Consider This from NPR

Measles continues to spread in West Texas and New Mexico. About 300 cases have been reported, since the outbreak began in January - but the actual number is likely higher.

The communities where measles continues to spread people are largely unvaccinated.

At the same time some isolated measles cases have been reported in a dozen other states - largely linked to international travel.

In most of the U.S., vaccination rates are still high enough to stop a major outbreak. But if they continue to fall, we could see long-term consequences of measles in the future.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

"Oopsie, too late. "That post on X from the President of El Salvador got retweeted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the weekend with a laugh-crying emoji over a headline about a judge's ruling.

The judge ordered the Trump Administration not to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador.

That came after a Brown University physician in the United States on an H1-B visa from Lebanon was sent back. Even though a federal judge issued an order that she appear at an in-person hearing on Monday.

In a court filing today, lawyers for the government said US Customs and Border Patrol officers said they didn't learn of the order until after the doctor was sent back.

The administration insists it is not defying court orders. Trump hasn't yet openly and explicitly defied the courts. Can he undermine them just by flirting with defiance?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Nearly 40, 000.

That's the United Nations estimate for the number of children who have been killed or injured since Israel began its war with Hamas some 18 months ago.

Last year, NPR profiled one injured Gazan boy, Nimer Sadi al-Nimer, who was shot five times by the Israeli military while he and his father were gathering food dropped by parachute outside Gaza City.

This week, NPR Gaza producer Anas Baba tracked Nimer down to hear what the past year has been like.

NPR correspondent Rob Schmitz speaks with Baba about what he learned after reconnecting with Nimer.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

"A little disturbance," "a period of transition," "a detox period." These are all phrases that President Trump and his administration have used to describe the economy, as the stock market has plunged in response to one tariff announcement after another.

Trump is adamant that his tariffs will ultimately bring revenue, jobs and factories to the U.S.

But economist Matt Slaughter, dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, is skeptical. He thinks Trump's strategy is a recipe for long-term economic pain, and that a recession is getting more likely by the day.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been trying to access the massive amounts of Americans' personal information held in databases throughout the federal government.

These databases hold information far more sensitive than name, address or even social security number. Diagnoses and medical data like treatment for mental health and addiction issues is also included in the trove of data.

Now, more than a dozen lawsuits are invoking a little known law from 1974 that was designed to safeguard exactly this kind of data from federal overreach.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

The Trump administration continues to fire, shut down or defund independent elements of the federal government that traditionally work as a check on presidential power.

Supporters of President Trump say: That's exactly the point.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

The deadliest phase of the U.S. fentanyl crisis appears to be over. That's according to new research showing fatal overdoses from fentanyl and other street drugs continue to plunge and have now dropped from their peak in all 50 states.

But with that good news comes with challenges including caring for a larger population of people, who are surviving, but may be deeply unwell.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

House Republicans have to get their spending bill passed by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. They can likely afford to lose just one vote.

And that's the easy part.

Then they'll have to get working on their plan to extend 4.5 trillion dollars in tax cuts passed under the Trump administration — a plan that will require huge cuts in government spending.

Republicans are adamant that cuts to Medicaid are a non-starter. But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a report last week that said Republicans' budget likely would require cuts to Medicaid or Medicare.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Many migrants in Mexico journey north to the U.S. border by riding on top of freight trains. It's a dangerous trip: migrants have been kidnapped by cartels or killed by falling onto the tracks. And now, with the Trump administration suspending asylum applications at the border, the chances of crossing into the U.S. are even smaller than they were a few months ago.

NPR's Eyder Peralta recently rode along with migrants through a frigid night to try to answer a simple question: why do so many still take the risk?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

It's been a little more than a week since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Vice President JD Vance was in the meeting too. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, sat on an Oval Office couch, mostly silent, as Trump and Vance berated the Ukrainian leader.

Along the way, the president and vice president made it clear just how much of the established global order they are ready to upend. An order that for most of his career, Rubio has defended, and worked to help hold up.

So what changed ...and what do those changes mean?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy