Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder.
The federal government has hit a new high water mark the national debt now tops $40 trillion.
“And NPR Scott Horsey says the interest payments alone are massive.”
On the biggest expenses now is interest payments on the debt itself. We're spending more than a trillion dollars just on interest payments this year, more than we spend on defense, more than we spend on Medicare, and the government has to cover that interest tab before it can do anything else.
Those interest costs are jumped by about 15 percent from a year ago.
That's partly because there's more debt to finance. But it's also because the people who lend the government money are demanding higher interest rates. So Wednesday, global bond market studied after the Trump administration stepped in to stem an upward rise in yields.
It sent the 30-year treasury yield to its highest level since 2007 earlier this week. The Treasury Department said it will more than double the amount of government bonds that it will buy back. Five years after the American pullout from Kabul, thousands of Afghan allies remain stuck and immigration limbo.
“NPR's Quill Lawrence reports many served alongside U.S. forces.”
Afghans who supported U.S. troops in the 20-year war against the Taliban were often promised U.S. visas. More than a thousand of them have been stuck at a U.S. basing Qatar since the Trump administration clamped down on immigration. That base is now vulnerable to missiles fired in the U.S. war with Iran.
At least 150 people there are direct family members of American troops, including the brother of U.S. Marine veteran Sean Jamshidi. Those individuals actually served with us that we, you know, we gave them like a promise and that we don't keep it than other people around the world will not trust us. A State Department spokesman told NPR it is negotiating to send the Afghans from the
base to an undisclosed third country, Quill Lawrence and P.R. News.
President Trump has announced his nominee to lead the food and drug administration. She's someone who has worked in the Trump White House as NPR's Sydney Lupkin reports. The president posted on truth social that he chose and Dr. Heidi Overtent to be the next FDA commissioner.
“Overtent would fill a vacancy left by Dr. Marty McCary who resigned in May after serving”
13 months in the role. Overtent has not worked at the FDA before, but she has worked in Trump's White House, most recently as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. Overtent trained as a surgeon. She also worked at the conservative America first policy institute.
While there, she wrote opinion pieces opposing gender affirming care and medication abortion. Earlier this month, the president signed a controversial executive order aimed at overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule during that press conference Overtent praised what she called the historic action to get the top FDA job.
The Senate will have to confirm her. City Lupkin and P.R. News and you're listening to NPR News. The Kennedy Center says it wants to put President Trump's name back up on the performing arts facility in Washington, D.C. but not before September 8th. And P.R.S. and Astacia Siocca says more.
The Kennedy Center board has proposed putting up a new sign that would eventually read the quote, "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump, endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.
The last line would be added only if the fund reaches $100 million in donations.
Additionally, the board is seeking to rename the Center's physical grounds as President Donald J. Trump Plaza. In the same filing, the center argued that the much discussed tarp that has been covering the complex's front entrance for months is necessary because of construction. Lawyers for Representative Joyce Bady, Democrat of Ohio, asked Judge Christopher Cooper
to make a ruling speedily arguing they believe that the board will try to mount new signage as soon as possible after September 8th. Anastasia Siocca's and P.R. News. The new judge will be on the bench for Thursday's hearing in Texas in the Carmelo Anthony case.
Anthony is the Texas teenager convicted of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old athlete. At a high school track meet, the judge who presided over Anthony's trial was ordered removed Wednesday. Anthony's legal team seeking a retrial arguing that the trial judge enforced overly strict courtroom rules and gave an interview after the trial was over.
Stocks are advancing in Asia, tracking Wall Street higher after the Treasury Department moved to ease pressure from the bomb market. The S&P posted its first gain in four days. I'm Driles Snyder, MPR News Hey, you know that nagging voice in your head, the one telling you to put the phone down and stop doomsgrowing while it's time.
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