scale, which the IPC says is “characterised by hunger, destitution and dying.” The IPC report says half 1,000,000 persons are going through that stage of hunger and warns that one other 1.07 million folks — over half the inhabitants of Gaza — are going through extreme meals deprivation.

• 🎧 Given the dearth of out of doors entry to Gaza, it is possible that these numbers are an underestimate, in response to NPR’s Jackie Northam. Israel has denied that there’s a starvation disaster in Gaza, the place it has been preventing Hamas because the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. Northam says the IPC assist doesn’t assign blame for the famine, however says a ceasefire is required to finish the battle and flood the territory with support. The help group Mercy Corps has warned of famine in Gaza for months, and calls it a “man-made” famine that could be a “direct results of months of deliberate restrictions on support, the destruction of Gaza’s meals, well being, and water programs, and relentless bombardment.”

The Home Oversight Committee is predicted to obtain lots of of paperwork associated to the Justice Division’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation immediately. That is in response to a congressional subpoena issued earlier this month calling on the DOJ to offer information of its probe. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has stated a number of the information will likely be made public after victims’ names are redacted.

• 🎧 NPR’s Claudia Grisales says it is a “main step for Republicans,” who’ve fended off questions round Epstein for months. The celebration base has been pissed off with President Trump and Republicans for not releasing these information. The Home left for its August recess early to keep away from votes on the problem. Democrats say they’ll proceed to push for extra transparency when Congress returns, and Grisales says they’ve an unlikely ally in Home Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie has stated he’ll pressure a Home vote on the complete launch of the information on Epstein, the millionaire financier who died by suicide in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking expenses.
• ➡️ The Trump administration has shifted its tone and message in response to stress to launch these paperwork. This is a timeline of what the administration has stated.

The Division of Justice has employed a lawyer who represented rioters charged within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Lawyer Jonathan Gross is now working with the Trump administration’s “Weaponization Working Group,” which critiques the prison and civil circumstances introduced towards the president by federal and native prosecutors within the final 4 years. Gross took an unconventional path to representing Jan. 6 defendants. This is what to know concerning the lawyer.

Are tariffs elevating costs? Earnings calls from a number of the largest retailers within the U.S., together with Walmart, House Depot and Goal, reveal some solutions. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon says that whereas the corporate has been capable of mitigate the price of tariffs thus far, they’re rising “every week.” Whereas some costs are up, objects like college provides are cheaper this yr than final yr, in response to Walmart.

• 🎧 NPR’s Alina Selyukh says huge retailers are giving measured and nuanced takes. When Walmart issued a warning in Could that tariffs would elevate costs in weeks, Trump posted that the retailer ought to cease blaming tariffs and “EAT” them. Many retailers have achieved that, and McMillon says tariffs took so lengthy to roll out that consumers have not dramatically modified their behaviors but. Selyukh says one query hangs over the scenario now: How lengthy till firms resolve they can’t afford to eat the tariffs anymore?

Dwelling higher

It may be laborious navigating modifications as folks age.

SeizaVisuals/Getty Photographs/E+

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SeizaVisuals/Getty Photographs/E+

Dwelling Higher is a particular sequence about what it takes to remain wholesome in America.

Getting older can convey numerous modifications to folks’s our bodies, minds and relationships in methods they’re typically not ready for. As soon as folks begin to expertise a number of the realities of growing old, they may discover that youthful generations do not absolutely comprehend what they’re experiencing. This hole in understanding can result in frustration inside grownup child-older father or mother relationships. Grownup youngsters can discover it laborious to know what their dad and mom are going by as a result of they have not skilled it but. Mother and father might keenly really feel that lack of empathy. Nonetheless, there are a number of methods grownup youngsters will help growing old dad and mom modify to life’s developments.

• 👴 Listening is crucial factor an grownup baby can do for an older father or mother. Attempt asking them how one can greatest spend your time with them. If they’re combating well being modifications, ask them how they really feel about it.
• 👴 Many individuals have to change their diets as they age. Keep in mind, there’s a distinction between serving to them keep on observe and pressuring them with reminders.
• 👴 In case you are offering intimate care, attempt asking your dad and mom to inform tales about their lives. This will help alter the dynamic of help, which might really feel humiliating for them.

Weekend picks

Buscabulla

Quique Cabanillas/Courtesy of the artist

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Quique Cabanillas/Courtesy of the artist

Take a look at what NPR is watching, studying and listening to this weekend:

🍿 Films: Lurker follows a sociopathic striver who maneuvers his means into the internal circle of a rising pop star. NPR’s Aisha Harris says the strain within the parasocial relationship between the 2 essential characters, Matthew and Oliver, is deeply satisfying in its unease. And, listed below are a number of the movies in theaters this weekend, together with a field workplace file setter you in all probability have not heard of.

📺 TV: Amanda Knox made headlines in 2007 when her British roommate was discovered lifeless in Italy. She’s the manager producer of the brand new eight-part sequence dramatizing the story of her wrongful conviction, The Twisted Story of Amanda Knox.

📚 Books: Louis Sachar has spent practically half a century writing a few of my favourite youngsters’s books, together with Holes and the Wayside Faculty sequence. He hopes the adults who grew up on his books will really feel the identical connection to his newest launch, The Magician of Tiger Citadel. And, listed below are a few of this week’s publishing highlights.

🎵 Music: Puerto Rican duo Buscabulla joins NPR’s World Cafe to carry out a few of their new music and focus on the making of their newest album, Se Amaba Asi, which explores vulnerability and romantic hardships.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

Youngsters cool off in a mist fountain in central Paris amid a heatwave, on Aug. 13.

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Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP through Getty Photographs

1. As European summers develop hotter, a heated political debate is brewing in France over an unsuspecting equipment: the air conditioner.
2. Greater than 3.6 million youngsters had been born within the U.S. in 2020, through the COVID-19 pandemic. As these “COVID kindergarteners” enter college for the primary time, many dad and mom are anxious about how their time in isolation will affect their growth.
3. Far fewer Canadians are touring to the U.S. this yr. The dip comes as relations between the 2 nations are strained after Trump imposed steep tariffs on Canada and vowed to make it a U.S. state.

This text was edited by Yvonne Dennis.