State and National News

Last year, a long-distance truck driver, Mohammad Hashim, was hauling a load of refrigerators out of New Delhi when a dozen strangers on motorbikes forced him off the road.

They pulled him out of his truck and demanded he open the back. They wanted to see if Hashim was transporting cows or beef — which is illegal in many Indian states, because cows are sacred in Hinduism, the majority religion in India.

President Trump says Russia should be allowed to rejoin the Group of Seven industrial nations, and Russia's foreign ministry has welcomed his remarks.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, before his scheduled trip to France for the G-7 summit, Trump encouraged Moscow's return to the elite group.

"I think it's much more appropriate to have Russia in," he said. "It should be the G-8 because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia."

To some, Republican Sen. John McCain embodied principles of a bygone Washington: He sought common ground; he reached across the political divide; he had close friendships with Democrats.

His wife, Cindy McCain, would like to try to get back to those days. So to mark a year since her husband died of brain cancer, she is encouraging Americans to be more civil.

"We're missing John's voice of reason right now in so many ways," McCain tells NPR's David Greene.

China's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that an employee of Britain's Hong Kong consulate was detained nearly two weeks ago during a business trip to the mainland.

Although consulate officials suspected he'd been detained by Chinese authorities, Cheng's exact whereabouts had been unknown to family and friends since he disappeared on Aug. 8 in Shenzhen, a city in China's Guangdong province just across the border from Hong Kong.

When curbside recycling caught on in the 1970s, it was mostly about cans, glass, cardboard and paper. That's how Donald Sanderson remembers it.

Sanderson is 90 years old, an earnest man with a ready smile. Every Thursday in Woodbury, N.J., where he lives, he hauls a big blue recycling bin out to the curb. Recycling is close to his heart. "I guess you could say I'm the father of recycling," he says. "I don't know if that's good or bad."

Q: How do you measure the weight of crackers?
A: In grahams.

Q: Why do melons prefer weddings?
A: They cantaloupe.

Q: Why did the Pale Ale feel out of place in the winter?
A: It wasn't the right saison.

If you're groaning aloud and enjoying every groan, if you relish jokes about "shellfish" and "sea bries," and if you're convinced that you can out-matcha anyone when it comes to food puns, this game is for you.

Without further ado, lettuce play Punderdome.