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- [00:00]
Catherine Marr
When you walk into NPR headquarters, one of the first things you see is a big map of the country covered with little blue dots. Each dot represents a local public radio station. That's the NPR network. I'm Catherine Marr, CEO of npr. With federal funding for public media eliminated, your network is under serious threat. Help us plan for the road ahead at donate.npr.org live from NPR News.
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Kristen Wright
In Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. A federal judge in Florida has denied a Justice Department report request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to disgraced financier Jeff Jeffrey Epstein. The Trump administration made the ask last week after coming under pressure over its handling of The Epstein Files. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports.
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Ryan Lucas
The Justice Department is asking the court to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations in South Florida into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. But U.S. district Judge Robin Rosenberg has denied that request. She says that 11th Circuit law does not permit her to unseal the records and that her hands are tied. Grand jury materials are generally secret, and Rosenberg says the department's request does not fall under the limited exceptions allowed under the law. Two judges in New York are also considering parallel requests to unseal grand jury transcripts there related to the convicted sex offender. They have asked the department to better explain why the transcript should be made public, as well as asking for input from Epstein representatives and and his victims. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
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Kristen Wright
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell to give a sworn deposition on August 11th. She was Epstein's former partner in prison for her role in his sexual abuse of underage girls. President Trump is unveiling an action plan on AI. He's signing executive orders today that advance Silicon Valley priorities by rolling back Biden era regulations. NPR's Deepa Shivaram takes a closer look now.
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Deepa Shivaram
The White House says There are over 90 policy actions included in the plan, which centers around removing barriers to innovation and technology and rapidly building up infrastructure like AI data centers. White House AI czar David Sachs told reporters that it's important. The US Is the dominant force on AI on the global stage.
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David Sachs
It's a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence, and we want the United States to win that race.
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Deepa Shivaram
The White House also wants to make sure, quote, ideological bias isn't in the AI models used by the federal government. They want a, quote, standard standard of truthfulness. But officials did not go into detail on what exactly that means. Deepa Shivaram, NPR News.
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Kristen Wright
The national association of Realtors says prices for existing homes hit a record high in June. But as NPR's Laura Walmsley reports, this capped a slow spring.
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Laura Walmsley
The median price for an existing home sold last month was $435,300, the highest ever and up 2% from a year ago. That's good news for those who manage to sell their homes.
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Laurel Wamsley
But.
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Laura Walmsley
But those high prices paired with stubbornly high mortgage rates meant a spring selling season that was weaker than expected. The top of the market was the strongest. Last month, homes priced over a million dollars saw sales increase 14%. There are significantly more homes for sale than there were a year ago, but inventory is still lower than it was pre pandemic. 30 year mortgage rates are averaging about 6.75%. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News.
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Kristen Wright
You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The man who murdered four University of Idaho students in 2022 has been sentenced to four consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole. Before the judge handed down the sentence, family and friends of the victims gave emotional statements. Weeks ago, Brian Kohberger agreed to a plea deal that spared him from the death penalty. He has never said why he did it. A new study finds people around the world burn roughly the same amount of calories each day, regardless of how active they as NPR's Maria Godoy reports, the findings offer strong evidence it's diet, not lack of exercise, that's driving obesity.
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Maria Godoy
In the study, an international team of researchers looked at detailed data on how many calories thousands of people around the world burned each day. Some came from places with high obesity rates, others from populations where obesity is rare. Here's Herman Poncer of Duke University, a senior author of the study.
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Herman Poncer
Surprisingly, the total calories burned per day is really similar across these populations, even though the lifestyle and the activity levels are really different.
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Maria Godoy
Poncer says this means if office workers who sit all day aren't burning fewer calories than, say, nomads in Tanzania, where obesity is rare, then it has to be differences in our diets that's driving weight gain. The findings appear in the journal pnas. Maria Godoy, NPR News.
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Kristen Wright
On Wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 507 points. The NASDAQ closed up 127. I'm Kristen Wright, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.
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