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Today’s high tales

Hurricane Lee, now a Category 5 storm, is anticipated to quickly intensify because it churns in direction of the Caribbean. Its middle will probably go north of the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, and it may pose potentially dangerous beach conditions on the U.S. East Coast as early as Sunday.

• NPR’s Michael Copley tells Up First that the intense climate seen internationally this summer season is a consequence of climate change and an El Niño weather pattern, which is amplifying that warming. He says we will anticipate this sample to proceed so long as individuals preserve emitting greenhouse gasses into the ambiance.  

The core of Hurricane Lee is forecast to go north of the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico over the following a number of days.

National Hurricane Center

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National Hurricane Center

The core of Hurricane Lee is forecast to go north of the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico over the following a number of days.

National Hurricane Center

A decide sentenced “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women when he was at the height of his career two decades ago. Masterson was first accused of sexual assault in 2017, and in 2020 was charged with raping three women at his California home between 2001 and 2003.

• A jury found Masterson guilty on two counts at his second trial in May (the first ended in a mistrial), but could not come to a unanimous decision on the third count, which allegedly involved his then-girlfriend. The accusers testified that Masterson drugged them at his home earlier than raping them. They had all met via the Church of Scientology.

Ukraine is making an attempt to do one thing no nation has ever tried: function a nuclear energy business in the course of a struggle. The Zaporizhzhia plant has already been caught in the crossfire, and consultants say at the very least 9 different Soviet-era reactors are weak as Russia launches extra missile and drone assaults.

• NPR’s Brian Mann, who recently visited a plant in western Ukraine, reviews that Ukrainian officers don’t have any selection however to maintain them up and working: These atomic reactors present about half of Ukraine’s electrical energy. 
• The head of Ukraine’s nationwide nuclear energy utility advised Mann that he worries a “Fukushima-like disaster” may occur at Zaporizhzhia, which remains to be occupied by Russian troopers. 

Unemployment is on the rise in Maui within the wake of the wildfires that destroyed many peoples’ properties — and livelihoods. NPR’s Adrian Florido reviews that the financial disaster is due partly to the drastic drop in tourism, with eating places and resorts mainly empty and employees in all places getting laid off. The week earlier than the hearth 130 in Maui individuals filed unemployment claims, in comparison with 4,500 the week after.

• Business leaders and employees are attempting to get the message out that they need vacationers to go to Maui, opposite to what many mentioned within the fires’ instant aftermath. Officials additionally wish to prepare residents to assist with cleanup and development efforts fairly than hiring outsiders. 

From our hosts

Cabo Verde the plaza

Michel Martin

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Michel Martin

Cabo Verde the plaza

Michel Martin

Michel Martin is Morning Edition’s latest host. This week, she traveled to the Chad-Sudan border.

A dusty plaza with a handful of distributors promoting trinkets. A bay with mild waves lapping the shore. A centuries outdated historic church with a big baptismal font. Mundane photos with a hidden, wealthy historical past. This was Cidade Velha, Cabo Verde.

Cabo Verde is an island nation within the central Atlantic the place we stopped for refueling and crew relaxation on our option to the refugee settlement in Chad. We had been touring with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and since we had a protracted layover, she steered we go to this website as a result of it was the primary human settlement in Cabo Verde, and thus, the birthplace of the transatlantic slave commerce. For three centuries, starting in 1462, this beautiful place was the middle of human commerce.

The beautiful bay? Where the captives disembarked. The plaza? Where they had been purchased and offered. The stunning church with blue and white Portuguese tiles? Where the enslaved had been baptized as a result of, our information advised us, the baptized individuals introduced the next value in the marketplace.

Often on a reporting journey, what haunts you is just not the factor you anticipate to see, it is the factor you had no thought you’d see. I knew the trip to the Chad-Sudan border could be intense, however had no thought a scenic overlook held the origin story to a centuries lengthy tragedy.

Weekend picks

Attention, followers of darkish academia: These new YA books could also be for you.

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

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Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Attention, followers of darkish academia: These new YA books could also be for you.

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Check out what NPR is watching, studying and listening to this weekend:

Movies: NPR critic Eric Deggans calls Little Richard: I Am Everything a “masterpiece.” The new CNN documentary focuses on the star’s roots in — and battle with — his connection to queer tradition.

TV: I hadn’t heard of Face to Face till now, however NPR critic John Powers’ description of the third and last season has me hooked: What if Succession‘s Logan Roy solved a homicide?

Books: It’s nonetheless sizzling and muggy in D.C., the place NPR’s headquarters are. But these five YA books will transport you straight into autumn with their academia vibes.

Music: Lauren Mayberry of the band Chvrches goes solo (don’t fret, it is not the tip of the band). She chats with All Things Considered in regards to the subsequent step in her profession.

Games: Starfield is a online game a long time within the making. It’s one of many largest tales ever advised — and whether or not gamers like it would have large penalties for the business.

Quiz: This week’s NPR news quiz begs the query: Where hasn’t somebody escaped from prison? Plus, check your information of the Stone Aged, aged Stones, the aged and the (probably) stoned.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

Reza Baluchi was taken in by the U.S. Coast Guard final week whereas making an attempt to cross the Atlantic in a “hydro pod” product of buoys. Authorities in Flagler County, Fla., responded to Baluchi and his vessel in 2021 and posted photographs of his vessel on Facebook.

Flagler County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office on Facebook

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Flagler County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office on Facebook

Reza Baluchi was taken in by the U.S. Coast Guard final week whereas making an attempt to cross the Atlantic in a “hydro pod” product of buoys. Authorities in Flagler County, Fla., responded to Baluchi and his vessel in 2021 and posted photographs of his vessel on Facebook.

Flagler County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office on Facebook

1. The U.S. Coast Guard arrested a person making an attempt to run an enormous hamster wheel throughout the Atlantic Ocean — for the fourth time. 
2. A uncommon child giraffe born with out spots in Limestone, Tenn., now has a fitting name: Kipekee. It means “unique” in Swahili. 
3. Archeologists in Norway have found an roughly 4,000-year-old arrow shaft from the Stone Age. It predates earlier finds within the space by greater than 2,000 years.

This publication was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi. Suzanne Nuyen contributed.