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Episode Date: August 31, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. Iranian state media says the country's Revolutionary Guard attacked U.S. bases in Jordan Sunday with ballistic missiles. Iran says the attack was in response to a U.S. military attack on two Iranian launchers on Lerick Island in the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks follow weeks of relative calm and strikes between the two countries. M.Piers Hadil al-S. Shulchi reports. The U.S. Central Command said that the U.S. forces struck after observing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. forces preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz. It said the U.S. military had completed clearing sea mines from the straits international shipping

routes last week. Iranian state media said that a U.S. drone carried out the attack, and the Revolutionary Guard said there were deaths among its fighters. Larek Island is primarily used as an Iranian military post. Iran has normally responded by targeting U.S. installations in the Gulf and Jordan. Hedil al-S. Jalchev, NPR News, Istanbul. State Department's spokesperson Tommy Pigott says 85 Americans are missing following devastating flash floods in Nepal and Tibet Wednesday. Nine Americans have been evacuated from the region. The flooding is killed more than 900. And now people are trying to get back to a normal life. Pigott says the U.S. is helping.

Nepal government, we're coordinating with them on what they need. We have activated from the State Department $3.6 million in emergency humanitarian assistance. That includes up to three months of emergency food for up to 10,000 flood effects. households. So we have immediately activated that. We actually have the first U.S. assistance on the ground are ready to address this humanitarian disaster. Piggott was speaking on ABC's this week. The National Park Service says about 15 people may be missing following flash flooding on Saturday in the Grand Canyon and one person is dead. Dozens of other people were also evacuated from inside the canyon. High water destroyed footbridges over a creek that flows into the Colorado River

and shoved boulders and debris downstream. Starting Monday, tourists, will not be allowed to stay overnight the lodges in the park. The price of French fries and funnel cake at the Minnesota State Fair is going up. But as NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the price of corn dogs is down this year. There are many ways to measure inflation. Economist Tyler Shipper at the University of St. Thomas has been tracking prices at the Minnesota State Fair to compile what he calls the on a stick price index. Whenever people go to the fair, it's an interesting event because people are generally not thinking about

pinching every dollar and every cent, but they still certainly see it because it's an affordability issue for them. The price of fried Oreos is up sharply this year, but cheese curd prices are flat. The overall cost of living on a stick is up just over 3% from a year ago. That's a smaller annual increase than the two previous years, suggesting that fairground inflation is cooling, but still hotter than most people would like. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News. Hundreds of people attended a funeral in Haiti Sunday for four people killed during a brutal attack near the Capitol last week. 47 people died in that attack, and its brutal nature shocked many residents accustomed to gang violence there.

The gangs also abducted more than 50 other people, some have since been released. Hours after it was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's newest Space Telescope reports that all systems are nominal. The craft is now in its journey to a new home, a million miles from Earth. Central Florida public media's Brendan Byrne has more. The Roman Space Telescope pitched a ride on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, launching the 18,000-pound telescope that's about the size of a tour bus. NASA's Jackie Townsend said it went exactly as planned. What a glorious dawn launch, and the ride was magnificent.

Just hours after liftoff, the spacecraft began opening its solar panels and other instruments and is performing as expected. It will take Roman about three months to get to its final destination in space. with the first observations coming before the end of the year. The observatory is on the hunt for dark matter and dark energy, which could change our understanding of how the universe works. It's also expected to identify over 100,000 planets orbiting other stars. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando.

Moviegoers still haven't had enough of Spidey. In its fifth weekend on North American movie screens, Spider-Man brand-new day remained in first place, bringing in $22.2 million this weekend. Its worldwide total has now grown to $2.3 billion. That makes it the fourth highest grossing film of all time. Coyote and Acme debuted in second with $15.5 million in domestic ticket sales. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.