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Today's top stories
The Israeli military says it carried out an airstrike targeting senior Hamas officials in Qatar's capital of Doha yesterday. The strike marks the first attack of its kind by Israel on Qatar, a U.S. ally and mediator between Hamas and Israel in the war in Gaza. On his site, Truth Social, President Trump said the attack was a unilateral decision by Israel that did not "advance Israel or America's goals."
- 🎧 Doha is a major international travel hub, and the airstrike was a "stunning attack," NPR's Aya Batrawy tells Up First. Israel says it was targeting senior officials "directly responsible" for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But the strike missed its targets, Batraw says. Israel instead killed six people. Among them were Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya's son and the head of his office. Three others held no titles with Hamas, and one was a Qatari security officer. Qatar's prime minister described the attack as "state terrorism," saying that it sent a message to the region that Israel is a rogue player and was proof that Israel has worked to sabotage every attempt at achieving peace.
In an interview with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called Trump's threats to send troops to his state a power grab. Trump says it's an effort to fight crime. The president cannot legally send National Guard troops to Chicago without Pritzker's request, but he has sent federal immigration agents in an operation the administration calls "Operation Midway Blitz."
- 🎧 Pritzker tells Inskeep he's "deeply concerned," particularly for people who are in the country legally but are not U.S. citizens. "I'm particularly worried for them because nothing that they will carry will be good enough for ICE," he says. Trump keeps saying he wants Pritzker to call him and ask for troops to help with crime. Pritzker says he's not going to. "Asking for any kind of help or having that conversation with him will become evidence in the case that I was asking for help and, therefore, he's going to send in military troops," Pritzker says. "But look, he has been conversing with me by standing up in front of television cameras. I am conversing with him by standing up in front of television cameras."
- ➡️ As Trump and Pritzker continue to battle over federal actions in Chicago, the president's takeover of Washington D.C., police is set to expire tonight. Here's what's next for the nation's capital.
The Trump administration yesterday released a report outlining more than 100 recommendations it says should be taken to improve children's health. The new Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy calls for a wide range of executive actions and policy reforms aimed at tackling a rise in chronic diseases, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called "an existential crisis for our country." The recommendations follow a May report that outlined what the administration identified as drivers of chronic disease.
- 🎧 Overall, the report emphasizes physical activity and diet in determining children's health, NPR's Maria Godoy says. Every public health expert she spoke with agreed that it was the right place to focus. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and the director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, applauded the report's call to close what's known as the Generally Recognized As Safe loophole, which allows companies to use ingredients that have not undergone a formal safety review by using their own research to declare them safe. Still, other public health advocates tell Godoy the report is overall light on specific details, and doesn't crack down on ultra-processed foods — something that Kennedy has called for repeatedly. Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, notes that the report calls for serving fresh, local produce in schools, but the administration canceled the program that did that.
Election officials have used a revamped tool to check the citizenship status of more than 33 million voters, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The system, known as SAVE, was upgraded last month to allow election officials to use the last four digits of a voter's Social Security number, along with their name and date of birth, to check if they're a U.S. citizen or if they've died. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses USCIS, has not responded to questions about the system from members of Congress. Numerous election officials NPR spoke with expressed concern about what else the Trump administration could do with the data it acquires from states.
Deep dive
An estimated 14 million children worldwide do not receive any vaccines, according to UNICEF estimates. More than half of these kids live in conflict-affected countries. While some of this is due to vaccine hesitancy, the main reason these children miss vaccinations is a caregiver's lack of awareness or difficulty accessing health facilities. The toll of a missed vaccine can last a lifetime. Here's what could happen: 💉 Pneumococcal disease and rotavirus are among the most common causes of serious illness. Pneumococcal disease can cause pneumonia, which is the leading cause of death for all children under 5. Rotavirus is the most common culprit for diarrhea in children under 5 in lower-resource countries.
- 💉Unvaccinated children in conflict-affected countries may also suffer from malnutrition, which affects their immune response. Malnutrition can lead to even worse outcomes, including death, if an unvaccinated child is infected.
- 💉 Even if a child survives an infectious disease, they may not be left unscathed. Measles, mumps and other vaccine-preventable diseases can cause permanent damage, including hearing loss, infertility and blindness.
- 💉 Children of unvaccinated mothers can get vaccine-preventable diseases even before they're born.
Picture show
Over the last century, many of New Zealand's unique birds have disappeared at an alarming pace. Sixty-two bird species are now extinct, and more than 80% of the remaining birds that breed in the country are at risk. The biggest cause of New Zealand bird decline is invasive species — animals brought to the country by humans. Without natural predators to keep them in check, their populations explode, and they prey on birds. New Zealand has started one of the most ambitious projects in the world to conserve its threatened species by killing tens of millions of non-native animals as part of a project known as Predator Free 2050. See photos of some of the birds they're trying to save, and learn about how conservation teams are enacting their work.
3 things to know before you go
- Nepal has been rocked over the past two days by deadly protests led by young people who are frustrated with the country's unemployment rate and wealth gap. Here's what you have to know about how the protests began and what's next for the country.
- An Arizona inmate tricked court officials into releasing him more than two decades early by filing fake orders allegedly dismissing his charges. (via KJZZ)
- Emma Stone, Ava DuVernay and more than 2,000 other Hollywood figures, including well-known actors and filmmakers, have pledged to boycott the growing Israeli movie industry in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.
Copyright 2025 NPR
