Sunday, January 26, 2020

Americans Are Lonely; Iguana BBQ; Senators Use Fidget Spinners To Stay Awake

What exactly does "pettifogger" mean?

Stories And Podcasts You May Have Missed

A new report finds that good co-worker relationships are linked to decreased loneliness.
Tara Moore/Getty Images

A new study says more than 3 in 5 Americans are lonely, with more people reporting feeling like they are left out, poorly understood and lacking companionship. Young people, men and those new at their jobs are some of the hardest hit.

President Trump's legal team opened its response to the Democrats' allegations Saturday, saying that the accusers' facts were wrong and that Trump must preserve his office. Plus, find out why senators only drink milk or water on the floor and what they have been doing to stay awake during the proceedings ( think fidget spinners). 

One day after a contentious interview that was followed by an expletive-filled verbal lashing of NPR host Mary Louise Kelly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is publicly accusing her of lying to him — "twice."

The Trump administration says it is targeting the practice known as "birth tourism." The State Department contends that birth tourism, traveling to the U.S. to deliver a child, has created an industry "rife with criminal activity, including international criminal schemes."

Keeping accusations of pettifoggers out of the Senate. Chief Justice John Roberts uttered the archaic word as he encouraged civil discourse in the impeachment hearings. But what, exactly, does it mean

A teachers union is suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for “arbitrarily” repealing a rule meant to protect student debtors from for-profit universities. This change could make it much harder for students to prove they were misled, causing vulnerable borrowers to be saddled with “impossible debt."

Construction workers in China were scrambling to build a makeshift quarantine and treatment facility on the outskirts of Wuhan, the epicenter of a rapidly spreading new virus that has killed 41 people and infected more than 1,300 others around the world, as of Saturday.

Amtrak is throwing out a policy that had led it to charge two wheelchair users $25,000 for a short train ride that usually costs $16. Amtrak initially said the exorbitant charge was because of the cost of taking a train car out of service to make modifications for the riders’ power wheelchairs. 

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Listen Up

Vladimir Munk was sent to Auschwitz a few months before the concentration camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers in 1945.
Emily Russell/NCPR

Holocaust survivor Vladimir Munk will visit Auschwitz for the first time since he was a prisoner there. His parents were killed in the camp, as were most of his family members. "So, for me, it's like going to the family cemetery," Munk says. (Listening time, 3:30 or read the story)

Six-year-old Jerry Morrison wants to live on the exoplanet Kepler-452b. From StoryCorps, a NASA engineer talks to his nephew about their love of the solar system and the possibilities of what lies beyond. (Listening time, 2:45 or read the story)

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani left behind a complex legacy after being assassinated by the U.S. on Jan. 3. Throughline dives into the past to explore how Soleimani, the son of “landless peasants,” became one of the most influential players in the Middle East. (Listening time, 47:44)

Animal House

The number of pets on planes has become a hot-button issue of late as emotional support animals have become more common than ever.
Shelly Yang/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Emotional support animals may no longer be considered service animals for air travel. In recent years, a spate of incidents in which people attempted to fly with exotic animals — such as squirrels or peacocks — for emotional support have raised questions about whether the regulations are prone to easy abuse. (Listening time, 2:00 or read the story)

Florida’s frozen iguanas — weather hazard or delicacy? Iguanas fell out of trees during a Floridian cold snap, paralyzed by the low temperatures. Some residents took this as an opportunity to try some barbecued iguana. (Read the story)

A little matchmaking and a lot of patience has paid off for the Guam rail bird (locally known as the ko'ko'). The ko’ko’ is only the second bird in history to recover from extinction in the wild. Here’s the story of how it happened. (Listening time, 10:58 or read the story)

Our Picture Show Pick

Kirkenes is known for its views of the Northern Lights.
Claire Harbage/NPR
Looking out across a foggy harbor toward a peninsula jutting off the Norwegian coast, Rune Rafaelsen has a bold plan that could raise the profile of his remote Arctic town — with a little help, he hopes, from China.
— By Suzette McLoone Lohmeyer and Claire Wallace

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