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Opinion: A well-deserved statue for a hero rat

Cambodia is recognizing the life-saving contributions of a rat named Magawa with a statue. The late rat sniffed out landmines for a non-profit group, and in a short career helped find more than 100.

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The Great Green Wall's one of the world's most ambitious eco-projects. Is it working?

Women install barricades to halt the shifting dunes that threaten to swamp the oasis outside their village of Kaou, Chad. The oasis feeds their only source of farmland, but oases in the region have been shrinking steadily, elders say, in the face of hotter temperatures and stronger winds. The dune fixing is part of a broader intervention to support farming known as the Great Green Wall initiative.

It's a global effort with a multibillion dollar price tag. Among its aims: re-greening nearly 250 million acres, planting 4,000 miles of trees, helping farmers, creating jobs, sequestering carbon.

(Image credit: Tommy Trenchard for NPR)

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India cracks down on satirists for turning its prime minister into a punch line

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) takes a group photo with AI company leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (third from right), Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (second from right), Google CEO Sundar Pichai (third from left) and Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang (second from left), at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Feb. 19.

India's satirists are turning Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a punch line — and the government is hitting back.

(Image credit: Ludovic Marin)

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Gut troubles? This gastroenterologist has tips to help you achieve 'poophoria'

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In her new book You've Been Pooping All Wrong, Dr. Trisha Pasricha shares habits and practices to make your relationship with your solid waste as smooth as possible

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After a whirlwind mission to the moon, astronauts are back home. Here's what's next

The Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — splashed down in an Orion space capsule Friday after a 9-day mission to the moon and back.

The Orion crew module containing the four Artemis II astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean Friday evening.

(Image credit: Bill Ingalls)

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In Syria, instability allowed ISIS fighters to flee camps, but many of their families still detained

Children ride a bicycle and play in the Roj camp in a Kurdish-held territory in northeast Syria in March. The detention camp houses wives and children of ISIS members.

NPR visits the last detention camp for ISIS wives and children in an increasingly precarious northeastern Syria.

(Image credit: Claire Harbage)

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How AI is getting better at finding security holes

AI lab Anthropic announced this week that it had developed a powerful new model the company believes could "reshape cybersecurity." It said that its latest model, Mythos Preview, was able to find "high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser."

Anthropic announced this week that its new model found security flaws in "every major operating system and web browser." Even before the news, AI models had gotten dramatically better at finding bugs.

(Image credit: Patrick Sison)

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Peru's election: A battle for the Presidency amid political chaos and crime

Pedestrians pass election campaign signs for presidential and congressional candidates, before the weekend

With 35 candidates in the race, Peru is set to elect its 9th president in less than a decade. Amid rising corruption and crime, voters are left asking: Can this election finally break the cycle?

(Image credit: Martin Mejia)

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Pakistan hosts U.S.-Iran peace talks after weeks of frantic diplomacy

A police officer walks past a billboard regarding the United States and Iran negotiations, outside a media facilitation center in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026.

Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, is set to host peace talks today with leaders from Iran and the US, including Vice President J.D. Vance.

(Image credit: Anjum Naveed)

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WATCH LIVE: Artemis II astronauts return to Earth

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The four astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis II mission are about to plunge through the atmosphere toward Earth, after a successful visit to the moon.

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After more than 9 days in flight, NASA's Artemis II is set to return to Earth

The four astronauts on NASA's Artemis II lunar mission are set to return to Earth Friday evening. The crew is wrapping up a journey around the moon with a planned splashdown off San Diego, Calif.

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Epstein survivors have mixed feelings on Melania Trump's call for hearing in Congress

First lady Melania Trump delivers a statement at the Grand Foyer of the White House on April 9, 2026 in Washington, D.C.

The first lady made a public statement on Thursday saying she was not friends with Epstein, and calling for further action in Congress. Survivors of the late sex offender's abuse differ on her proposal.

(Image credit: Alex Wong)

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Months after the ICE shootings in Minnesota, a federal probe remains elusive

People walk by signs showing the faces of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two U.S. citizens killed by federal immigration agents during the ICE surge in Minneapolis.

Officials in Minnesota have sued the Trump administration, saying federal officials are withholding evidence in the killings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Macklin Good by immigration agents in Minneapolis, as well as the non-fatal shooting of a Venezuelan man.

(Image credit: Stephen Maturen)

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Shortlisted for an Oscar, 'Homebound' is a daring movie about two dear friends

Mohammad Saiyub (above, in a Mumbai quarter on a February day) appeared in a photo that went viral in the early days of the pandemic. He and his childhood buddy Amrit Kumar were hitching home, a journey of nearly 1,000 miles. Kumar, who is a Hindu Dalit, fell ill. Saiyub, a Muslim, cradled his friend by the roadside. Their different religious identities drew attention in a country where communal relations have been polarized after a decade of Hindu nationalist rule. The photo and the story behind it inspired the award-winning movie <!-- raw HTML omitted -->Homebound<!-- raw HTML omitted -->.

