NPR News: 07-21-2026 8PM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
What did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ask Congress regarding funding for the Iran conflict?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on Capitol Hill today asking Congress for tens of billions of dollars to fund the Iran war. The U.S. has been intensifying attacks and four American service members have died in the last week, as NPR's Quill Lawrence reports.
The president's statements over the past five months have sometimes been ignored or quickly walked back, like his suggestion to put a U.S. toll on traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. Or they've been contradictory, like ceasefire deals being dead, but also still under negotiation. And many Democrats on the committee pointed out that whatever rationale for the war as it evolves, none of these have landed well with the American people. Certainly not well enough to understand why Americans are dying, albeit in relatively small numbers. But these are young soldiers who have died over the weekend. You know, Private Isabella Gonzalez was just 19 years old.
NPR's Quill Lawrence reporting. President Trump says he's directing his administration to allow U.S. airlines to fly commercial flights from the U.S. to Lebanon directly. It comes after Trump met at the White House with Lebanon's president. NPR's Deepa Shivaram has more.
Trump announced the news in a post on social media and says he hopes other countries will also allow direct flights into Lebanon.
How have U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz and recent troop losses been described?
The timeline on when those flights would be greenlit is unclear. It would be the first time in 40 years the route is available. Trump's push for direct flights into Lebanon comes as the Trump administration issued guidance on Monday to all Americans abroad to, quote, exercise increased caution. The State Department said Americans should reconsider travel to and through the Middle East. Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, the White House.
Only about one in eight nurses in the U.S. are men, but efforts to make the profession more gender neutral are taking hold, helped along by a favorable job market. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
With nurses in high demand, the University of Alabama at Birmingham has worked for years to bring more men into its nursing school. Faculty there also know that in some cases, male patients respond better to health care workers who look like them. Nursing student Connor Adderholt says it was seeing how nurses tended to his grandmother after a stroke that cemented his desire to become one himself.
It made me realize this is what I want to do, to deal with these tough situations that people have to deal with, to be that calm in the storm.
Good news for students. The Labor Department projects steady job growth for nurses over the next decade, and the jobs pay well. The national median wage for registered nurses tops $90,000 a year. Andrea Hsu in PR News.
New Jersey's governor says about 6,600 people who indicated they were non-citizens were nonetheless registered to vote in the state because of an error. Democratic Governor Mikey Sherrill says it took place between 2023 and 2024 before she was in office. Cheryl says fewer than 400 of those people ended up casting ballots. This is NPR. The U.S. Center for Safe Sport has begun making public announcements of people placed on its disciplinary database. It's a move designed to increase transparency and bring more attention to what the center believes is one of its top tools to fight against sex abuse. The center will now share weekly updates about people added to the list. Oklahoma paramedics have responded to at least 29 suspected heat-related illness calls in the state's two biggest cities already this week.
Sierra Pfeiffer from member station KOSU reports.
Many Oklahomans are braving a week of triple-digit temperatures as a high-pressure heat dome traps hot air in the region. Local first responders issued medical heat alerts in Tulsa and Oklahoma City after medics treated 13 people with suspected heat-related illnesses in just one day. Adam Palooka is a spokesperson for the state's largest emergency medical service. He says Oklahoma first responders are accustomed to operating in the heat, but paramedics are prepping for more temperature-related calls.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:04
2
What did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ask Congress regarding funding for the Iran conflict?
0:04–1:18
3
How have U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz and recent troop losses been described?
1:18–4:37
4
Why is the White House allowing direct commercial flights from the U.S. to Lebanon now?
4:37–5:02