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Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. A dozen states, led by California, are suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation's largest movie studios, television newsrooms, and other entertainment properties.

Updated July 13, 2026 at 11:12 AM EDT BANGKOK — A huge fire tore through a music bar in Bangkok overnight, killing at least 27 people and leaving 25 hospitalized in critical condition on Monday as investigations began into the Thai capital's deadliest blaze in 17 years. Bangkok city officials said the fire at the Rong Beer Na Ladprao bar in a northern part of the Thai capital broke out shortly before midnight Sunday, and it took about half an hour for firefighters to bring it under control.

Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. On a sweltering morning in early July, Thomas Andrade, the co-owner of Everett Auto Parts in Massachusetts, supervises as a team of workers carefully straps two Chevy Volt hybrid batteries to a pallet, ready to ship out for recycling. Selling off valuable bits and pieces of a vehicle is, fundamentally, how a salvage yard makes money.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: Last week, some retired judges took a bus tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan to stress the importance of independent courts. Ohio Public Media's Sarah Donaldson tagged along for a morning. SARAH DONALDSON, BYLINE: The brown and black coach with the Justice in Motion decal on its side, kicked into drive Tuesday in the Greater Pittsburgh region. By Wednesday, it's idling on a main street in Ohio's capital city, Columbus.

Jubilee Media produces some of the most watched content on YouTube. That includes the show "Surrounded," which has increasingly become a stop for politicians hoping to make inroads with young viewers. Copyright 2026 NPR National & International News Morning EditionNPR News

Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. AI-powered platforms are training bots to sound like political candidates in text messages, holding personalized conversations with thousands of potential voters simultaneously. The bots are also gathering data, learning what each voter wants from their representatives and using that information to shape future campaign messaging.

With key bills signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro Sunday evening, the $50.8 billion Pennsylvania state budget increases funding for public education, doubles support for rape crisis centers and includes no cuts to Medicaid and little action on data center regulation. Local lawmakers say residents of Pittsburgh — and Allegheny County — have plenty to pay attention to in the final deal, which allocates dollars through the next fiscal year.

ISTANBUL — President Trump says that the U.S. will not allow Iranian ships to move through the Strait of Hormuz. In a post online, Trump said, "We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran's ships or customers from entering or leaving." Trump said other countries will be able to move through the waterway, but that the U.S. would charge a 20% toll on cargo.

The landscape for music discovery has changed drastically over the last few decades. Largely gone are the days of finding your new favorite song by watching MTV or switching through radio stations. Magazine and newspaper reviews are harder and harder to come by, given the decline of print journalism (and arts coverage in particular).

This is a recap of the most recent episode of HBO's House of the Dragon. It contains spoilers. That's what a recap is. Credits! And the only addition to the Die, You! Tapestry we get this week is difficult to decipher at first. Looks to me like a woman whispering into the ear of a stout gentleman with a thin, John Waters mustache. Alys and Daemon? Alys and Aemond? Or — OK, no, wait, I see it now — it's Aemond, murdering my sweet babboo Ser Simon Strong back in episode 2. Wow. Cold.