The movie, now streaming on Netflix, defied current trends in Indian cinema to tell the true story of a friendship between a Muslim and a Hindu Dalit. Martin Scorsese was secretly involved.

(Image credit: Diaa Hadid/NPR)

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Five things to know about Hungary's election

Vice President Vance meets with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on April 7, 2026, in Budapest, Hungary.

Hungary votes Sunday in a pivotal test of Viktor Orbán's "illiberal democracy," as challenger Péter Magyar taps voter frustration, with stakes for Europe, NATO and the U.S.

(Image credit: Pool/Getty Images)

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'How are you using AI?' Your therapist should ask you that question, experts argue

ChatGPT, Claude and Character.AI are chatbots powered by artificial intelligence that people are using increasingly.

A paper in JAMA Psychiatry says mental health providers should ask if patients are using artificial intelligence chatbots, just as they would ask patients about sleep habits and substance use.

(Image credit: Kiichiro Sato)

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Inflation surges to highest level in nearly two years as energy costs spike

Gasoline prices jumped more than a dollar a gallon in March, pushing inflation higher.

Consumer prices in March were up 3.3% from a year ago, the biggest annual increase in nearly two years. Higher gasoline prices tied to the war with Iran accounted for much of the surge.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle)

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VP Vance to lead U.S. team in Iran peace talks. And, Artemis II to return to Earth

Vice President JD Vance speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two to return to Washington, D.C. from Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport on April 8, 2026, in Budapest, Hungary.

Vice President Vance is heading to Pakistan to lead a U.S. team in talks aimed at ending the war in Iran. And, Artemis II is set to return to Earth today.

(Image credit: Pool)

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China's Xi meets Taiwan opposition leader ahead of key summit with Trump

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, right shakes hands with Kuomintang (KMT) party leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, April 10, 2026.

Xi Jinping and the KMT's Cheng Li-wun agreed to pursue peace, but Taiwan's ruling party worries it will enable Beijing to undermine its democracy.

(Image credit: Xie Huanchi)

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Trump says Iran 'doing a very poor job' in reopening the Strait of Hormuz

First responders search under the rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026.

The fragile ceasefire agreement was tested again on Friday after Iran refused to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes in Lebanon, and Kuwait was attacked with drones.

(Image credit: ABBAS FAKIH)

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Vance heads to Pakistan for talks to end the war between Iran, the US and Israel

Vice President JD Vance enters his highest-profile moment Friday as lead U.S. negotiator in face-to-face talks with Iran.

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Communities are waiting on billions in disaster funding from the Trump administration

The 2021 Caldor fire was a wake-up call for California

States say disaster funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency has slowed to a trickle under the Trump administration. That's delaying projects to protect communities from wildfires and hurricanes.

(Image credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

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This week's quiz reveals a dramatic twist! OR DOES IT?

From left: Arsenio Hall, Stephen Colbert, Zendaya.

If you keep up with secret identities, you'll get at least one question right this week!

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Women are getting most of the new jobs. What's going on with men?

The Labor Department says the vast majority of new jobs created over the last year went to women, most of them in health care.

Over the past year, the vast majority of new jobs have gone to women. One economist says to help men find work, we need to embrace ways to "make girly jobs appeal to manly men."

(Image credit: melitas)

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There's growing disquiet in the military. The Iran war made it worse

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Since Trump began his second term, his administration's use of the armed forces has left a growing number in the military unsettled, according to NPR interviews with service members and advocates.

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Nations tried to impose a digital fog of war in Iran. The results are mixed

A satellite image of destroyed planes at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran on March 7.

Governments are blocking the internet, banning social media posts and cutting access to commercial satellite images. But experts say that efforts to censor information have had mixed results.

(Image credit: Planet)

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Artemis II astronauts are set to return to Earth today. Here's what to expect

NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman looks at Earth through Orion

After swooping around the moon, viewing an eclipse, breaking an Apollo distance record and testing out a space toilet, NASA's Artemis II mission is about to return to Earth. Here's what the astronauts must face to make it safely home.

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Overwhelmed by kid clutter? Get organized with these 7 smart tips

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If your household is starting to look like one giant playroom, it might be time to declutter. Here's how to cut down on stress-inducing mess and decide what to keep, donate or let go.

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Republicans in Congress brace for a fight over the Iran war price tag

The U.S. Capitol is visible in the early morning hours on April 2, 2026.

In recent days, multiple GOP lawmakers have gone public with their concerns over the war -- a range of issues Republican leadership will have to address as they face the task of securing new funding.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

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Morning news brief

Vance to serve as lead US negotiator in peace talks to end Iran war, Israel and Lebanon to hold ceasefire talks, NASA's Artemis II astronauts return to Earth Friday.

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