Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman.
The Labor Department said Friday that US employers cut more than 20,000 jobs in July,
“that's well-off from analyst expectations of again of 80,000, and Pierce Scott Horsley”
has more. The market that was already sluggish is now shifted into reverse retailers and insurance companies cut jobs last month, even healthcare, which had been a reliable source of job growth, so weaker hiring in July than earlier in the year. And the losses at public schools might have been exaggerated by seasonal adjustments, but
make no mistake. This was a weak report. A commiscoree contango of LinkedIn says even bars and restaurants, which hope to get a kick from the big soccer tournament this summer, instead wound up losing 26,000 jobs last month. Job numbers in May and June were also adjusted downward in that Labor Department reports.
A federal appeals court has blocked construction on the White House ballroom, as NPR's Rachel Treesman reports, the judges say Congress needs to give the green light. A three-judge panel Friday ruled that building a White House ballroom is a question for Congress, not, quote, "a matter for executive self-help." That's a win for the historic preservation nonprofit that sued the administration back in December,
after it demolished the east wing of the White House to build a $400 million ballroom.
The ruling halts further above ground construction, but does not take effect for two weeks to give the Trump administration time to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. President Trump immediately said that it will, "Rachel Treesman and PR News." President Trump is speaking out against Texas Governor Greg Abbott's pause on AI data centers from Houston Public Media, Natalie Weber, who has more on our story.
Speaking with punchball news this week, the president said data centers bring money to communities.
“"I saw Texas the other day, sort of against data centers, I think it's a mistake."”
Abbott has issued a pause on new data center approvals until the state's energy agencies conduct an audit of their electricity and water use. This comes in contrast with Abbott's previous comments about data centers, calling Texas "the epicenter of AI development in November." Data centers and other large energy consumers in Texas are requesting more than five times
the amount of energy used to power the entire state during record-breaking demand. For NPR News, I'm Natalie Weber in Houston. More of Europe is on fire this weekend, after weeks of uncontrolled blazes in Spain and France, crews are now racing to contain several major wildfires in Serbia. The country's interior minister says the army is helping with efforts to control those
fires, and fires are also burning in Montenegro. The climate influenced heat that has settled once again across Europe is continuing to set records as "discontributing to the high number of wildfires in the region." This is NPR News.
“Friday was the start of Scotland's Edinburgh fringe.”
It's built as the world's biggest comedy in theater festival, NPR's Lauren Freyer reports that one show in particular is stirring controversy. It's a comedy by the American former student who was convicted and later acquitted a rebrittish remates murder in Italy 19 years ago. The title "Cartwheel" refers to how Amanda Knox was said to have done "Cartwheels"
at an Italian police station after Meredith Kercher's murder. The victim's sister Stephanie Kercher told the BBC that any comedy about that is hurtful to the Kercher family. "It's very personal to us, and effects, have friends as well, still of seeing us, left a massive void."
Knox says the show is about what she calls her wrongful imprisonment, how she's now juggling motherhood, and says she made it with deep heart and sensitivity.
"I'm not the first person to invent using comedy to talk about traumatic and difficult
material." Her sold out show runs for 11 nights at the Edinburgh fringe, Lauren Freyer and PR News London. Officials in Spain said Friday they've destroyed a major criminal network used in trafficking migrants, drugs, and weapons across the Western Mediterranean.
The network allegedly smuggled more than 2,000 migrants in Spain, and earned more than 24 million euros in doing so. The police operation led to the arrest of 77 people in Spain and won in Algeria. basketball player Brandon Clark's death has been ruled as accidental. Clark was found dead in May inside a Los Angeles home.
The LA County Medical Examiner said he died from the effects of heroin and cocaine. Clark was a Ford for the Memphis Grizzlies. He was under contract through the 2026-27 season. "I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News." This week, on Consider This.
Virginia thought her criminal record would follow her forever, until a few minutes with an AI app that told her she could clear her felonies.
"You'll never find a harder worker than someone who has something to prove to themselves
how AI could help millions of Americans with criminal records, find work."
