NPR News Headlines

This week was full of mysteries. If you're a super sleuth who followed the news, you'll be well on your way to a perfect score.

For nearly 30 years, the nonprofit Songs of Love Foundation has created custom songs for kids with terminal illnesses. Now it has harnessed AI to expand its services to older adults with memory loss.

(Image credit: Songs of Love Foundation)

The White House sets a swath of new tariff rates for dozens of countries, President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visits an aid site in Gaza, Jewish leaders from the U.S. sign a letter urging Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.

The iconic American company, U.S. Steel was sold to Nippon Steel in Japan earlier this summer. The sale was years in the making and, on the campaign trail last year, President Trump opposed it. But now, he's approved the sale. And the deal also gives the president himself an outsized say in the future of U.S. Steel. Erika Beras from Planet Money explains what the president calls: a golden share.

After mass protests, Ukraine's government enacts a law restoring independence to anti-corruption watchdogs, quelling what threatened to turn into a domestic political crisis for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

(Image credit: Efrem Lukatsky)

Van Harris and his wife, Shirley, grew up a block away from each other in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. In this 2012 conversation they remember how they first met in the 1930s.

Her family's statement is the latest development involving Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges, and the Republican president.

(Image credit: Bebeto Matthews)

A South African university launched an anti-poaching campaign Thursday to inject the horns of rhinos with radioactive isotopes that it says are harmless for the animals but can be detected by customs agents.

(Image credit: Alfonso Nqunjana)

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's party approved constitutional changes in the country's National Assembly that allow indefinite presidential reelection and extend presidential terms to six years.

(Image credit: Salvador Melendez)

The Trump administration has said the conditions in the three countries have improved, therefore the immigrants can return back to their homelands. But federal Judge Trina Thompson suggested Trump's motives are discriminatory.

(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch)

An executive order says most of the tariffs will not take effect for at least a week, despite an earlier assertion that new rates would take effect on Friday. Some goods from Canada would get a new 35% tariff rate beginning Aug. 1, though.

(Image credit: I-Hwa Cheng)

The Texas Legislature is in a special session and discussing proposals to improve disaster preparedness after floods killed more than 130 people early this month.

(Image credit: Eric Gay)

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Glenn Kessler, outgoing writer of the Washington Post's Fact Checker, about recent buyouts at the paper, and the current state of fact-checking.

Mexico has won a temporary reprieve from higher US tariffs but other imports from other countries will face higher taxes, starting tomorrow. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is weighing whether President Trump's tariffs are even legal.

This summer, you might notice more people using a gadget to fight the heat: a horseshoe-shaped fan that sits on your neck and blows air. But can a neck cooling fan really help you?

After at least 15 years of talking about it, President Trump is building a ballroom at the White House. Work will begin this September, with a price tag of $200 million, the White House says.

(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein)

Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor used to be the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. President Trump, a UFC fan, hosted him at the White House for St. Patrick's Day this year.

(Image credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA)

About a month after announcing that it would stop sharing data that hurricane forecasters and scientists rely on, the Navy now says it will continue distributing it.

(Image credit: AP)

President Trump, who has insisted Aug. 1 is a firm deadline for countries around the world, said that "the complexities of a Deal with Mexico are somewhat different from other Nations."

(Image credit: Julio Cesar Aguilar)

Sectarian violence in recent weeks in Syria's Sweida region has left more than 1,000 people dead. Druze in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights say they feel betrayed by Syria's interim government.

(Image credit: JALAA MAREY)