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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stephens.
Chapter 2: What measures is President Trump proposing to combat fentanyl?
President Trump says his administration will treat fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. It's part of a broader effort to militarize the war on drugs. NPR's Brian Mann reports that many addiction experts say the strategy will not slow drug overdose deaths in the U.S.
Trump's executive order describes street fentanyl as a chemical weapon, but many drug policy experts say fentanyl would be difficult to use as a weapon, and it's never happened before in the U.S. Jeffrey Singer is a physician and an expert on addiction at the Cato Institute.
Chapter 3: How are addiction experts reacting to Trump's strategy on drug militarization?
I don't know how you could equate smugglers meeting market demand and selling something illegal to people who want to buy it as an act of war.
Trump had already classified drug cartels as terrorist organizations and launched military strikes against alleged drug boats. Deaths from street fentanyl were already declining in the U.S. before Trump militarized the response, dropping 27 percent last year, according to federal data. Brian Mann, NPR News.
Enrollment at U.S. medical schools is breaking records this year.
Chapter 4: What is the significance of the record enrollment in U.S. medical schools this year?
The milestone is good news for a health care industry that's facing a shortage of doctors. Scott Massione from member station WYPR has more.
For the first time ever, total enrollment in U.S. medical schools will reach 100,000 students. The benchmark could help deal with an estimated shortage of 86,000 physicians over the next 10 years.
Chapter 5: How could the increase in medical students impact the healthcare shortage?
According to Norma Pohl-Hunter, of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
We have significant medically underserved areas and health profession shortage areas. So as we think about the future generation of physicians, we want to be able to attract individuals who are qualified from across various communities.
The increase in medical students marks a turnaround from three years of declining enrollment. Schools like the University of Maryland are expanding the number of students who can enroll in medical schools to try and build the physician pipeline. For NPR News, I'm Scott Mascione in Baltimore.
Chapter 6: What details are known about the tragic incident involving Nick Reiner?
32-year-old Nick Reiner is still being held without bail after being charged with killing his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner. The couple were fatally stabbed in their home early Sunday. Steve Futterman reports that Nick Reiner will undergo a medical evaluation before his arraignment.
A mental health defense is very, very possible. Nick Reiner, as we've learned, has been very open in discussing his struggles. And we know in recent weeks, his family had grown quite concerned about his behavior. And just hours before the killings, Reiner had a heated argument with his father, Rob, as they attended a Christmas party.
So his mental state and capacity at the time of the killings could very likely play a key role in his defense.
Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. U.S. futures are slightly lower in after-hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR. A Dallas church is asking people to consider what it would look like if Jesus was born today with a nativity scene that includes razor wire and an old shopping cart. KERA's Markita Fornoff has the story.
Silhouettes of Mary and Joseph are surrounded by chain-link fencing topped with razor wire in front of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. Their halos are made from discarded bicycle wheels, and the manger is an old tire. Two burn bins and a shopping cart flank the scene.
Reverend Rachel Griffin Allison says the arrangement reflects the lives of multiple people on the margins, like immigrants, refugees, and the unhoused. For her, the Christmas story is one of God choosing vulnerability over power.
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Chapter 7: How is a Dallas church reimagining the nativity scene for contemporary issues?
Putting this installation out is not adding politics. It's removing the filters that maybe made the story feel safe in the first place, because it never was.
Griffin Allison hopes the nativity expands viewers' ideas of who is holy. I'm Markita Fornoff in Dallas.
The U.S. Capitol has begun displaying a statue of a teenage Barbara Rose Johns. The monument sits in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall and replaces one of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Johns was 16 years old when she led a student strike for equal education in 1951 in Farmville, Virginia.
The protest gained the support of the NAACP and became one of five cases that led to the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. On Asia-Pacific markets, shares are mixed. This is NPR News.