NPR News: 07-21-2026 9PM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
Why did Ukraine's president dismiss his top military commander after protests?
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired the country's top military commander following days of protests against the general. As NPR's Greg Meyer reports, this is the second major shakeup to the military leadership in the past week.
In a late-night social media post, President Zelensky dismissed the head of the armed forces, General Oleksandr Sersky. The general, age 60, was credited with winning several key battles in recent years. But he's also a Soviet-trained officer who favored rigid battlefield tactics. He clashed with the popular defense minister, 35-year-old Mikhailo Fedorov, a leading advocate of innovative drone warfare. Zelensky fired Fedorov last week. That ignited the protests in support of Fedorov and against the general. These moves create uncertainty at a moment when Ukraine has regained momentum in the war. Zelensky has named a new general to lead the military, but still has an acting defense minister for now.
How did clashes between Ukraine's general and the defense minister spark public protests?
Greg Myrie, NPR News, Kiev.
President Trump's pick for director of national intelligence is moving to the next stage of his confirmation process, a vote before the full Senate. Jay Clayton was recommended by the Senate Intelligence Committee in a nine to eight narrow party line vote that reflects the partisan divide over the sensitive post. NPR's Eric McDaniel has more.
Committee Chair Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas says in a statement, quote, During his confirmation hearing last week, Democrats repeatedly pressed Clayton to acknowledge that President Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Clayton refused to engage.
What is the Senate’s response to President Trump's pick for director of national intelligence?
Trump's acting intel chief, Bill Pulte, has no intelligence background and has been assailed by Democrats who say he used his role as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to weaponize records against the president's opponents. Clayton can be confirmed in the full Senate without Democratic support. Eric McDaniel, NPR News, Washington.
The Trump administration is pausing $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to Minnesota and California over alleged fraud concerns. Federal officials say they'll withhold payments until the states verify that certain Medicaid claims meet federal requirements. Erica Zurich from member station Minnesota Public Radio reports.
Minnesota officials say the $200 million federal officials are withholding makes this the third time payments have been delayed over alleged fraud in health programs. In a written statement, Minnesota Department of Human Services Temporary Commissioner John Connolly says federal officials haven't provided an explanation on how the deferral amount was calculated. The state says it has cooperated with the federal government to prevent the misuse of health funds. California's Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X that the state is being targeted for political reasons and not because of fraud.
Why are federal Medicaid payments paused to Minnesota and California and what are the states saying?
For NPR News, I'm Erika Zurich in St. Paul.
And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is pushing back against a White House report labeling the institution's leadership as radical activists. And Thea M. Hartig told a House Oversight Subcommittee today that the report does not fairly represent the museum's work. The report was released on July 4th and criticized the museum as not telling history in an inspiring and unifying way. As the school day goes on, kids have a harder time controlling their physical movements. As NPR's Junaki Mehta reports, a new study suggests this may tell us about students' long-term success in school.
As each hour of the school day ticks by, kids tend to get squirmier.
How is the Smithsonian responding to claims it promotes 'radical' history and who testified?
Ask any teacher, and that might not be a surprise to them, but a new study in the journal Developmental Psychology tracked children from around the country for decades, from birth until age 26. As the school day wore on, students started getting more mentally exhausted and tended to move around as a result. The kids that got the squirmiest throughout the day tended to have lower academic scores later down the line, while those who were able to self-regulate and sit still throughout the day
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:04
2
Why did Ukraine's president dismiss his top military commander after protests?
0:04–1:02
3
How did clashes between Ukraine's general and the defense minister spark public protests?
1:02–1:43
4
What is the Senate’s response to President Trump's pick for director of national intelligence?
1:43–2:52
5
Why are federal Medicaid payments paused to Minnesota and California and what are the states saying?
2:52–3:42
6
How is the Smithsonian responding to claims it promotes 'radical' history and who testified?
3:42–4:20
7
What new research links children’s in-class movement to long-term academic outcomes?
4:20–5:04