daily08162026

 Live from NPR in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. President T's envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, visited Egypt and held a rare meeting today with officials from Hamas. He meets with Israel's prime minister tomorrow. NPR's Daniel Estrin has more on U.S. struggles to advance a post-war plan for Gaza. An official with knowledge of the meeting spoke anonymously to divulge details. The official said Kushner wants to advance a new roadmap for Gaza, for Hamas to give up its control of Gaza to a transitional Palestinian committee, to begin the process of giving up its weapons, to get an international stabilization force to enter Gaza, and to get the Israeli military to gradually withdraw from Gaza. Hamas said it supports the U.S.-backed plan. Israel has publicly rejected the plan, saying Hamas needs to completely demilitarize before Israel withdraws its troops. A group of Mideast countries, including Saudi Arabia and the ceasefire mediators, Qatar and Egypt, said, quote, Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing peace efforts. Daniel Estrin, Tel Aviv.
In Hawaii, Hurricane Lala has been downgraded to a tropical storm, leaving one person dead. Hawaii Public Radio's Bill Dorman reports tropical storm winds and heavy rains are now battering the state's most populous island. The worst of tropical storm Lala has passed beyond Hawaii Island and Maui, and now the storm is lingering over the state's most populous island of Oahu. That's home to Honolulu and roughly 70 percent of the state's population. As the sun rose over Honolulu Sunday morning, more than 125,000 people on the island remained without electricity. 70-mile-an-hour winds are whipping across Oahu with higher gusts. Streams and rivers around the island are flooding. Roads are littered with tree branches and palm fronds. Authorities are asking people to stay off the roads, calling it a dangerous and life-threatening situation.
On Wall Street, Walmart and other big retailers are set to report their earnings this week, giving us a glimpse on how consumer demand is shaping the economy. NPR's Rafael Naam has more. For the most part, consumers continue to spend. And that's important, given how critical consumer spending is to the U.S. economy. We'll get another glimpse into household finances when Walmart and Target report earnings. And investors will also keep a close eye on the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting. The minutes are becoming even more important at a time when Fed chair Kevin Walsh is paring down communications with markets. Walsh believes that gives the Fed flexibility to act as needed, and that the Fed doesn't need to telegraph its movements. But it does leave markets less certain about the Fed's thinking. Hence, the eagerness to look at the minutes from the meeting.
Authorities are looking for additional people who fired weapons during a shooting at Virginia State University yesterday that left five people injured. A 19-year-old suspect, Cameron Harris, remains in custody. He's due in court tomorrow. Police say they're still trying to determine what led to the shooting and whether anyone shot in self-defense or were among the aggressors. The shooting yesterday came as students were getting ready for the new school year at the historically black university south of Richmond, which starts this week.
Hollywood is about to set some fresh box office milestones, NPR's Bob Mondello takes a look at some of the biggest box office hits. Sometime before Labor Day, Spider-Man Brand New Day is expected to join the very exclusive $2 billion club. I am totally out of control. Only seven films in history have ever reached that number in worldwide ticket sales. The Odyssey, meanwhile, has become filmmaker Christopher Nolan's biggest box office hit at about $1.2 billion worldwide. And Toy Story 5 has passed all previous Toy Stories to take in just over $1.1 billion. Combined with the Michael Jackson biopic Michael and the animated Super Mario Galaxy movie, that means that even before Avengers Doomsday and Dune 3 arrive in December, 2026 has already produced $5 billion films more than any year since the pandemic.