Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston.
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel is condemning what he calls a horrific act of terror by Israeli
settlers against Palestinians.
“NPR's Daniel Esthern reports the U.S. is urging Israel to remove those besieging Palestinian”
homes in a village in the occupied West Bank. A group of settlers has camped outside Palestinian homes in the village of Kusra for days. One of the homes under siege belongs to a U.S. citizen. Palestinian families have been trapped, with restricted access to food and supplies. U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Micacobie, says the U.S. asked Israeli forces to remove the settlers
whom he called Israeli terrorists. Israeli forces dismantled the settler tent Wednesday, but detained only one Israeli. Former mayor of the village, Hanyada, he said Thursday the settlers were still there besieging the Palestinian families in the presence of the Israeli army.
This comes during a spate of settler attacks and land takeovers.
Daniel Esthern and PR News, Tel Aviv. Temperatures are forecast to hit 100 degrees today in parts of southern England, which normally has relatively cool summers.
“But July was the hottest month on record in the United Kingdom, and the country's weather”
agency says 2026 is on track to be the hottest year on record as well. And PR's Lauren Fair reports from London. After a little respite during a solar eclipse, the sun is back here and it's blazing. Firefighters are battling a rare wildfire in southern England's new forest, where normally green pastures have turned brown.
Drought has been declared in three quarters of England and in all of Wales. Some water companies say they could run out of water within six weeks. They're asking residents not to wash cars or use sprinklers and even reuse pasta water in their gardens. Heat health warnings are in effect across the country, with air conditioning rare, even
in British hospitals, nursing unions say staff have been fainting on the job. Lauren Fryer and PR News London. Some users of the gaming video platform known as Twitch are criticizing plans by the company
“to use creator's video and audio content to train the parent companies AI models and PR's”
Chloe Beltman reports. In the deluge of comments that a company to video Q&A session held on the Twitch platform, many creators complained about having to opt out of having their videos used to train Amazon AI.
Twitch distributes more than 2 million hours of audio and video content daily, valuable data
for improving the quality of AI models. Next major social and digital platforms turn AI model training on by default and require users to manually opt out Amazon did not respond to NPR's requests for comments. Chloe Beltman and PR News. This is NPR News in Washington.
A grand jury has indicted Nick Riner on murder charges in the killing of his parents, director Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner and PR's Mandali Delvarka reports he pleaded not guilty. The grand jury's newly unsealed indictment alleges that Nick Riner was lying and wait before attacking his parents. On December 14, the beloved Hollywood director actor Rob Reiner and producer photographer
Michelle Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Hours later, their youngest son was arrested and charged with murder. Since then, the 32-year-old has remained behind bars without bail. He entered a not guilty plea and is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing in September. LA County District Attorney Nathan Hockman says the killing was "a profound betrayal"
by someone who is loved and trusted by the very people he's accused of killing. Hockman said the new allegations mean if he's found guilty, Riner could face the death penalty. Prosecutors haven't yet decided whether to seek it. Mandali Delvarka and PR News lost the analysts. The Kennedy Center Board is set to meet today to consider renovation plans after a judge
blocked a two-year shutdown. The center is faced legal challenges over President Trump's controversial overhaul, including its renaming and proposed closure for repairs. Four members are expected to discuss several options including a full closure, limited access, or phase work that would allow some programming to continue.
Products on most rated trading higher this hour, the Del was up 46 points, the NASDAQ up 220. This is NPR News in Washington. What makes a perfect cover song? One that's so good, it completely eclipses the original.
On the latest all songs considered from in-pure music, we make a case for the greatest of all time. That is what I want out of a great cover, something that picks up the thing that was in the song, but that was not made explicit. Check out new episodes of all songs considered in the NPR music podcast every Tuesday.
