Trump-Harris debate; Taylor Swift endorses Harris : NPR

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Today’s top stories

Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off last night over topics including the economy, abortion, foreign policy and immigration. Throughout the debate, Trump’s tried to tie Harris to President Biden’s record and distance himself from abortion restrictions. Harris tried to define herself to voters as a new and younger leader who cares about them and tie Trump to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and its aftermath. Here are some takeaways from the debate.

• 🎧 “Trump’s tendency to veer between subjects and traffic in falsehoods and conspiracy theories was quite striking,” NPR’s Tamara Keith tells Up First. In response to a question about why he had asked Republicans to kill a bipartisan deal to boost border security, Trump boasted about his rallies’ crowds, claimed Harris busses people in to attend hers and said we’re headed for World War III before saying immigrants are destroying the country. He also nearly accused Harris of being responsible for the assassination attempt against him and insisted he won the 2020 election. Harris responded to the election denial by saying it’s a problem that someone who wants to be president is confused by facts. Harris’s campaign said this debate was great and they look forward to another one in October. Trump remarked that this one wasn’t fair.
• ➡️ NPR fact checked the Harris-Trump presidential debate. Here’s what we found.
• ➡️ After the debate, pop star Taylor Swift endorsed one of the candidates on Instagram. Read the post here.

A government shutdown looms as Congress must pass a stop-gap spending bill before the end of the month. The House is set to vote today on an opening offer from House Republicans that will begin the negotiations. Republicans want to attach what they call the SAVE Act to the bill, which would require voters to prove citizenship to prevent noncitizens from voting. The partisan bill is drawing opposition from Democrats and some Republicans.

• 🎧 NPR’s Claudia Grisales says Trump weighed in on the topic yesterday, saying Republicans shouldn’t agree to anything unless the provision is in the temporary funding plan. Democrats on the other hand want a relatively straightforward temporary funding bill that perhaps includes some disaster aid. Grisales says it’s common for one or both sides to begin negotiations with proposals they know will never get passed — usually to prove a political point. Democrats and some moderate Republicans say the way out is to fund the government and leave the fights to the side.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, today on a joint visit with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. The trip comes hours after the presidential debate, where the candidates had starkly different views on what to do about Ukraine. The country wants the U.S. to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons provided by the U.S. to hit military targets in Russia.

• 🎧 There seems to be some momentum to lift restrictions, especially after Blinken and Lammy revealed that Iran was supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, NPR’s Joanna Kakissis says. Ukraine says using these long-range weapons is the best way to stop Russian troops advancing on Ukrainian land and killing people in its cities. Ukrainians followed last night’s debate. Harris made it clear she would continue support for Ukraine, while Trump seemed to evade talking about support, saying only that he will end the war, but not specifying how.

Climate solutions week

An Uber Eats delivery courier rides an electric bicycle through the Park Slope neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York.

Amir Hamja/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Amir Hamja/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Food production and transportation make up as much as one-third of a typical U.S. household’s annual contribution to climate change-inducing emissions. An estimated 30% of food produced in the country is wasted. Once it’s in landfills, rotting food creates methane — a potent gas that heats the Earth. Minimizing waste and reducing transportation might have a significant impact on the pollution that causes climate change. One possible better solution: home delivery. That’s because with a delivery vehicle, when a driver drops off your groceries they’re often also delivering to neighbors during the same run.

From our hosts

by Michel Martin, Morning Edition host

Do you remember where you were on Sept. 11, 2001? 

For some people the question is almost an insult. How could they forget? For the families of the 2,977 people who died and the tens of thousands of people estimated to have been affected by the smoke, dust, falling debris and trauma, the day marks the end of one life and the beginning of another.

Flags and flowers are placed by the names of those killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, at the reflecting pools at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York.

Donald King/AP

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Donald King/AP

But for other people, especially people born after the 9/11 attacks, who were too young to remember, who lived far away or who have lots of other things to worry about — the question might feel like a scolding in disguise. How many sad days are people supposed to hold close? How many tragedies?

We are not great with memory in America. We often think other people’s memories are too long. We wonder why their ancient hatreds loom so large today. But sometimes it seems as if our memories are too short; we don’t understand why pain lingers or why some people can’t “just get over it” — whatever “it” is.

Maybe there’s a middle ground. On a day like 9/11, maybe we could just take a moment to notice the people around us and ask, “Is this a special day for you? Do you want to talk about it? Did you lose someone? Tell me about that person.”

It can’t hurt to ask, and to listen.

In memory of Fire Patrol Sgt Norman E. McQueen, Jr.

3 things to know before you go

Uganda’s Rebecca Cheptegei (third from left), died after being set on fire in her home. The man who allegedly attacked her has also died, in a case that has renewed calls for more awareness and protections for women against domestic violence in Kenya.

FERENC ISZA/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

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FERENC ISZA/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

1. Dickson Ndiema Marangach, who allegedly poured gasoline on Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei and set her on fire, killing her, has also died of burns, according to the hospital where the two had been treated.
2. A Delta aircraft clipped the tail of another plane on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s tarmac yesterday, officials said. No injuries were reported.
3. Mauricio Pochettino, the Argentinian soccer coach who led some of Europe’s top club teams over the past decade, has been named the new coach of the U.S. men’s national soccer team through a much-anticipated run at the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.