Live from NPR News in Washington, on Ryland, Barton.
The Senate took the first steps toward passing a Russian sanctions bill with Ukrainian
“President Vladimir Zelensky, watching from the gallery, the bill would penalize countries”
that buy Russian oil, gas and other exports, some Democrats are still skeptical of the latest version of the bill saying they don't want to give Trump additional powers to impose tariffs. The bipartisan procedural vote came hours after the funeral for the late South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the bill's chief negotiator, who was held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., President Trump delivered remarks.
"No matter how high he rose, he never forgot where he came from, there's probably not
a single town in South Carolina where Lindsey did not help repair a bridge, expand a school and prove a hospital or recover from a disaster." Graham will be buried in his home state of South Carolina, he died July 11 at age 71. President Trump hosted Ukraine's President Zelensky at the White House this morning, the latest meeting in what appears to be an improving relationship, but there's no sign that Trump
has prepared to send more weapons to Ukraine and PR's Greg Mayer reports. President Trump and Zelensky have been steadily rebuilding ties since a televised shouting match in the Oval Office last year.
“Ukrainian leader said he had a good meeting and thanked the U.S. for its firm support.”
However, there's no indication Ukraine will be getting more U.S. patriot air defense missiles by far the best protection against the nightly onslaught of Russian missiles.
Trump has offered Ukraine a license to build its own patriots, but it's a complex process
that could take years. Still, Ukraine has gained momentum in the war with its frequent long-distance strikes against Russian oil facilities and other industrial sites. Greg Mayer, MPR News, key. "Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear says Senator Mitch McConnell should share details
on his health or resign, Lisa Autry of the Liberation WKYU reports the ultimatum comes as the former Republican leader continues to miss votes more than a month after being hospitalized." Governor Andy Beshear says he's received no word from McConnell. Despite sending him two letters, asking him to explain his ongoing absence from the Senate. McConnell has been away from Congress since June 14 from what his office said was due to
a fall in pneumonia.
“But sure says anyone else in the hospital for more than a month would be expected to be”
more transparent. "The voters, who are the boss of all of us that are elected, deserve to see a little bit more and hear a little bit more about how the senator is doing." McConnell's office has released two photos of the 84-year-old supposedly from a rehab center, as well as a statement from his doctor that said McConnell hasn't been cleared
for normal duties. For MPR News, I'm Lisa Autry, emboiling Green Kentucky." Most U.S. stocks rose after Coca-Cola and other companies reported stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected. It's NPR.
Florida has become the first state and nearly a decade to carry out two executions in one
day. Today, putting to death an ex-police officer convicted of murder and only the second octogenarian known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. The artist Betty Sarr has died, her work tackled stereotypes about black identity using three-dimensional art with found objects.
Her gallery says she died in her sleep in LA, days shy of her hundredth birthday. NPR's Chloe Velpin has this remembrance. Betty Sarr's career defining 1972 work, the liberation of Aunt Jemima, centers on a grinning black mammy figure in a knotted head scoff posing against a wall of vintage Aunt Jemima pancake mix labels.
She holds a broom in one hand and a rifle in the other. Sarr was a pioneer of assemblage art, the practice of creating 3D artworks using found objects and everyday items. She told NPR in 2006, Aunt Jemima inspired her to focus on creating art that reclaimed negative images of black people.
I had a great deal of anger about the segregation in the racism in this country and so this series sort of evolved. Betty Sarr was born in Los Angeles in 1926. She continued to create art well into her late 90s, Chloe Velpin and Piano's. A rural New York school district is hitting pause on plants to deploy an AI powered humanoid
robot, Salamaka City School District had purchased the robot to enhance the education of high school students studying robotics and technology fields, the teachers union criticise the robots makers ties to a company that produces hyper-realistic sex robots. This is NPR. We've just marked one year since Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public
media. NPR remains committed to informing the public, but a free press doesn't just happen in something we need to protect. Without federal funding, we are relying on your support now. Please show your support before the end of the month visit plus.npr.org.
