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As a kid in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, Dolly Parton always had what she called "a country girl's idea of what glamour was." In her 2001 appearance on Fresh Air, Parton told Terry Gross about a woman in her hometown who wore bright red lipstick and had peroxide-blonde hair piled atop her head. Though her mother dismissed the woman as "trash," to Parton's young eyes, she was the epitome of beauty. "I thought, 'Ooh, that's what I want to be when I grow up — trash,'" Parton said.

Starting in July, Medicare began allowing eligible beneficiaries to get obesity drugs for $50 a month. Less than two months in, CVS and Walgreens tell NPR they've each filled around 100,000 such prescriptions. The prescriptions were made possible as part of a pilot called the Bridge program. By law, Medicare is barred from paying for weight loss drugs, but the administration came up with a workaround.

KNBA’s Top Stories: HEALTH REPORT. The Alaska Beacon looks at findings from the Healthy Alaska program, a partnership between the State Department of Health and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The Jamie D docks in Whittier. ENSTAR GAS. ENSTAR has restored natural gas service to Whittier after a pipeline break earlier this month forced a shutdown.

Every country tells a different economic story. It's time to test your knowledge of the big ideas we've collected on our World Tour. Eight questions stand between you and your Summer School diploma. Haven't listened to this season yet? Start here. Loading...

A federal judge in Boston has handed the Trump administration another temporary win in the legal fight over the president's executive order to restrict mail-in voting for the midterm election. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on Wednesday canceled a nationwide ruling she had issued that blocked the U.S. Postal Service from working on Trump's directives. The decision sets up another possible consideration of the executive order by the Supreme Court.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded 49,571 arrests in July, setting the highest monthly arrest total in President Trump's second term, according to recently released government data provided by ICE to the Deportation Data Project based at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA. The total surge averages out to 1,599 apprehensions a day, and tops June's record-breaking number of 43,021 arrests by 15%.

For stories on the science of healthy living, subscribe to NPR's Health newsletter. Every year Jim Evans faces the challenge of keeping health care costs reasonable for the more than 400 teachers, custodians and bus drivers at Concord Community Schools. Evans, the chief financial officer for the Northern Indiana school district is trying something new this year — negotiating directly with a local hospital. "We think that it could be significant savings," said Evans.

Hello from Karbala in central Iraq. Every year, more than 20 million Shia Muslims gather in this small city to commemorate Arbaeen, which took place earlier this month. It marks the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, 14 centuries ago, a defining moment in Shia Islam. Pilgrims fly into Iraq from all over the world. The temperature is more than 110 degrees in August but many Iraqi and Iranian pilgrims walk for hundreds of miles to mark the sorrowful event.

Updated August 26, 2026 at 9:44 AM AKDT UDIN DHUNGA, Nepal — Massive flash floods in a border area of Nepal and China on Wednesday killed at least 98 people and left hundreds of tourists, workers and others missing after sweeping through communities and bringing travel in some areas to a halt. The prime minister's office in Nepal reported at least 95 dead. China's state broadcaster CCTV said a mudslide in the Tibet region's Gyirong County near the border killed at least three and left 265 missing.

Tim Curry died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 80. With his powerful baritone voice and big expressive eyes, the actor and singer inspired cult-like devotion among fans for portraying irresistible villains. Curry will be most remembered, and is probably most beloved, for his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the tyrannical gender-bending alien scientist in both stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry in 1974.