The Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated the country’s politics for seven decades, just got a pasting at the polls—again. We ask why staid politics are getting swiftly messy. Iceland is a NATO member in a volatile region; at last it must consider raising its own army. And the tricky balance of company culture, job satisfaction and working from home.
Aisling Rawle's The Compound explores reality television as a kind of dystopia. In the novel, a group of men and women live on a compound in the middle of a desert, where they participate in house competitions and vie for personal awards. In today's episode, Rawle joins NPR's Pien Huang for a conversation that touches on binge-watching Love Island as research, how the author came up with The Compound's rules and rewards, and how her characters perceive their own desirability.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Plus: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lays out his case to President Trump for why he shouldn’t try to push out Fed chair Jerome Powell. And, with earnings season in full swing we look at recent reporting from Stellantis and Ryanair. Kate Bullivant hosts.
Many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military fire as they try to get food aid, the Trump administration is in court pushing Harvard University to comply with its demands, and lawmakers in Texas are heading into a special session to try to redraw voting districts for Congress.
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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Bloch, Steve Drummond, Ben Swasey, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
With the passage of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, numerous Biden-era clean energy incentives will begin to phase out. Many of those incentives were aimed at onshoring energy and battery manufacturing.
Energy demand is only expected to rise as more data centers are built to service AI and electric and autonomous vehicles become more widespread. And storage for that energy has to come from somewhere.
Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Jeremy Michalek, a professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, about the impacts of the Big Beautiful Bill clean energy rollbacks.
A.M. Edition for July 21. The European Union is changing its tune as trade talks with the U.S. take a turn for the worse. WSJ editor Dan Michaels explains what this could mean for the world’s largest trading relationship. Plus, how Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been trying to convince President Trump not to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. And why taxing the super rich can backfire on governments, as the U.K. seems to be learning to its detriment. Azhar Sukri hosts.
For the past two weeks, President Trump has been trying and failing to get his supporters to stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein.
David Enrich, a deputy investigations editor for The New York Times, and Shawn McCreesh, a Times White House correspondent, explain why MAGA won’t let go of this scandal, how the president misread his own base — and what all this shows about the limits of Mr. Trump’s power.
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The Trump administration pushes for the release of grand jury testimony in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, but that might not be enough to satisfy its base. Dozens more Palestinians have died at aid sites, according to Gaza’s health ministry. And WNBA players make a public demand for a raise.
Some of the most venerated objects in many different religions are holy relics.
Relics offer a tangible connection to significant figures in various religious traditions, and they are often highly prized and sought after.
In the Middle Ages, relics became a big business, and if a church had the right relics, it could boost a local economy. It became such a big business that many people began to question their authenticity.
Learn more about relics, their authenticity, and the historical business surrounding them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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