Live from NPR News in Washington, on Ryland Barton.
The U.S. military says it's launching strikes on Iranian targets a day after it thwarted
“a missile attack on American forces in Jordan, and a statement U.S. Central Command says”
"the strikes are a powerful response to yesterday's attempted Iranian attacks on U.S.
forces based on the Middle East." The escalation comes after a period of calm and has sent oil prices climbing again. Republicans threatened repercussions after Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answer questions during a contentious Senate hearing over COVID-19 today, and PR's Jonathan Lambert has more.
Here's basically how Senator Paul summarized it. Publicly, Anthony Fauci promoted the theory that the virus arose naturally, while private lame used well aware of a mountain of evidence suggesting the virus originated in the lab. Scientists, I've spoken with dispute that characterization. They say that the Senator is cherry-picking examples from early in the pandemic when there
was a lot of confusion and scientists were constantly updating what they were thinking based on new evidence. Now, most phyrologists think that evidence supports the virus jumping from an animal to a human, not from a lab. And PR's Jonathan Lambert reporting, Todd Blanche's nomination to become attorney general
has stalled.
“Key Republicans have demanded more assurances about the settlement that gave President Trump”
and members of his family protection from tax audits. The Senate Judiciary Committee had been scheduled to vote tomorrow to advance Blanche's nomination to the floor, but Republican senators John Corn and Tom Tillis have threatened to withhold their support. Attorney General from 44 states are calling on the administration to crack down on the booming
prediction market industry and PR's Bobby Allen reports. The Trump administration is currently rewriting the federal rules for the prediction market industry. Companies like Calshy and Pauli Market that have thrived in Trump's second term. And Trump officials want them regulated by the federal government as a type of financial
investment product, not gambling. But a newly public letter sent by 44 states sends a clear message to regulators in Washington. State officials view prediction markets as having made an end run around state laws and
“state taxes, especially when it comes to sports betting, which accounts for most of the”
billions of dollars wagered on Calshy and Pauli Market. But other topics are popular, too, like politics and elections.
$200 million has already been wagered on the sites ahead of the midterms, Bobby Allen and
PR news. Open AI, so it didn't unintended hacking attack of another AI company, was more extensive than initially reported in an update about its investigation. The chat GPT Maker says its rogue program also broke into several publicly available services like code, paste websites, and screenshots services. The incident took place during a test
of open AI's models and a supposedly inescapable lab environment, but the program broke out of the so-called sandbox and gained access to the internet. US stocks fell today. This is NPR news. A new US study suggests invasive mold infections can be an underappreciated threat CDC researchers
found about 450 cases in Atlanta area hospitals over five years, with a third of patients dying in the hospital, mold exposure is recurring problem after natural disasters. Every year, the residents of a Maryland retirement community brings the joy of snail mail to pen pals, born in the era of texting, and Piers Lakshmi Singh reports its helping some baby boomers and gen Alpha's broke build friendships.
There's nothing like a competitive game of bingo to cement a friendship between two people born at least 60 years apart, O.C., Senior Living Center held a meet and greet
this summer. Retirees finally met their Kingsville Elementary School Pen pals, after months
of exchanging handwritten letters with third graders, not used to waiting days, let alone weeks for a conversation to unfold, 76-year-old Diana Law unexpectedly found a kindred spirit in her pen pal. She has put a lot of thought into what she's saying, and actually put it all together for me.
Pen pals bridging a generational divide, Lakshmi Singh, NPR news. The people of St. Mary's in Newfoundland and Labrador can finally breathe easy after the conventional government agreed to get rid of the foul smell of rotten fish, and is for years wafted over their tiny community. This source was 110-3,000 gallon tanks of fermented fish sauce left behind by the Atlantic
seafood sauce company more than 20 years ago. The midterms are coming, and that means the new cycle, which is already intense, is about to get more intense this fall. So the summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated. I'm Leyla Faldal, on Up First, we unpack the three biggest stories every morning so
you can stay informed and get on with your day in less than 15 minutes.
