Iowa caucuses; MLK Day : NPR

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At the moment’s high tales

Iowa Republicans kick off the 2024 election season tonight as they maintain the primary caucuses to appoint a presidential candidate. Donald Trump is the clear favourite, however his rivals have been campaigning exhausting — at the same time as temperatures plunge under zero. This is how the first-in-the-nation caucuses work and why they’re so important.

Signage for the Iowa caucus throughout a storm in Des Moines, Iowa, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos

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Bloomberg/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos

Signage for the Iowa caucus throughout a storm in Des Moines, Iowa, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos

• “It actually appears like a battle for second place,” NPR’s Don Gonyea experiences for Up First from Iowa. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are in an in depth battle after Trump. Gonyea says DeSantis has “poured a lot” into the race, and if he finishes third, there can be requires him to drop out. Haley is wanting ahead to the New Hampshire main later this month, the place she’s been polling properly — however nonetheless behind Trump.

• NPR’s Elena Moore covers new voters and says Iowa’s Gen Z Republicans are additionally “on the Trump prepare.” However caucuses have a tendency to draw fewer voters than primaries, and the individuals who end up are typically older. She says the much less versatile system with no early or mail-in voting is “all-around a nasty combo for brand spanking new and younger voters.”
• NPR journalists will deliver you caucus information, outcomes and evaluation — on-line and on air — all day. Keep updated with NPR’s reside weblog, take a look at Iowa Public Radio and tune in to reside protection on many public radio stations and the NPR app.

Folks in Israel, Gaza and all over the world marked 100 days of battle this weekend following the Oct. 7 Hamas assault that killed greater than 1,200 folks in Israel, in keeping with the nation’s authorities. Gaza’s Ministry says greater than 24,000 folks in Gaza — largely ladies and youngsters — have been killed by Israel’s navy response to the assaults.

• Israelis held vigils this weekend for hostages taken by Hamas. NPR’s Lauren Frayer experiences there was a way that “time is working out for his or her secure return.” U.S. officers, in the meantime, are pushing Israel to tamp down on its bombardment of Gaza and shift to focused missions to hunt Hamas leaders and discover hostages.
• Moshe Lavi’s brother Omri Miran was one of many hostages taken by Hamas. As he tells Morning Version his brother’s story, Lavi says there is a “sense of urgency proper now that must be amplified all over the place by everybody past the political discourse.” 

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

Throughout his lifetime, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s views have been thought of radical by a lot of the white institution, together with the federal government. King was the topic of a number of FBI surveillance investigations, designed to gather subversive materials on him.

Chick Harrity/AP

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Chick Harrity/AP

Throughout his lifetime, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s views have been thought of radical by a lot of the white institution, together with the federal government. King was the topic of a number of FBI surveillance investigations, designed to gather subversive materials on him.

Chick Harrity/AP

The Iowa caucuses fall on a nationwide vacation this 12 months: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For 2024, Individuals are honoring the civil rights chief on his precise birthday. He would have been 95. Right here are some things to learn about why we rejoice this vacation:

• Whereas King is broadly lauded as a nonviolent civil rights hero now, his views have been thought of radical by the federal government and far of White America throughout his lifetime.
• A marketing campaign to make MLK Day a nationwide vacation started nearly instantly after his assassination on April 4, 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed it into regulation in 1983, nevertheless it wasn’t formally noticed till 1986.
• In 1994, MLK Day grew to become the one federal vacation devoted to volunteerism. Individuals are inspired to honor King’s life by way of “acts of civic work and neighborhood service.”

To be taught extra about MLK’s legacy, pay attention to those six podcasts about his life, together with Code Change’s episode on the ability of King’s anger.

From our hosts

Simon & Schuster, Eli Turner Pictures

Simon & Schuster, Eli Turner Pictures

This essay was written by Steve Inskeep. He joined NPR in 1996 and began internet hosting Morning Version in 2004. He additionally hosts Up First.

In 2008, Michele Norris approached me with an thought. We should always collect a mixed-race group of voters and interview them about that 12 months’s presidential election, which Barack Obama was on his option to successful.

Michele proposed encouraging frank discussions by serving dinner first after which speaking for hours and hours. She thought meals improved dialog. Trying again, I understand she informed me this whereas we have been in a restaurant. She was recruiting me for the challenge whereas taking me to lunch.

The ensuing York Venture traced voter attitudes and fears in a historic 12 months — and launched Michele on a brand new path. Many individuals thought Obama’s election heralded a post-racial America. She did not assume so. Ultimately, she based the Race Card Venture, which inspired folks to inform their tales about race and id in six phrases. She left NPR as she pursued this.

Now, she’s collected greater than a decade of six-word tales and follow-up interviews, which she views as a particular file of our period. In right now’s interview about her e-book Our Hidden Dialogs, she compares the tales to “dendrochronology, the research of tree rings.” If you minimize down a tree, the rings within the trunk — one from annually — will inform a narrative of floods and droughts, fires or human disturbances and chemical substances within the soil. “The tree will inform a narrative, and the tree by no means lies.”

In a tumultuous period, she informed us, “This archive of human expertise is a social tree ring.”

Race and variety reads and listens

College students from municipal colleges in Caxias do Sul, a metropolis with a majority white inhabitants within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, paint a picture of US civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., as they take part in a program known as “Qualifying Schooling of Ethnic-Racial Relations.”

Silvio Avila/AFP by way of Getty Photos

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Silvio Avila/AFP by way of Getty Photos

College students from municipal colleges in Caxias do Sul, a metropolis with a majority white inhabitants within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, paint a picture of US civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., as they take part in a program known as “Qualifying Schooling of Ethnic-Racial Relations.”

Silvio Avila/AFP by way of Getty Photos

Sandhya Dirks is a nationwide correspondent overlaying race and id for NPR. She approaches race and fairness not as a beat however as a elementary lens for all investigative and explanatory reporting. Dirks shares some NPR reporting to learn, pay attention and replicate on for MLK Day.