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Today’s top stories

Vice President Harris will focus on grocery store prices and housing costs in the first major policy speech of her campaign later today in Raleigh, N.C. She will roll out her economic plan, focused on two issues that are top of mind for voters. This comes as the Democratic presidential nominee faces criticism for offering scant details about her own vision for the role, and as her Republican opponent Donald Trump tries to blame her for high prices.

Vice President Harris speaks about prescription drug prices with President Biden on Aug. 15, 2024 in Largo, Md.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

• 🎧 NPR’s Asma Khalid tells Up First that she’s expected to expand the child tax credit and focus on cutting expenses for healthcare, housing and groceries. Harris will call for a federal ban on price gouging in the food sector. She also wants to give first-time home buyers $25,000 toward their down payment, a plan that could help around 4 million people. Khalid says the economy is one of the biggest political vulnerabilities for Harris because many voters are nostalgic for the Trump economy they remember from before COVID.

Former President Trump has been facing pressure from Republicans to focus on policy issues instead of crowd sizes and personal attacks. This week, Trump talked about the economy. Speaking at a North Carolina rally and an extensive press conference at his New Jersey golf club, Trump talked about his plan to eliminate taxes on tips and Social Security benefits for around 45 minutes. He then took questions on topics including Israel, the assassination attempt against him, jobs and Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, though he got off track and returned to the personal attacks.

• 🎧 Yesterday’s event was part of Trump’s efforts to highlight that he does answer questions while Harris has not held a news conference, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez says. While Republicans ask him to tone down his personal attacks, he said he’s the candidate, he has to campaign his own way and it’s what so many of his supporters love about him. Harris is expected to get another bump in public opinion during next week’s Democratic National Convention. Trump said his campaign’s strategy is to paint her as a radical liberal from California. He will also work hard to steal the spotlight with counterprogramming each day by holding rallies and JD Vance doing interviews.

Five people, including two California doctors and an alleged drug dealer, have been charged and arrested in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry. Best known as Chandler Bing from Friends, Perry died last October from the acute effects of ketamine. Officials said in a press conference yesterday that a broad underground criminal network supplied him with the drugs that ultimately killed him. The “Ketamine Queen of North Hollywood,” Jasveen Sangha, and Dr. Salvador Plasencia were among the arrested. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said that the defendants cared more about making money off of Perry than caring for his well-being.

• 🎧 A Drug Enforcement Administration official said that while trying to get help for anxiety and depression, Perry became addicted to ketamine, LAist reporter Robert Garrova says. Doctors refused to increase his dosage and that’s when he turned to other doctors who were ready to take advantage for profit. He paid $55,000 for around 20 vials of ketamine over two months last year.

Today’s listen

Shaboozey performs during the 2024 BET Awards in Los Angeles in June 2024.

Michael Tran/Getty Images

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Michael Tran/Getty Images

In the race for the unofficial yet coveted “song of the summer,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” currently reigns supreme. It’s sitting at No. 1 for a fourth straight week on Billboard’s Hot 100 and is also the top streaming song, top-selling song and the song getting the most radio airplay. The rest of the chart, though, remained eerily static this week, but there are clues as to what bops could take the top spot before summer’s end.

Weekend picks

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿Movies: Cuckoo, a stylishly odd horror film, stars Hunter Schafer as an American teen who reluctantly moves with her family to a mysterious resort in the German Alps. Her rebellious spirit clashes with the resort’s creepy proprietor.

📚 Books: Wendell Berry’s new poetry collection, Another Day: Sabbath Poems, 2013-2023, brings to life the joys and sorrows of hard-working rural Kentuckians.

🎵 Music: Louis Cole is a prolific musician known primarily as a drummer, and whose style over the past decade has fallen in the nexus of jazz, funk and rock. Now, he’s given himself new musical challenges: Writing music for a choir and a new album of orchestral music, called nothing.

🥘 Food: Michelin-starred chef René Redzepi, host of the new show Omnivore on Apple TV+, joins Bullseye with Jesse Thorn’s I Wish I Made That segment to talk about a recipe he wishes he’d invented: a beautiful vegetable dish called Le Gargouillou.

❓Quiz: After the blissful news avalanches of campaign hijinks and the Olympics, we’re back to the usual soup of science, retail and animals. Do you think you’re up for the challenge?

3 things to know before you go

The prehistoric monument Stonehenge, near Amesbury in southern England, has long fascinated researchers and visitors.

Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

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Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

1. Researchers say Stonehenge’s “Altar Stone” may have come from Scotland. This means the monolith – weighing roughly 12,000 pounds – at the center of one of the world’s most mysterious was monuments somehow transported hundreds of miles to England before the invention of the wheel.
2. The Washington Post is reviewing star tech columnist Taylor Lorenz’s private story on social media, which appears to label President Joe Biden a “war criminal” in a photo. Lorenz disputes the authenticity of the photo.
3. TikTok argues that it faces “the most sweeping speech restriction” in U.S. history, in its latest court filing in its battle to avoid being banned. The Chinese-owned social media app argues that the government’s claims that it could be used for Chinese propaganda are baseless.

This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.