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Today's top stories
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last night tweeted an image of troops boarding a military plane, providing an update on President Trump's use of the Texas National Guard. Abbott stated in the post that the troops were "deploying now," but didn't provide additional details of where they were going. Trump has called for the Texas Guard to head to cities led by Democratic mayors, including Portland, Ore. and Chicago. The president says the cities have high crime rates, but elected officials in the cities say this move is a threat to state independence.
- 🎧 Trump said that if he wanted to use the Insurrection Act, which gives a president the authority to use federal troops to calm civil unrest in a crisis and engage in law enforcement-like activities, he would. Instead of invoking the Act, the White House is using Section 12-406 of Title 10, an obscure provision of federal law, to claim authority to bring in National Guard troops, NPR's Jaclyn Diaz tells Up First. The law allows the president to call up the Guard if there's "a rebellion" or danger of one happening against the federal government or the possibility of a foreign invasion. The use of this law has yielded mixed results, as seen in Portland, where a judge rejected the Trump administration's claim that federal intervention was needed to manage anti-ICE protests.
The Supreme Court hears a case today about the government's ability to regulate conversion therapy. The practice is generally defined as a method to change a person's same-sex attraction, essentially aiming to make a gay person straight. The case pits conservative Christians, who support the practice and say a ban would violate free speech, against the LGBTQ+ community.
- 🎧 Every major medical association has repudiated conversion therapy, finding that it doesn't work and leads to depression and suicidal thoughts in minors, according to NPR's Nina Totenberg. Due to the findings, half of states have banned the practice for those under 18 years old. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, is challenging the ban, saying it violates the free speech rights of therapists in talk therapy. Lawyer James Campbell, a plaintiff in the case, says the state can determine if a therapist has the right education, but cannot dictate the perspective a therapist takes when they talk about a certain subject.
Today marks two full years since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In Gaza, the anniversary marks the start of a third year of the deadliest and most destructive war the enclave has been subject to. In Israel, people have not been able to move on from the day, as 48 hostages remain in Gaza.
- 🎧 Yesterday, NPR's Emily Feng, who is in Tel Aviv, went to a commemoration event in the Kibbutz of Nir Oz, one of the communities hardest hit by the impacts of Oct. 7. She says people there are still grieving and angry about the Israeli military leaving them undefended on that day. Rotam Cooper, the son of a man who was kidnapped by Hamas and died in captivity, says his community feels like the government abandoned them not once but twice. Feng expressed how the community feels Israel has not done enough to get the hostages back, and this has left the country divided when it comes to the war. NPR's Anas Baba, who is in Gaza, spoke to Ahmed Abu Saif, who says that within the last two years, his life went from going to university to being displaced and worrying about his family's lives.
- ➡️ Since the Oct. 7 attack, at least 220 journalists have been killed in Gaza. War reporters play a crucial role in documenting history, but reaching the front lines to report the truth is challenging. Listen to this Throughline episode about what's at stake if they can't perform their jobs.
Living better
Living Better is a special series about what it takes to stay healthy in America.
Women, on average, outlive men by around five years. However, a new study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows men could narrow that gap. This lifespan difference has been discovered across different species, according to a new study from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. A mix of factors, including genetics, mating habits and caregiving responsibilities, explains the gap. Here's an overview of what impacts men's lives:
- 👫 Men tend to engage in riskier behaviors, like smoking and drinking, at higher rates. Men have been more likely to smoke tobacco, leading to a higher risk of lung cancer.
- 👫 Men are less likely to protect themselves from the sun. Only 12.3% of men always wear sunscreen when they spend over an hour outside on sunny days, according to a survey published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
- 👫 The Max Planck study indicates that the sex that invests more time in the care of offspring tends to live longer. The evolutionary reasoning is that the caregiver parent needs to survive until their offspring are independent.
From our hosts
by Leila Fadel, Morning Edition and Up First host
Just over a week after the October 7, 2023, attack, I walked through a once manicured Kibbutz in southern Israel on the border with Gaza. The landscape told the horrors of that Hamas-led attack. I surveyed burned-out homes, two unmade children's beds with bloodstained sheets and saferooms where families had cowered.
The bodies of those who'd been killed there had been taken away for burial. The rest of the community was evacuated for safety. But I, along with other journalists, was given access to tell the stories of the terror of that day, to name the nearly 1,200 victims and the more than 250 hostages, and to learn who they were in life and the awful way they were killed or taken.
Where I stood, I could hear Israel's punishing response to this attack well underway just a few miles away in Gaza. I could see the plumes of smoke. But I wasn't allowed inside to witness who was being killed and how, to name the dead or to see the destruction. International press was barred from reporting inside independently, so we depended and still depend on our Palestinian colleagues, some of whom have now been killed. At that point, Israel had ordered a complete siege of Gaza, which it could do because it unilaterally controls nearly every border and the water. Along the Sinai, Israel coordinates that control with Egypt. No food, water or electricity would be allowed in for a time.
At that time, nearly 3,000 Palestinians had already been killed. That was almost two years ago.
I never imagined that today I, along with all international press, would still have no access to report independently in Gaza. I never imagined that the number of Palestinians killed would surpass 66,000 people — so many of them children, according to health authorities there. I never imagined that I would hear UNICEF report that 28 children were being killed a day in Gaza — the equivalent of a classroom. I would become familiar with the term WCNSF: Wounded Child No Surviving Family.
I didn't think I'd be looking at aerial images of neighborhoods, hospitals and roads all obliterated as the world and the American public's deep sympathy began to sour over Israel's prosecution of its war … especially after images of starving children began to emerge this year and a famine was declared in parts of Gaza because aid was being blocked from entry.
Right now, Hamas and Israel are negotiating a 20-point peace plan from Trump's administration. It could stop the Israeli bombardment and killing in Gaza. It could force Hamas to finally release the last 48 Israeli hostages it still holds, some dead and some alive.
But then what? Who rebuilds? Is the air, filled with chemicals of war, death and debris, safe to breathe? Who will be discovered under the rubble? Will the far right in Israel win out and push Palestinians out of Gaza? Will Hamas abdicate any role in the future governance of Palestinians? Will an actual solution emerge that is free of occupation, as Palestinians want? Will it guarantee security and safety, as Israelis want? What will come out of all of this horror?
Those are the questions on my mind as this deal is being negotiated, as this day is marked. In the meantime, we tell you the stories of the Israelis and Palestinians who have paid a price that no one should.
3 things to know before you go
- CBS News is buying The Free Press and appointing Bari Weiss as editor in chief of the network in a step to appeal to right-of-center viewers.
- Turkey has become the unofficial capital of the hair transplant industry, attracting people from all over the world with lower costs and package travel deals. In 2022, around 1 million individuals traveled to the country specifically for these procedures.
- Fashion industry players are relying on artificial intelligence to remain competitive, as platforms like TikTok and Pinterest redefine how trends spread.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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