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Episode Date: July 28, 2026

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Live from NPR news, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Flags are flying at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol, where a congressional tribute was held this morning for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died earlier this month, at the age of 71. Military pallbearers carried Graham's flag-drape casket up the Capitol steps past two columns of mourners who quietly watched with hand over hard. During the memorial service, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, was one of the, the speakers to say goodbye to his longtime Republican colleague. Rest in peace, my friend. I look forward to the days when you make us all laugh again. A funeral service will take place this afternoon at the National Cathedral, and services will also be held in Graham's home state of South Carolina. President Trump held back-to-back

high-stakes meetings today with the presidents of Ukraine and Israel, as the U.S. navigates its role in two major conflicts. The White House says the meetings were positive and, productive. Nine and ten voters say corruption is a big problem in American politics. Polling from the Brennan Center for Justice finds most voters see corruption as a systemic problem. It keeps politicians from focusing on kitchen table issues. And PR's Eric McDaniel report some Democrats are working to make that connection on the campaign trail. It's a mainstay of Democratic Senator John Ossoff's speeches. Corruption in America runs a lot deeper than Donald Trump. American politics is coin operated.

Money goes in, favors come out. Democratic messaging includes holding Trump accountable, yes, but also a ban on lawmaker stock trading, locking the lobbying, revolving door, and capping money in elections. Republicans note that multiple-housed Democrats have faced recent federal charges related to corruption. So will voters believe their message? Most say corruption is a systemic failure beyond the ethics of any individual politician. Eric McDaniel, NPR News, and Washington.

Scientists say the fires raging in southern Europe are reacting with summer storms. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports this is creating a phenomenon known as firestorms that cannot be extinguished. Jean-Baptiste-Filippi is an expert on fire weather forecasting with the French National Research Center, CNRS. He says a storm and a very hot fire can create a feedback loop. When you have both at the same time, they start to interact a lot. You cannot stop a storm, so you will not stop a firestorm. The exchange of heat from the fires and energy from the storm form a column that can reach six miles high. Philippi says the phenomenon has been seen in California, but never before in southern France. With global warming, it will likely happen more frequently. The only way to avoid it,

he says, is to keep fires from getting so hot that they trigger convection, that is, the exchange of heat and energy with a summer storm. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Samir-N-Axois, France. This is NPR. Hundreds of thousands of authors will receive their share of the 1.5 billion. billion dollar settlement. It's part of a copyright infringement lawsuit against the AI company Anthropic. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports it's far from an unqualified victory for the publishing industry. The compensation is about $3,000 for each title Anthropic used to train its AI models without author's consent. New York Times best-selling author Charles Graber was a named plaintiff in the suit. Anthropic used two of his books. He says the payout reaffirms that piracy is a crime,

But he has mixed feelings about the last two and a half years he spent fighting anthropic. A lot of travel, a lot of discussion about what to do and how to proceed. And a lot of jobs passed up. I'm much poorer for the settlement, ironically. Authors will split the money with publishers and more than $100 million goes to the plaintiff's lawyers. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. Mostly, Haitians are losing their temporary protected status to continue living and working.

in the U.S. Last month, U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the administration to end the legal protections that it viewed as a de facto amnesty program. Parts of Japan's southern Maine island of Kyushu are recovering from a magnitude 6.8 earthquake as measured by the U.S.GS. The Tumblr caused the second floor of a shopping center to collapse. An unknown number of people have been trapped. Local media report as many as 30 people were unaccounted for. The earthquake trace. triggered a tsunami advisory, which was quickly lifted. This is NPR News.