
NPR News Now reports: Congress and the White House battle over a new stimulus bill, UAE in talks to normalize relations with Israel, Afghanistan and Taliban prisoners, and other world news.

NPR News Now reports: Congress and the White House battle over a new stimulus bill, UAE in talks to normalize relations with Israel, Afghanistan and Taliban prisoners, and other world news.
NPR Up First reports: Facebook is launching a tool to help users register to vote. Kamala Harris’ ethnicity will be important to voters of color. And, Thai students protest the military’s involvement in Thai politics.
Last night, Joe Biden made the most important decision in his campaign with a historic pick of Senator Kamala Devi Harris as his vice-presidential candidate. But it’s the next 48 hours that are truly crucial for the campaign to prove they have the chemistry to win the presidency.
Guests: Axios’ Hans Nichols and Jeff Tracy
It’s been about a month since the Chinese Communist Party forced a national security law on Hong Kong. This new law made it illegal for anyone anywhere in the world to promote democratic reform in the region. Recent arrests of top media and political figures have made it clear that Hong Kong’s relatively free political system is over.
Guests: Axios’ Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, and Miriam Kramer and special thanks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and the Asian American Journalists Association.
The number of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. surpasses 5 million. Tens of millions of Americans could be evicted with the eviction ban lapsing. Plus, Hong Kong Publisher Jimmy Lai is arrested under China’s new national security law.
NPR News Now reports: Protests erupt in Beirut in aftermath of massive explosion, Tik Tok sues U.S., and other world news.
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the world’s pre-eminent classical soloists. For 40 years the German performer has collaborated with distinguished composers and musicians, winning numerous awards. She talks to Monocle’s Robert Bound about Beethoven, her Stradivarius and sending biscuits to John Williams.Anne-Sophie Mutter (born 29 June 1963) is a German violinist. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan, and has had several works composed especially for her, by Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, John Williams and others.
In 2015, after a nine-and-a-half-year journey, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto, beaming images of the dwarf planet back to Earth.Five years after the mission, researchers are poring over images of Pluto’s far-side, which was shrouded in shadow during New Horizon’s flypast. They hope that these images will help give a better understanding of how Pluto was born and even whether a hidden ocean resides beneath the world’s icy crust.
This is an audio version of our feature: Pluto’s dark side spills its secrets — including hints of a hidden ocean
It’s too soon to know what downtown cities will look like after the coronavirus pandemic. What we do know is that no business will be spared. Both small mom and pops and big retailers will have to shut their doors and move away from dense city centers. That could mean landowners, consumers and retailers will have to work together to imagine the new iteration of the American city.
Guests: Axios’ Dion Rabouin, Caitlin Owens, and Sara Goo.
NPR New Now: The Beirut explosion killed at least 135 people, the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, and other top news.