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NPR News: 09-05-2026 11PM EDT

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Iranians ships. The attacks follow an Iranian attack on U.S. forces.

The U.S. military says Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or the IRGC launch

ballistic missiles toward two U.S. naval vessels. It was an aircraft carrier and a guided missile destroyer. Senkhan says both ships were able to evade those attacks and in retaliation. The U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers destroying all of them. That's NPR's carry-con reporting from the Middle East. The U.S. says the Iranian tankers were part of that country's shadow fleet, which sells oil to help fund Iran's revolutionary guard

forces. The Trump administration has a new officials to oversee U.S. foreign assistance. It's a department that's seen one of the biggest shifts in policy during President Trump's second term as NPR's Fatmateness reports. The State Department has appointed Andrew Vaprak as its new undersecretary for foreign assistance humanitarian affairs and religious freedom. Vaprak is a career officer in the U.S. foreign service who had postings in Cameroon,

Canada, Iraq, and Thailand. His most recent position was leading the State Department's

population refugees in migration department. He's been critical of a more generous

foreign aid approach, particularly to United Nations agencies and has pushed for more restrictions on immigration. In recent months, the administration has been spending more money to fund humanitarian response around the world, though not nearly as much as the U.S. did before Trump took office in 2025. Vapmateness and PR news. Vaprak cameras are facing intense backlash over privacy concerns. The license plate readers are

used by police across the country. Vaprak recently changed some of its features to prevent most abuse, but as NPR's may-Ganderson reports, the fight against those cameras is largely bipartisan and unlikely to go away any time soon. In the span of just over a week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat said he'd welcome a state ban on the cameras.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican froze state spending for them, and Florida Governor

Ron DeSantis also a Republican said his state is revoking permits for them on highways. Jay Stanley is a policy analyst at the ACLU. We're seeing opposition from the left from MAGA, Republicans, mainstream Republicans, centers. The reasons people oppose flock are different. Some liberals warn the technology has been used to track immigrants. Some conservatives say it could be used to create a national gun registry,

but regardless of political party, recent polling shows more Americans now disapprove of the cameras than approve of that. Meg Anderson and PR news. A Kennedy Center spokesperson says decades of neglect is responsible for causing part of the ceiling to collapse Friday night in the center's Grand Foye. No one was hurt by the collapse. This is NPR news. More than 700 hospitals nationwide have closed their labor and delivery units since

2010. That's according to a new data from the University of Minnesota. As Molly Castlework from Minnesota Public Radio reports, the loss of birthing centers especially in rural areas increases health risks for people who are pregnant. The report from UNN's rural health research center finds that as of 2024, nearly 60% of rural hospitals don't offer labor and delivery services. Study co-author Katie Kozymonnell 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. Kozymonnell 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. In college football, Jeremiah Smith had eight receptions for 150 yards. 51 yards as the top ranked the Ohio State Buckeyes rolled over ball state Saturday 56 to 3.

Number two Oregon struggled in its first game of the season, slipping past Boise State 34 to 27.

Dante more threw for 388 yards and three touchdowns in that win. Number three Georgia had an easy time with Tennessee State winning that by 63 to 3. Number five Texas rolled past Texas State by a score of 59 to 7 and number 7 Miami dominated Stanford and Tarleton State Pete Bowling Green 20 to 13. I'm Dale Wilman and P.R. News. Billionaire Mark Cuban has stared into the belly of the beast of America's health care system.

"I mean it's so bad you can go through a long list of really quality hospitals and they don't know their costs." So, can Medicare for all be a solution? We take a hard look at the cost of the program along with U.S. health care itself. Find this and hear more stories from the indicator

From Planet Money on the NPR app.

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