Shownotes Transcript
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. A small contingent of U.S. troops has arrived in Israel to prepare an advanced air defense system that will guard against any additional missile strikes by Iran.
NPR's Greg Myrie explains it comes at a time when Israel is expected to respond to a recent Iranian airstrike. The Pentagon says a U.S. advance team is now in Israel and will set up the cutting-edge air defense system, known as THAAD, for terminal high-altitude area defense. It takes nearly 100 U.S. troops to run a THAAD battery. The Pentagon says the battery will be operational in the near future, but is not giving a date.
U.S. Navy ships have assisted Israel in defending against two Iranian missile attacks, one in April and one two weeks ago. The THAAD system provides another layer of defense and is considered highly effective against ballistic missiles. Israel says it will respond to the October 1st Iranian attack, but has not specified when or how.
Greg Myhre, NPR News, Washington. Nearly three-quarters of the U.S. reported declines in fatal opioid overdoses in the second half of last year. But as Leonardetti reports from Rhode Island Public Radio, fatal overdoses increased among older adults. A new report by the health policy organization KFF finds that people 65 and older are the main reason opioid deaths rose.
Dr. Ben Hahn is a geriatrician and addiction medicine specialist at UC San Diego.
He says clinicians may be less likely to treat addiction in older patients. There's this sense of, you know, they're old, they're going to die anyway, just let them do what they want. And unfortunately, that way of thinking is very harmful. And it's already taken a heavy toll. Over the last two decades, the number of fatal overdoses in the U.S. quadrupled among people 65 and older.
For NPR News, I'm Lynn Arditti in Providence. Airplane builder Boeing is hoping to raise billions to replenish its cash flow. NPR's Joel Rose reports the troubled planemaker is dealing with a fallout from an ongoing strike by its machinists. Boeing told federal regulators it plans to raise up to $25 billion by selling stock and other securities and that it's opened a new $10 billion line of credit.
Those announcements come as the company is losing a billion dollars a month, according to one estimate, because of a strike that has effectively shut down the factories where the company assembles its most popular jets. About 33,000 workers, mostly in the Pacific Northwest, have been on strike for over a month as they push for higher wages and better retirement benefits. Last week, Boeing said it would lay off about 10 percent of its workforce in order to, quote, stay competitive.
Joel Rose, NPR News. And drugstore chain Walgreens is planning to close 1,200 of its locations over the next three years as it struggles to fix its struggling U.S. business. On Wall Street, the Dow is down 324 points. This is NPR.
As Election Day approaches, NPR's Consider This podcast is zooming in on six states that could determine who wins the White House. Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. We'll ask voters in these swing states what matters to them and which way they want the country to go. Follow along with new episodes this week on the Consider This podcast from NPR.
