NPR News: 09-02-2026 5PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Eight months after former Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro was ousted in a U.S. military raid, the Trump administration is about to secure expanded control of the Latin American country's oil reserves. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is in Caracas to oversee an oil deal between Washington and a Venezuelan private company. As NPR's Franco-Ordona reports, Trump's claiming the new deal will help bring down gas prices that have been elevated as a result of oil supply disruptions in the U.S. war with Iran. John McHenry of Veteran Republican pollsters says Trump has an incentive to take action, even if his policies won't necessarily produce results over the next few months ahead of the midterms. The first challenge is to show that you know people are concerned about it and that you care about it as well and that you're doing something about it. Part of the problem for Trump is that before the U.S. launched strikes against Iran, average prices were a dollar, a gallon, lower, nationally, and February.

1:00That's a reality that Trump just can't avoid. Franco, Ordona's, and PR News. The Trump administration is requiring states to report any time they conclude someone's in the country illegally. NPR's Jasmine Garce reports the policy marks a reversal of a 1998 legal opinion. In 1996, Congress enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. It requires that federal and state agencies administer welfare report an authorized immigrants getting benefits to homeland security. In an opinion published this week, the Trump administration's Office of Legal Counsel broadened this requirement, saying that all state agencies should be reporting people without legal status to the federal government. States like Illinois, California, and New York have laws designed to protect personal data from being shared with federal immigration authorities, meaning the new policy is likely to be challenged. Jasmine Garce, NPR News, New York.

2:04The United Nations is warning the world is very close to crossing a dangerous climate change threshold. NPR's Lauren Summer has more on the findings of a new report from the UN. NPR's agreed in 2015 to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond that, the risks of a hotter planet get much worse. Storms get more intense, sea levels keep rising, and there are major impacts to crops. A new report from the United Nations Environment Program finds that countries have failed to meet that agreement. To limit the damage, emissions from burning fossil fuels need to drop to zero, and carbon emissions may even need to be sucked out of the atmosphere. Either way, the report warns that countries will need to prepare for worsening disasters due to climate change. Lauren Summer and NPR News. Wall Street Hire by the Closing Bell, the Dow up 295 points. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A new Gallup poll shows nearly 9 in 10 Americans, say corruption in the U.S. government, is widespread.

3:07That's a record high. The poll shows 89% of adults feel that way. That's 10% from last year. Democrats' perception of government corruption rose the most sharply since 2024 compared to other groups. In President Biden's final year in office, 57% said corruption was widespread, rising to 91% this year. For Republicans, the poll found 83% of respondents think there's corruption in government. That's down slightly from Biden's last year in office. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, children are returning to school despite the rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak that has more than 6,000 confirmed cases. Emmett Livingstone has more. More than 3,000 people have died of the disease since an epidemic was declared in Congo in May, and it continues to spread rapidly. The government resisted calls to shut down the schools because of Ebola and has put in place new measures to try to keep children in the classroom.

4:07All schools must have basic sanitary facilities such as hand washing stations, for example, and where the outbreak is severe, children will follow lessons at home via the radio or TV. The decision is dividing teachers. Some of them say they can't guarantee their students safety. But for most, whether teacher, parent or student, there's little choice but to try to carry on. For NPR News, I'm Emmett Livingstone. And I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.