Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor, Johnston.
U.S. envoy, Steve Wakeoff, and President Trump's sent-in-law Jerry Kushner have arrived in Moscow.
“They're meeting with Russian officials and an attempt to revive talks aimed at ending”
the war in Ukraine. NPR's Charles Mains reports their trip to Russia will be followed by a visit to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday. President Trump has suggested he has a new proposal aimed at bringing an end to Russia's four-and-a-half-year war with its neighbor.
Exactly what offered Whitkoff and Kushner a bringing remains unclear publicly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown little willingness to compromise, even as the Kremlin announced a three-day pause on strikes on Kiev while the Americans are in the region. The renewed U.S. diplomatic push comes as the wars entered into a new destructive phase, with both Ukraine and Russia carrying out increasingly deadly drone and missile strikes on
civilian and energy infrastructure. Americans are also mounting over alleged Russian hybrid attacks in Europe that could draw NATO allies directly into the conflict. Charles Mains impure news. Moscow.
“Both Democratic and Republican political campaigns are pouring millions of dollars into ads”
attacking AI data centers ahead of the midterms, and PR's Maham Javed reports. It's rare for political messaging to be aligned across parties, but when it comes to data
centers, campaigns for major races have collectively spent more than $45 million, airing
ads largely opposed to the AI facilities. Data from ad impacts blitz that nearly evenly, $22 million backing Republicans, $21 million for Democrats. Olivia Davis of the Democratic Governors Association says data centers are mentioned in political ads so often because of their connection with increases in cost of living, namely
utilities, Republicans have spent more money, but Democrats have aired nearly twice as many ads, Maham Javed and PR news. Wall Street ended in uneven week of economic news with a split finish on Friday. The tech heavy NASDAQ gained four tenths of a percent for the week, filed the Dow Jones industrial leverage slipped about a quarter percent, and PR's David Vassaha reports.
A hotter than expected job support Friday showed the U.S. added 162,000 jobs in August. Stock indexes dropped on the news, erasing many of their gains from earlier in the week. That's because a stronger job support suggests the Federal Reserve has more room to raise interest rates this month. Treasury yields also continue to rise, yields for the 10-year treasury note were at 4.78
percent Friday, higher yields increase the cost of borrowing, including for a home.
Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has pushed past 6.7 percent.
The highs it's been in more than a year. Steven Masahah and PR news. This is NPR. Masked anti-immigration protesters briefly blocked roads leading to Britain's busiest ferry port in Dover today, disrupting traffic heading to France, police reopened the roads
by midday. Dover has been the site of previous protests over migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. More than 700 hospitals in the U.S. have closed their labor and delivery units since 2010. That's according to new data from the University of Minnesota.
Molly Castlework from Minnesota Public Radio reports, the loss of birthing centers, especially in rural areas, increases health risks for pregnant women.
The report from U.M.N.'s rural health research center finds that, as of 2024, nearly 60 percent
of rural hospitals don't offer labor and delivery services. Study co-author Katie Kozimonel says the reason largely comes down to finances. The number of babies born at rural hospitals is falling, generating less revenue, yet there are fixed costs, like 24/7 staffing and equipment, and the cost of providing all of that needs to be paid every single day regardless of whether or not there's a birth or how
many births there are. Kozimonel says that the U.S. urgently needs to rethink its health care system and how it's paid for to keep more birthing centers from closing. For NPR news, I'm Molly Castlework in Rochester, Minnesota. Serena and Venus Williams are out of the U.S. open women's doubles tournament after a three-hour
first round battle, it was their first U.S. open doubles the parents together in four years. This is NPR news. An NPR, there's a little something for everyone. If you need advice for that big life change, try listening to life kit.
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