Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
Iran says it won't negotiate directly with United States unless the Trump administration
honors an agreement reached in June.
“The memorandum of understanding or MOU called for limits on Tehran's nuclear program”
in exchange for sanctions relief. And Pierce Hadil Al-Shalci has more from Istanbul. Speaking to reporters, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Al-Aqqi said that Iran was exchanging messages via intermediaries, but that he would not call the process a negotiation with the US.
He said that the brokers were trying to find a way back to talks, "Hothaun Pakistan have been the main mediators in the process." The US broke a 60-day ceasefire that was stipulated in the memorandum of understanding when it began a new wave of strikes on Iran in July. Al-Aqqqi said that an agreement between Iran and Oman to open the Strait of Hormuz was in its
final stages, Iran has said that the opening of the Strait is contingent on conditions, including the US going back to the June agreement. Hadil Al-Shalci and PR news is Istanbul.
“Water levels at the nation's largest reservoir have reached their lowest level ever.”
From Member Station KJZZ, Alex Hager reports, like "Mead hasn't been this low," since it was filled around 1990 years ago. The Hoover Dam strattles the Arizona Nevada border and holds back water from the Colorado River to create the reservoir. It's water flows to big cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, plus a massive
agriculture industry that puts produce on grocery shelves across the country. Climate change and drought have been cutting into those backups supplies for about 26 years, and policymakers have struggled to respond with a plan that rains in demand. The federal government has been working on a deal with California, Arizona, and Nevada to cut back on the amount of water flowing to those states.
It's part of an effort to leave water in Lake Mead and boost the dropping reservoir. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Phoenix. Last week's weak monthly jobs report is raising alarms about the strength of the US economy. The Labor Department says employers unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July, and the department revised the numbers for May and June down by a total of 100,000 jobs.
This says inflation has been taking up. That's left some Americans worried that artificial intelligence is impacting the jobs market. Judd Coco is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and was an economic advisor during the Biden administration.
We have not seen wise front effects of AI on the labor market, but there will be disruption and there is a lot of concern about what AI means not only for will I have a job in the future but also what will I be doing in that job, what will that job look like, and what skills
“might I need to learn in order to be successful in the labor market in the future?”
This is NPR. Hundreds of thousands of right-shared drivers in California are poised to form a union that will give them a place at the bargaining table with giants like Uber and Lyft. The amount of the candidate from member station KQED has more. State regulators said that the California gig workers union received at least 30% of active
driver support the group needs to form a union. It comes after a year's long fight from the independent contractors who are not eligible for benefits and employee would otherwise get. Driver Hector Castiano says they'll focus on better pay and benefits. "You know, I've been fighting for this for so long, and it's been like growing, cost their going up and down."
Lyft says it's committed to engaging in good faith, and Uber says that it looks forward to their work with the group of drivers. The California gig workers union anticipates regulators will certify the results after a 30-day waiting period. For NPR News, I'm Samantha Kennedy in San Francisco.
At the weekend box office, Spider-Man, brand new day, took the top spot with an estimated
$144 million in its second weekend.
The Sony Marvel film has made $1.6 billion globally in just 10 days of release, putting it on track to be among the biggest blockbusters ever. And it's the highest-grossing movie of the year so far. In second place, Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey added $31 million this weekend, bringing its global take to $1.1 billion.
It's no one's first movie to reach that threshold since 2012's The Dark Knight rises, and it's his biggest box office hit ever. This is NPR. 50 years ago, Congress set out to protect coal miners from black lung disease. Today it's back at rates not seen in half a century.
These guys are being treated like disposable widgets, not human beings. On the Sunday story, why coal miners and Appalachia are getting sicker faster.
This is now to the Sunday story from the up first podcast on the NPR app.
