NPR News: 08-16-2026 4PM EDT
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Linda Kenyon. Attorney General Todd Blanche says President Trump will never ask him to do something unethical or illegal. On NBC's Meet the Press, he also declined to pledge to act independently from the White House.
No, I'm not gonna pledge that, and no attorney general should ever pledge that. The president, I mean, if I were to pledge I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country, which is what he has said. What you're saying to me is I should say no, sir, not gonna do it. So there's there I will act with integrity.
Blanch also said the anti weaponization fund is dead. Although the president still strongly believes those who feel they were mistreated by the Justice Department should be compensated. The Attorney General's confirmation had been stalled for some time when some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized the president's anti-weaponization fund and provisions that could compensate January sixth protesters convicted of assaulting police. Severe storms and flooding are being reported across parts of the Midwest. Indiana has been especially hard hit, with rivers reaching record levels and hundreds of people forced from their homes. Samantha Horton from Member Station WFYI has more. In the town of
Rocky Ripple along the White River, residents of more than 300 homes were urged to evacuate. Volunteers helped fill sandbags for residents to try to protect their homes. Some sandbags were also used to reinforce the levee, keeping the water back. Town Council President Randy Sanders says the flood is expected to be the worst since nineteen thirteen.
And there's also some weak spots in the levee. And if we lose any part of it, we're gonna lose most of the town.
For NPR News, I'm Semyatha Horton in Indianapolis.
In the wake of the death of a black British professor who resigned over plagiarism allegations, The university that employed him and the prime minister are responding.
Jason Arde was a celebrated forty-one year old Cambridge University scholar whose rise to prominence led him to become the school's youngest black professor. He resigned two weeks ago amidst allegations of plagiarism and falsifying his personal history and was found dead last week. His family suggests a campaign of misinformation helped lead to his death. Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
A really sad, sad and sorry state of affairs and I think we just all today uh think of Jason, his contribution and uh his family and friends.
In a statement, Cambridge University insists it offered our day pastoral care both before and after he stepped down. For NPR News, I'm Vicky Barker in London. You're
listening to NPR. The death toll in eastern Indonesia after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake is now at least 53. Michael Sullivan has more.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the epicenter of the quake was off the northern coast of the island of Flores in the east of the country at a depth of roughly six miles. A tsunami warning was issued then canceled roughly two and a half hours later. But authorities say there have been hundreds of aftershocks and more than five thousand people have been evacuated from their homes. It's unclear how many more remain buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Indonesia is an archipelago of some seventeen thousand islands and more than two hundred eighty million people that sits along the seismically active ring of fire where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are fairly frequent. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiangrai, Thailand.
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's very public decision to freeze her eggs has sparked some criticism from Republicans. Others have said this criticism is no way to win over female voters. The Congresswoman had some advice for other women.
Make your decision if you even want biological children. Make your decision not based on some right wing person that's just trying to make you feel diminished, scared, and less than.
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