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After years of booming tourism in Las Vegas, the hot streak looks to be cooling off — and it may be a tell for the broader economy. For the sixth consecutive month this year, Las Vegas experienced a decline in the number of visitors year-over-year — with June seeing nearly 400,000 fewer visitors or an 11.3 percent drop compared to the same time last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).

Back-to-school season can be a hectic time for parents. You're settling your kids into a new routine, preparing them mentally for the new school year and adding homework help and lunch prep to your own schedule. To make the transition from summer break to school less stressful, Life Kit has tips to help parents navigate the next few weeks. Calm your kids' back-to-school jitters Talk to your Gen Z kids about their anxiety as the new school year begins.

The Trump administration is accelerating plans to place a nuclear reactor on the moon to power a base for humans. The reactor would launch to the moon by 2030, according to a directive by Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy that was sent to NASA officials in July and obtained by NPR. It's an ambitious target that has some in the scientific community concerned about high costs and a potentially unrealistic schedule.

It sounds like a joke, or a bad episode of Black Mirror. A band of four guys with shaggy hair released two albums' worth of generic psych-rock songs back-to-back. The songs ended up on Spotify users' Discover Weekly feeds, as well as on third-party playlists boasting hundreds of thousands of followers. Within a few weeks, the band's music had garnered millions of streams — except the band wasn't real. It was a "synthetic music project" created using artificial intelligence.

Adults of a certain age may remember McGruff the Crime Dog best. The animated bloodhound in a trench coat warned children about the dangers of using drugs in a series of both gritty and cheery public service announcements on TV in the 1980s and 1990s.

President Trump is resurrecting the Presidential Fitness Test! Which of these was NOT part of the test? sit-and-reach shuttle run one-mile run rope climb No, that was part of it. No, that was part of it. No, that was part of it. That's right! No rope. Mercifully, the rite of public humiliation that was the Presidential Fitness Test did not include rope climbing, another staple of bygone gym classes.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, about efforts to remap congressional districts, and what President Trump's proposed new census could mean. Copyright 2025 NPR

President Trump says he is willing to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine, without requiring the Russian leader to also meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Copyright 2025 NPR

Rayford Junior Miles — a World War II veteran from Alabama — came across as a classic tough guy. But to his granddaughter Melanie Harrison, he was just 'Papa.' Melanie spoke with her father, Jim Miles, to remember a grandfather with a soft heart and a comical communication style. Copyright 2025 NPR

Israel's Security Cabinet approved a proposal early Friday for the military to expand the war in Gaza and take control of Gaza City, one of the last areas of the territory not yet under full military occupation. Copyright 2025 NPR