Up First Briefing: Fuel Standards, Campus Assault Allegations, and Global Security Updates

The Trump administration is rolling back federal fuel-economy standards for new vehicles. American automakers will now be required to improve the efficiency of their fleets by up to 1% a year, aiming for an average of 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031 — down from the Biden-era target of 50.4 mpg.

Automakers praised the new standards, saying they better reflect current market demand. NPR's Willa Rubin tells Up First that critics warn lower fuel efficiency could raise long-term fuel costs and pollution, while U.S. automakers also risk falling behind competitors in markets moving faster toward electric vehicles.

New York prosecutors are reopening a 2024 alleged rape case involving Cornell University students. A woman identified as Jane Doe says in a new lawsuit that multiple men drugged and raped her at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. Cornell has defended its response, saying it conducted a months-long Title IX investigation. No criminal charges were filed at the time.

NPR's Brian Mann says that Cornell's handling of the case has drawn renewed scrutiny. Campus police investigated the allegations, but local police say they were never notified. Students and recent graduates told NPR they remain concerned about sexual violence and campus safety.

Five British men have been released on bail after being detained near a military base for alleged terror offenses. The British base is used by the U.S. military for strikes on Iran. President Trump has questioned why the men were released.

NPR's Lauren Frayer reports that British counterterrorism officials are still trying to determine why the men were near the base and whether they may have been acting as proxies for a foreign state, knowingly or unknowingly. Iran denies involvement. British officials are urging the public not to speculate. Incidentally, Frayer notes that this is an area where residents say there have been thefts of diesel fuel and fertilizer, which is linked to the war with Iran pushing up prices.

Turkey is positioning itself for a bigger role in the Middle East as questions grow about the U.S. security footprint in the region. Ankara is expanding its military and political reach, but economic pressures and rising tensions with Israel could limit those ambitions. Syria has also become a key test, with Turkey playing a growing role in reconstruction and security as Israel pushes back against its expanding influence.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich became the story when Russia arrested him on espionage charges while he was reporting. He spent 16 months in prison before being convicted and released in a prisoner swap. Gershkovich tells NPR's Leila Fadel that he turned to what he knew: listening, observing and writing. His prison journals became the backbone of his memoir, This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story. He also reflects on the strange reversal of being a journalist accustomed to observing others — and suddenly becoming the person everyone was watching.

A flood happens like clockwork every summer in Juneau, Alaska. When the weather warms up, a reservoir in the mountains above the city fills with billions of gallons of melted ice and eventually breaks past the glacial dam holding it back. Even though I'm based in Arizona, I've been watching from afar every year since 2023, when the glacial outburst flood ripped houses into the raging Mendenhall River. The story is personal. My in-laws are from Juneau, and they live in the floodzone.

That's why it felt like it was time to bring Here & Now's climate-solutions project, Reverse Course, to the last frontier. While climate change is threatening lives and livelihoods around the globe, no state in the country has warmed faster than Alaska. Along with fellow climate journalist Chris Bentley, we boarded small planes, ferries and helicopters to get a close-up view of the risks facing the state. Chris met people from the Chilkat Indian Village in Klukwan who are working to create a warning system for landslides triggered by heavy rain; and I spoke with Juneau residents racing to protect the city from glacial floods that are likely to last another 20 years, or more.

Thankfully, this summer, my in-law's house and the rest of Juneau stayed dry. But about two weeks after we left town, a landslide triggered by a collapsing glacier ripped through mountain villages in Nepal and Tibet. While the scale of the devastation was beyond anything experienced in Alaska, the underlying truth remains: A warming planet is destabilizing ice sheets around the world. The hazards are getting closer to home.

A 300-year-old Mexican musical tradition is spreading worldwide with lively fandangos, where people gather to play, sing and dance. In Veracruz, "La Bamba" is still played every hour.

Oura, the smart-ring maker known for tracking sleep and heart rate, is set to go public this week in an IPO that could value the company at about $15 billion.

SpaceX's 171-foot Starship circled Earth for the first time, a major milestone, but returned early after engine problems cut the test flight short.