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Today’s best stories
Police stand at a roadblock on the road to RAF Fairford after an incident, in Whelford, England, Sunday September 27, 2026.
Ben Birchall/PA via AP
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Ben Birchall/PA via AP
British authorities arrested five men near RAF Fairford, a British air base used by American forces in the war against Iran. Three suspicious vehicles were stopped near the base and investigators are looking into several possible motives and connections.
- 🎧 NPR’s Lauren Frayer reports First what we know about the investigation so far. Police say a possible link to Iran is just one line of inquiry, while British officials are also assessing the wider threat from hostile states. Frayer notes that RAF Fairford was also the target of anti-war protests. Suspects can be detained for up to 14 days without charge under Britain’s terrorism laws.
- 🎧 Listen Morning edition for analysis by national security expert Juliette Kayyem on how investigators assess an alleged plot and why U.S. and British officials may describe it differently.
President Trump said he rejected Iran’s offer of a seven-day pause in fighting and an immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran sought freedom from the U.S. naval blockade on its oil exports and access to billions of dollars frozen abroad in exchange for reopening the waterway.
- 🎧 NPR’s Aya Batrawy reports First that oil is flowing across the strait, but not at pre-war levels. Recent Kpler data shows average flows of about 13 million barrels per day last week, compared to about 15 to 17 million before the war. “There is an absence of peace in the Gulf,” Batrawy says, with Washington’s allies in the Gulf “paying a heavy price” for this continued uncertainty.
CNN is back in the White House television pool after a days-long row over press access. The pause meant major moments, including Trump’s appearance at the United Nations and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit, took place without the usual television coverage.
- 🎧 NPR’s Mara Liasson reports that media fights may play well with Trump’s skeptical media base, but they can also cost him the wall-to-wall coverage he usually seeks. She says the dispute is part of a broader question about why Trump is taking positions that run counter to majority public opinion just weeks before the midterm elections.
- Meanwhile, in a strange twist, CNN is getting new owners with close ties to Trump. NPR’s David Folkenflik reflects the malaise within the network as Paramount decides to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
Mass shootings in South Africa have left nearly 40 dead in recent days. The attacks in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban hit a restaurant, a tavern, a house party and the police. did not announce their motivations in the latter cases.
Image exhibition
Artist Sliman Mansour at his home in Jerusalem, November 18, 2025.
Afif Amireh for NPR
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Afif Amireh for NPR
Born in 1947, a year before the creation of Israel, Sliman Mansour says he did not always consider himself Palestinian. “In the early 1970s, I began to discover that I was Palestinian,” he told NPR. “So my art took a 90-degree turn.”
Living under Israeli occupation, he says, makes political escape impossible. But he also believed that beauty was part of how art reached people: “If you don’t speak to people’s hearts, if you don’t speak to people’s feelings, then you don’t reach people.” »
Beauty, he said, was “an important way to reach these hearts.”
Mansour died on August 24 at age 79 and was buried in Bir Zeit, in the occupied West Bank, near the olive groves of his ancestors. Listen to an in-person interview with him and check out some of his work here.
Life advice
Being a parent can be too challenging. Cassidy Freitas, therapist and mom of three, says finding small moments of reset can help regulate your emotions. In his new book, Mom needs a moment, she suggests some techniques:
😤 In times of high stress, pause and take a few intentional breaths before thinking about what is really driving your emotions.
😤 When parental guilt sets in, think about what you would say to a friend in the same situation – and offer yourself the same grace.
😤 Every parent loses their cool sometimes. Acknowledge what happened, own up to the mistake, and take the time to reconnect with your child.
3 things to know before you leave
Tanystylum kiixin, a new species of sea spider, with round eggs inside its legs.
Cormac Toler-Scott/University of British Columbia
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Cormac Toler-Scott/University of British Columbia
- Scientists in Canada discovered two new seas spider species in the Salish Sea – the first discoveries there in more than a century.
- Stanford professor Bryant Lin spent years study lung cancer before becoming a stage IV patient himself – just as new treatments are changing the outlook for the disease.
- DC’s Rat Rangers leading night safaris through trash-strewn alleys to teach residents a simple lesson: If you want fewer rats, start with humans.
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