Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Subscribe to NPR's Up First Email Honoree Rachel Accurso (aka Ms. Rachel) and her husband, Aron Accurso, attend the Glamour Women of the Year Awards at The Plaza Hotel on Nov. 4, 2025, in New York. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images hide caption Ms. Rachel has entered her album era, and she is so happy about it September 18, 2026 • Ms. Rachel has conquered YouTube, Netflix and the toy aisle. Now she's making an album, with real instruments, big feelings and her littlest listeners in mind. Ms. Rachel has entered her album era, and she is so happy about it Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5938847/nx-s1-9931346" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> From left: Macklemore, Kim Kardashian, Celine Dion. Morgan Hancock/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue; Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption The NPR news quiz True or false: Trump's name is now on the Kennedy Center. The quiz has the answer September 18, 2026 • The world made it to another Friday without an AI apocalypse, so here's the quiz! See you next week … maybe. Cynthia Montoya sits in the living room of her home in Thornton, Colo., where photographs and memories of her daughter, Juliana, surround her. Juliana was 13 years old when she started using AI chatbots, and within a year she died by suicide. Jimena Peck for NPR hide caption How Google is drafting AI chatbot laws around the country September 18, 2026 • As states push to regulate chatbots, tech companies are trying to write safety rules in ways that exempt some of their key products. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks to the press during a press conference in the gardens of the Prime Minister's Chancellery building in Warsaw on July 3. Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption Poland's prime minister warns of Russian 'accidental' attacks on Ukraine's allies September 18, 2026 • Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that these potential strikes "intend to paralyze NATO" in an attempt to demonstrate that Article 5 "exists only in theory." Poland's prime minister says Russia could strike countries that support Ukraine Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5973265/nx-s1-9931400" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> A voter casts her ballot in Colorado's primary election at the Central Library on June 30 in Denver. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images hide caption It's illegal for armed federal officers to be at polls. Lawsuits seek to ensure that September 18, 2026 • The latest lawsuit, first reported by NPR, argues the Trump administration's repeated suggestions that federal officers could be at polling sites is a form of illegal voter intimidation. It's Been a Minute The report that changed public education September 18, 2026 • In 1966, the federal government commissioned a massive survey aimed at solving educational inequality. Instead, the explosive Coleman Report unleashed a 60-year debate over race, resources, and what education in America is actually for. This is the story of how the report came together… and the policy whirlwind that followed. The report that changed public education Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5971415/nx-s1-mx-5971415-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Savannah Sampson, right, and Nicole Lewis, help set up a vigil for the victims of Tuesday's fatal SUV-Metro bus collision and the subsequent crash of a TV news helicopter that was covering it in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Jae C. Hong/AP hide caption The driver who slammed into an LA bus before helicopter crash is charged with murder September 18, 2026 • An SUV driver was under the influence of drugs when she swerved into the wrong lane, blew a red light and slammed into a Los Angeles city bus, killing two riders, prosecutors said as they charged her with murder. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a call for a slowdown of frontier AI research over the weekend. Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images hide caption Sources & Methods AI hacks are already here / U.S.-China race dynamics / Global guardrails September 17, 2026 • All a sudden everyone is talking about the risk of an AI catastrophe or, in the case of President Trump, an AI "hoax." AI hacks are already here / U.S.-China race dynamics / Global guardrails Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5971502/nx-s1-mx-5971502-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Gastonia Municipal Airport, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Gastonia, N.C. Matt Kelley/AP hide caption Trump withdraws Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, as his nominee to lead ICE September 17, 2026 • The White House says it is withdrawing its nomination of Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to lead ICE, ensuring that an agency at the forefront of President Trump's domestic agenda will remain without a Senate-confirmed leader for at least a while longer. ICE agent Christian Castro gets in a vehicle surrounded by journalists after leaving the Cameron County Detention Center in Brownsville, Texas. Michael Gonzalez/AP hide caption ICE agent appears in Minnesota court to face charges in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant September 17, 2026 • Christian Castro, a federal immigration officer, made his first court appearance in Minnesota since he was booked Wednesday into a local jail. Castro faces multiple state and federal charges in connection with a shooting during the immigration surge in Minnesota. D.C. airspace is complicated. Experts say Trump's arch would add one more risk September 17, 2026 • The Trump administration wants to build its 250-foot arch near one of the country's busiest runways. The FAA has ruled it will not pose a hazard. But aviation safety experts have concerns. TaNisha Thomas found herself and her young son homeless after she lost her job a few years ago. Head Start provided childcare that allowed her the space and time to find a new job and go to college. Center for Transforming Lives hide caption

