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Beth Gibbons' first solo album, Lives Outgrown, is out May 17.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Portishead's Beth Gibbons is a 'passenger on no ordinary journey'

4:28pm February 07, 2024

by Lars Gotrich

Gibbons returns with a solo album, Lives Outgrown, and a song that wonders beyond this life. On this week's 8 Tracks, NPR Music's Lars Gotrich listens to songs that explore what happens next.

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard on the side of a road for security, ahead of Feb. 8 general elections, in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024.

World News

Deadly bombings strike Pakistan the day before parliamentary elections

4:17pm February 07, 2024

by The Associated Press

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar denounced the bombings in Baluchistan, and conveyed his condolences to the families of those who died.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., discusses next steps for the foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel on the day after the bipartisan Senate border security bill collapsed, at the Capitol in on Wednesday.

Politics & Government

Senate GOP blocks border bill, Democrats shift focus to Israel and Ukraine aid

3:09pm February 07, 2024

by Deirdre Walsh

After four months of bipartisan talks on border security Senate Republicans backed off backing changes to the Biden administration's policies they demanded. Democrats moved to pass aid for allies.

In her new book Get the Picture, journalist Bianca Bosker explores why connecting with art sometimes feels harder than it has to be. Above, a visitor takes in paintings at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London in 2010.

Arts
Books

How the art world excludes you and what you can do about it

1:38pm February 07, 2024

by Elizabeth Blair

First of all, can we stop using the word "liminal"? Bianca Bosker spent five years doing in-depth research for Get the Picture — an irreverent book about "strategic snobbery" in the art world.

Houthi fighters stage a rally in support of the Palestinians in Gaza and against the U.S.-led airstrikes on Yemen, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Jan. 29.

The U.S. is demanding Iran rein in its proxy groups. Is that actually possible?

11:25am February 07, 2024

When the U.S. launched airstrikes over the past week in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the idea was to send a message to another country: Iran.

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Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign rally on Monday in Spartanburg, S.C. Haley has focused her campaign attention and resources on South Carolina, likely causing her loss in Nevada's primary Tuesday to "none of these candidates."

'None of these candidates' takes the Nevada Republican primary, dealing Haley a blow

10:35am February 07, 2024

Nikki Haley was the only major candidate left in Nevada's presidential primary election but even that advantage did not help her clinch a win in the contest.

National

NPR founding mother Linda Wertheimer is retiring. Read her bittersweet goodbye note

10:16am February 07, 2024

"At our first staff meeting there were no chairs (or tables) but there were eager people with lots of plans sitting on the floor and I was one of them," Wertheimer writes.

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Air pollution has fallen across the U.S. since the Clean Air Act of 1970. But some areas, like Los Angeles, still suffer heavy pollution from soot and smog. New rules on soot pollution from EPA aim to lower that pollution burden further.

EPA tightens rules on some air pollution for the first time in over a decade

9:54am February 07, 2024

by Alejandra Borunda

The new regulations could save thousands of lives from deadly air pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's calculations.

Residents stand along a flooded street in Santa Barbara, California, as a powerful atmospheric river pummels the region. The storm has caused landslides, power outages, and road and airport closures across Southern California.

Another atmospheric river has soaked California. What role has climate change played?

10:03pm February 06, 2024

by Alejandra Borunda

California is in the grips of an atmospheric river that's causing flooding all over the state. Climate change might be intensifying storms like it — but scientists are still working out the details.

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Purple Tomatoes ripening in the Norfolk Plant Sciences test garden.

A genetically modified purple tomato is now available to home gardeners

8:57pm February 06, 2024

by Sasa Woodruff

The plant gets its color — and a boost in antioxidants — from genes from an edible flower. It's the first time gardeners have been able to grow a GMO crop at home.