NPR News: 09-08-2026 2PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Lonnie Bunch, the first African American to lead the Smithsonian institution, is retiring. The 73-year-old historian took the helm in 2019 but spent decades with the organization that has tasked, among other things, with accurately chronicling American history. Since President Trump's return to office, the administration has accused the Smithsonian of promoting radical ideology and has threatened the institution's federal funding. Bunch has said immediate interviews at disputes with the administration did not play a role in his decision to retire, but that he would continue to fight for the Smithsonian's independence. The Israeli Prime Minister's office has termed a newspaper report that he was warned ahead of time but did nothing about Hamas's planned October 7th attack on southern Israel, an absolute lie. Israeli opposition leaders have also reacted to the report, which NPR has not independently confirmed by

1:03labeling the Prime Minister, quote, unfit to serve. NPR's Kari Khan reports. According to Haaretz, the UAE leader warned Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of an imminent attack 10 days before October 7th. Siding multiple foreign sources, Haaretz says Netanyahu's response was muted. The Prime Minister's office dismissed the claims as a lie. Thousands of Hamas-led militants broke through multiple border barriers on October 7th, 2023, killing more than 1200 and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel responded with a destructive three-year-long military offensive in Gaza, killing more than 73,000 Palestinians according to local health officials. Netanyahu's opponents have long criticized what they say were his security and political failings to thwart the Hamas attack. Kari Khan, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Authorities say all five people who were killed in Sunday's Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami were inside a

2:07cleaning crew van. NPR's Joel Rose reports the cause of the collision is still under investigation. The Miami-Dade County Sheriff says all five of the people who died in the crash at Miami International Airport were in a van that carried cleaning crews to and from planes. According to the sheriff, the deceased range in age from 47 to 75. Two people remain in critical condition and the third is in stable condition. The Amazon cargo jet crashed as it tried to land on Sunday afternoon, overrunning its runway by roughly 1,300 feet. It slammed into the van while still on airport property investigators say, and then smashed through a fence and onto a local street where it also destroyed an SUV. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. From Washington, this is NPR News. The GOP holds a convention this week focused on the midterm elections. The first of its kind of eddalis is being built as a Trump up elusa.

3:10The president is the headliner. Vice President J.D. Vance has said to speak Wednesday, but his NPR Samaritita describes it's some congressional candidates may not take the stage. I've done the math here and fewer than half of the Republican candidates in competitive House and Senate races are listed as convention speakers, which gets you a sense of how complicated this dance might be for some. And last week at a White House press briefing, Vance said he's not worried about some candidates deciding they would be better surfs, staying home and raising money or talking to voters. NPR's tamariki reporting. The summer box office season has been one for the record books. Senpiers Bob Mandello explains. For close followers of movie box office numbers, this summer has been a nail-biter. Hollywood counts summer as the weeks between the first Friday and May and Labor Day. By that standard, history's biggest box office summer was 2013 when Ironman 3 I'm Tony Stark. Let a parade of blockbusters to collective ticket sales of just over $4.75 billion.

4:11The theater data firm Rentrak now projects a Spider-Man brand new day. My name is Peter Parkman. And a fresh parade of blockbusters will have collected $4.76 billion dollars a new record. It comes with an asterisk audience fondness for premium formats like iMacs has inflated ticket prices since 2013, so those dollars represent fewer patrons. Attendance, while up from recent years, is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Bob Mandello, NPR News. This is NPR. Billionaire Mark Cuban has stared into the belly of the beast of America's healthcare system. I mean, it's so bad you can go through a long list of really quality hospitals and they don't know their costs. So, can Medicare for all be a solution? We take a hard look at the cost of the program along with US healthcare itself. Find this and hear more stories from the indicator from Planet Money on the NPR app.