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Months of bad news from Iraq have hurt President Bush's standing, with a new NPR poll of likely voters giving him a 50-percent approval rating, down from 53 percent in March. The poll also shows President Bush and his Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry in a statistical dead heat. NPR's Mara Liasson reports.

Members of the commission investigating the U.S. government's response to terrorism before and after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, are calling on Vice President Dick Cheney to provide any information the administration may have supporting its continued claim of links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Hear NPR's Andrea Seabrook and NPR's Linda Wertheimer.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government launched Al Hurra, an Arabic-language news and information channel that broadcasts to the Middle East and North Africa. The channel has gained some fans, but still struggles to dispel the notion that it is a U.S. propaganda outlet. Hear NPR's Steve Inkseep.

Milwaukee-based book influencer Cree Myles curates an account for Penguin Random House dedicated to celebrating Black writers.

Oregon Public Broadcasting's Rob Manning prepared this remembrance of Justin Eyerly, an Oregon guardsman who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad on June 4.

The body of a South Korean hostage beheaded by militants in Iraq is found, a day after the deadline set by his captors for South Korea to cancel a plan to send 3,000 troops to Iraq. The U.S. military says troops found 33-year-old Kim Sun-il's beheaded body Tuesday evening, west of Baghdad. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Emily Harris.

The Bush administration releases scores of documents laying out its policies on interrogating detainees, amid bad publicity over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The White House says the documents show a policy of treating detainees humanely. But critics note the absence of any memos from the State Department, which analysts say expressed grave concerns about the interpretation of the Geneva Conventions. Hear NPR's Jackie Northam.

Firefighting crews were battling to keep the fire in northern New Mexico, the largest fire burning in the U.S., from making another run across the state's drought-parched landscape.

CIA director George Tenet defends intelligence his agency compiled on Iraq. Reacting to weeks of public accusations that a major intelligence failure had preceded the war in Iraq, Tenet insists the CIA never twisted its assessments of Iraq's military capabilities to suit political concerns. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports.

President Biden met with the parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria nearly 10 years ago. He has not been heard from since. Syria has never acknowledged holding him.