Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor, Johnston.
U.S. special envoy Steve Wittkopf and Jerry Kushner are meeting Ukrainian President
“Volodymyr Zelensky in keep today as the Trump administration renews its push to end the war”
in Ukraine. The visit comes after the two health talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials. During that visit, Wittkopf recounted a conversation he had with members of the Russian delegation.
"We were sitting outside just now, me, Jared, and Carol, and then Yuri joined us, and we were all talking about when we retire.
We'll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories and yours will be
right at the top of it all." The talks in Moscow produced no breakthrough with major differences still standing in the way of an agreement. Labor Day weekend travelers are paying the highest gas prices ever for this time of year.
“Triple A says the average price for a gallon of regular gas is $4.14, but diesel is even more”
expensive. It hit an all-time high today at 589 a gallon, and P.R. Steven Besaha reports that can cause other prices to rise. Diesel has gone up more than $2 per gallon since the start of the war, the run. Diesel is used to fuel tractors, commercial trucks, and food trucks.
Diesel gives me the power to pull that 26-foot food truck, it's heavy, it's a heavy trailer. Chef Joe Shoroda owns the Habibi food truck in Central Alabama, and now costs them about $300 for two refueles a week. "Are you making up for that by having the raised prices in the food truck?" "A lot of people are raised in prices, you can only get so much for Gemalaya."
Food at the grocery store and other items on store shelves could also increase in price as transportation costs rise with the cost of diesel. Steven Besaha and P.R. News leads Alabama.
“"Boters in Germany are casting ballots in a regional election that could produce the”
country's first far-right state governor since World War II, and P.R.'s Esmene-Nickelson
reports from Berlin. German domestic intelligence classifies the alternative for Deutschland or AFD as extremist in the state of Saxony Unhardt, but this is not deterring voters. AFD has sought out ties with the MAGA movement in the U.S., and advocates closer relations with Russia.
The party has rather campaigned, centered around what it calls "remigration" promising mass deportations from day one, and the segregation of refugee children in schools. The candidate hoping to become Germany's first AFD state governor is 35-year-old or resegment to form a salesman with a massive TikTok following. His affable image contrasts starkly with the party's radical platform, but in a country where
coalitions of the norm, the AFD may struggle to form a government, unless it wins an absolute majority. For MPR News, I'm Esmene-Nkelson in Berlin. This is NPR News. Part of Washington's Kennedy Center remains closed this weekend, after his section of the
ceiling collapsed during severe storms last week. Officials are blaming decades of deferred maintenance, and say the collapse shows the building urgently needs repairs. The Trump-aligned board of directors is fighting in court
to close the entire center for two years for a $250 million renovation.
AI data centers are front and center in numerous midterm election races, despite growing public opposition to them, the White House has spoken out in favor of the facilities, including Vice President J.D. Vance, and PR's Emily Fang has more. A Gallup poll from May, if I'm more than 70% of Americans, are opposed to having a data center built near their home.
The facilities extraordinary demands on electricity and water can drive up local utility costs, but Vice President J.D. Vance continues to defend data centers. The way to get around that is as President Trump's leadership has shown to become a nation of builders again. We've got to build more power plants. We've got to make the regulatory state easier to work with, and of course, that we've done that.
Some politicians, mostly Republicans, have said opposing data centers could give China an advantage in a global tech race. And House Majority Leader Steve Scalese has said he's investigating whether China is behind what he calls misinformation. Emily Fang and PR News, the White House. The Leafs in England are still searching for 70,000 pints of Guinness that were stolen
last week, two drivers are accused of taking off with trailers loaded with the beer from an industrial park, the Guinness is worth more than $150,000. This is NPR News. As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, we're all vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our eye off the bomb. Our weekly politics series if you can keep it is here to help where our focus is not the horse race, but the state.
We tackle the big political stories of the day and why they matter for our democracy. Join me, Todd's Willard, and me, Jen White, on the one-ay podcast from WAMU and NPR.