Head Start got her out of homelessness. Trump proposal threatens that help for others September 17, 2026 • A Trump administration proposal would change access to Head Start for children experiencing homelessness and the kind of care they would receive if they do get in. Head Start got her out of homelessness. Trump proposal threatens that help for others Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5950524/nx-s1-9930060" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Freight trucks travel northbound on Interstate 5 Highway in September 2025, in Tracy, Calif. Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP hide caption A Sikh truck driver is stabbed amid a rise in anti-South Asian rhetoric September 17, 2026 • Singh, the driver, sustained 17 lacerations, including to his neck and chest, according to court documents recently obtained by NPR. Pediatricians raise the alarm on the effect of Trump's immigration crackdown on kids September 17, 2026 • The Trump administration has been pursuing a quiet immigration crackdown strategy: limiting access to health care and public services. The American Academy of Pediatrics is sounding the alarm about the impact on children. Pediatricians raise the alarm on the effect of Trump's immigration crackdown on kids Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5953989/nx-s1-9930778" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> People's houses are collapsing into the ocean. FEMA gives them no other option September 17, 2026 • Waterfront homes are collapsing along the coast. Homeowners generally have plenty of warning before their house buckles. So why aren't most houses removed, or at least emptied, before they fall? People’s houses are collapsing into the ocean. FEMA gives them no other option Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5844642/nx-s1-9930875" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Why people are leaving entire houses to fall into the ocean September 16, 2026 • NPR dug into the upside-down world of FEMA flood insurance in coastal areas, and found many homeowners have no financial choice but to let their homes collapse. Leon Black, left, a billionaire who was close with Jeffrey Epstein, walks out of the Rayburn House Office Building at the Capitol after his interview about Epstein with the House Oversight Committee, in Washington, Friday, June 26, 2026. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption House holds billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein investigation September 16, 2026 • Billionaire investor Leon Black refused to appear before the committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for a deposition. Now it's up to the Department of Justice whether to pursue criminal charges. Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5954258/nx-s1-9929213" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche delivers remarks during a press briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House on Tuesday. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption DOJ charges Russian agents with plotting attacks, including in the U.S. September 16, 2026 • The indictment says the defendants belong to a network that "is one arm of the Russian Federation's apparatus used to carry out external attacks" worldwide. Lisa Collenbaugh says she still owes the U.S. government $10,389.47 for the certificate program she couldn't afford to finish at UEI College. Jessica Pons for NPR hide caption When students attend these colleges, taxpayers often pay. Here's why September 16, 2026 • Federal data shows many borrowers who aren't paying their loans went to private, for-profit colleges — schools that often market to low-income students and rely on federal financial aid for revenue. Turner - Nonpayment Rates Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5946419/nx-s1-9929285" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon speaks during the Pro-Human Assembly at the Marriott Marquis Washington on Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C. Finn Gomez/Getty Images hide caption Why Steve Bannon sided with Sanders, not Trump, on AI September 16, 2026 • Where does Steve Bannon fit in the debate over regulating or slowing AI? He tells Morning Edition where he breaks with Trump and what he thinks Washington should do. Steve Bannon shares why he think AI development needs to be slowed down Embed Embed < iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5968821/nx-s1-9928126" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink speaks during the United States Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony at Falcon Stadium, Thursday, May 28, 2026, at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Matt Rourke//Pool AP via AP hide caption National Security U.S. acknowledges for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space September 16, 2026 • The remarkable revelation comes after previous warnings about countries such as Russia possibly weaponizing a global frontier long agreed in treaties to be used for only peaceful purposes. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined by other officials walk to a news conference near the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. Ethan Swope/AP hide caption 3 people killed when news helicopter crashes while covering LA bus accident September 16, 2026 • A news helicopter used by NBC and Telemundo crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood on Tuesday, killing at least three people while reporters were covering the nearby crash of an SUV and a city bus. David Streever takes a selfie while on vacation with his daughter and a character at Moomin World in Finland. He was contacted by Homeland Security Investigations officers five months after sending an email to Todd Lyons, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. David Streever hide caption Judge blocks DHS from acting against a man over a harsh email to an ICE official September 15, 2026 • ICE agents turned up at David Streever's home over a harsh email he sent to an ICE official. Now a court order prevents the federal government from making additional threats against him. Nick Reiner in court in February. Chris Torres/Pool EPA via AP hide caption Prosecutors won't seek the death penalty for Nick Reiner September 15, 2026 • Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office spoke with Reiner's siblings and took their wishes into consideration in the decision.