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Today’s prime tales

Iowa Republicans kick off the 2024 election season tonight as they maintain the first caucuses to appoint a presidential candidate. Donald Trump is the clear favourite, however his rivals have been campaigning laborious — whilst temperatures plunge under zero. Here’s how the first-in-the-nation caucuses work and why they’re so significant.

Signage for the Iowa caucus throughout a storm in Des Moines, Iowa, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images

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Bloomberg/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images

Signage for the Iowa caucus throughout a storm in Des Moines, Iowa, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images

• “It really feels like a battle for second place,” NPR’s Don Gonyea experiences for Up First from Iowa. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are in an in depth battle after Trump. Gonyea says DeSantis has “poured so much” into the race, and if he finishes third, there can be calls for him to drop out. Haley is wanting ahead to the New Hampshire major later this month, the place she’s been polling properly — however nonetheless behind Trump.

• NPR’s Elena Moore covers new voters and says Iowa’s Gen Z Republicans are additionally “on the Trump train.” But caucuses have a tendency to draw fewer voters than primaries, and the individuals who end up are typically older. She says the much less versatile system with no early or mail-in voting is “all-around a bad combo for brand new and younger voters.”
• NPR journalists will convey you caucus information, outcomes and evaluation — on-line and on air — all day. Stay updated with NPR’s live blog, take a look at Iowa Public Radio and tune in to stay protection on many public radio stations and the NPR app.

People in Israel, Gaza and world wide marked 100 days of struggle this weekend following the Oct. 7 Hamas assault that killed greater than 1,200 individuals in Israel, based on the nation’s authorities. Gaza’s Ministry says greater than 24,000 individuals in Gaza — principally ladies and kids — have been killed by Israel’s navy response to the assaults.

• Israelis held vigils this weekend for hostages taken by Hamas. NPR’s Lauren Frayer experiences there was a way that “time is running out for their safe return.” U.S. officers, in the meantime, are pushing Israel to tamp down on its bombardment of Gaza and shift to focused missions to hunt Hamas leaders and discover hostages.
• Moshe Lavi’s brother Omri Miran was one of many hostages taken by Hamas. As he tells Morning Edition his brother’s story, Lavi says there is a “sense of urgency right now that needs to be amplified everywhere by everyone beyond the political discourse.” 

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

During his lifetime, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s views have been thought of radical by a lot of the white institution, together with the federal government. King was the topic of a number of FBI surveillance investigations, designed to gather subversive materials on him.

Chick Harrity/AP

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Chick Harrity/AP

During his lifetime, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s views have been thought of radical by a lot of the white institution, together with the federal government. King was the topic of a number of FBI surveillance investigations, designed to gather subversive materials on him.

Chick Harrity/AP

The Iowa caucuses fall on a nationwide vacation this 12 months: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For 2024, Americans are honoring the civil rights chief on his precise birthday. He would have been 95. Here are some things to learn about why we celebrate this holiday:

• While King is extensively lauded as a nonviolent civil rights hero now, his views have been thought of radical by the federal government and far of White America throughout his lifetime.
• A marketing campaign to make MLK Day a nationwide vacation started nearly instantly after his assassination on April 4, 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed it into legislation in 1983, nevertheless it wasn’t formally noticed till 1986.
• In 1994, MLK Day turned the one federal vacation devoted to volunteerism. Americans are inspired to honor King’s life by means of “acts of civic work and community service.”

To be taught extra about MLK’s legacy, pay attention to those six podcasts about his life, together with Code Switch’s episode on the power of King’s anger.

From our hosts

Simon & Schuster, Eli Turner Photography

Simon & Schuster, Eli Turner Photography

This essay was written by Steve Inskeep. He joined NPR in 1996 and began internet hosting Morning Edition in 2004. He additionally hosts Up First.

In 2008, Michele Norris approached me with an concept. We ought to collect a mixed-race group of voters and interview them about that 12 months’s presidential election, which Barack Obama was on his solution to profitable.

Michele proposed encouraging frank discussions by serving dinner first after which speaking for hours and hours. She thought meals improved dialog. Looking again, I understand she advised me this whereas we have been in a restaurant. She was recruiting me for the mission whereas taking me to lunch.

The ensuing York Project traced voter attitudes and fears in a historic 12 months — and launched Michele on a brand new path. Many individuals thought Obama’s election heralded a post-racial America. She did not suppose so. Eventually, she based the Race Card Project, which inspired individuals to inform their tales about race and identification in six phrases. She left NPR as she pursued this.

Now, she’s collected greater than a decade of six-word tales and follow-up interviews, which she views as a particular report of our period. In today’s interview about her e-book Our Hidden Conversations, she compares the tales to “dendrochronology, the study of tree rings.” When you chop down a tree, the rings within the trunk — one from every year — will inform a narrative of floods and droughts, fires or human disturbances and chemical substances within the soil. “The tree will tell a story, and the tree never lies.”

In a tumultuous period, she advised us, “This archive of human experience is a social tree ring.”

Race and variety reads and listens

Students from municipal faculties in Caxias do Sul, a metropolis with a majority white inhabitants within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, paint a picture of US civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., as they take part in a program referred to as “Qualifying Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations.”

Silvio Avila/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Silvio Avila/AFP by way of Getty Images

Students from municipal faculties in Caxias do Sul, a metropolis with a majority white inhabitants within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, paint a picture of US civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., as they take part in a program referred to as “Qualifying Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations.”

Silvio Avila/AFP by way of Getty Images

Sandhya Dirks is a nationwide correspondent overlaying race and identification for NPR. She approaches race and fairness not as a beat however as a elementary lens for all investigative and explanatory reporting. Dirks shares some NPR reporting to learn, pay attention and replicate on for MLK Day.