NPR News

American democracy can seem messy in a week like this. Impeachment hearings looming, six-headed debates, people snapping, sniping, and all the costly, time-consuming, and chaotic accouterments of polls, fund-raising and campaign rallies.

It's one way to run a country. But this week might also offer a little perspective from around the world.

Usually Meals on Wheels means home delivery or lunch at a senior center. For more than 50 years, the federal government has been funding the program to make sure older Americans get the nutrition they need. Now, a project in Vancouver, Wash., is trying to use those funds for something new: a retro-hip diner, where seniors can get eggs, coffee, and community.

Just after sunrise, elk are grazing in a misty field in Washington's Skagit Valley, an hour and a half north of Seattle.

"It looks like there are roughly 40 animals there," says Scott Schuyler, a member of northwest Washington's Upper Skagit Tribe.

The "Phase 1" trade deal with China that President Trump signed this week is unlike any previous free trade agreement. From Trump's point of view, that's the whole point.

A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by nearly two dozen young people aimed at forcing the federal government to take bolder action on climate change, saying the courts were not the appropriate place to address the issue.

The Pentagon is updating the way it vets foreign military students in the wake of the deadly shooting at the Pensacola, Fla., Naval Air Station by a Saudi military officer last month, officials announced.

Police have arrested three men in northern Georgia who are suspected of belonging to a violent white supremacist group called The Base, saying that they were plotting to commit murder and that they belonged to a criminal street gang.

They're the second trio of suspected Base members to be arrested this week; the FBI announced Thursday that it arrested three other men in Maryland.

Updated at 11:32 p.m. ET

It costs just $16 to buy a one-way ticket on the Amtrak train from Chicago to Bloomington, Ill., unless you're the two people who use wheelchairs and tried to buy tickets recently. They were told their tickets will cost not $16 — but $25,000.

When Adam Ballard saw what Amtrak wanted to charge, he couldn't believe it.