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Today’s best stories
President Biden says he will stop arms shipments to Israel if it carries out a major ground invasion of Rafah. “I’m not providing the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that are dealing with this problem,” Biden told CNN in an interview yesterday. His comments mark a shift, as the president has already shown unwavering support for Israel’s war against Hamas despite domestic and international concerns over civilian deaths and destruction in Gaza.
President Biden is seen at the White House on May 2. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden said he would stop some arms shipments to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a full invasion of Rafah.
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President Biden is seen at the White House on May 2. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden said he would stop some arms shipments to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a full invasion of Rafah.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
- NPR’s Jackie Northam reports from Tel Aviv, where she says the reaction to Biden’s comments ranges from anger to feeling like Israel has been abandoned. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces pressure on several fronts: from the United States to avoid a major ground invasion, from right-wing members of his government to go to Rafah, and from families of Israeli hostages to reach a ceasefire and agreement to release the hostages.
- Israel has been promising for months to launch a military operation in Rafah, whether a ceasefire takes place or not. Here is a timeline of the events leading up to this moment.
Republican lawmakers have turned their attention to tackling anti-Semitism from college campuses to K-12 public schools. Members of the House Education Committee questioned leaders of three school districts yesterday about how they handled recent incidents on their campuses that some lawmakers say put Jewish students in danger.
- School district leaders pushed back against Republican lawmakers during the hearing. NPR’s Cory Turner says Republicans “didn’t score any political points this time” compared to when they polled college presidents a few months ago. All three educators acknowledged that anti-Semitic incidents have occurred and reassured lawmakers that they had taken action in response.
The Taliban claimed that stoning and public flogging would be used as punishment for adulterers, particularly women. — according to an audio recording of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban. The statement was broadcast on Afghan state radio and television networks in March. The call for stoning is controversial and contested among Islamic scholars. Sarah Eltantawi, associate professor of modern Islam at Fordham University, says nothing in the Quran justifies women being subjected to this punishment. Here is how some scholars interpret what Islamic law says on this subject.
We, the voters
Police arrest an unrepresented suspected thief on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York. The neighborhood has seen an increase in thefts over the past year. Many residents blame migrants, but this suspect was American.
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Police arrest an unrepresented suspected thief on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York. The neighborhood has seen an increase in thefts over the past year. Many residents blame migrants, but this suspect was American.
Martin Kaste/NPR
As a member of We, the voters series, NPR brings you immigration stories this week with reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, many seeking asylum, has overwhelmed the federal government’s ability to hear their cases. This and other immigration-related issues have become the focus of the election, as some Republican candidates have sounded the alarm over a wave of migrant crime. National statistics show that violent crime tends to decline even as migration increases. But FBI statistics don’t include immigration status, so it’s impossible to say how much immigrants may affect crime rates.
NPR spoke with more than 20 people along a commercial strip of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York, who say they feel crime has increased over the past year. Listen to their observations and frustrations, or read their stories here.
Deep dive
Kendrick Lamar performs at the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2023 and Drake performs on day two of Lollapalooza Chile 2023. Last week, the two rappers’ long-running feud exploded in a flurry of dissident pieces.
Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernández/Getty Images
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Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernández/Getty Images
Kendrick Lamar performs at the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2023 and Drake performs on day two of Lollapalooza Chile 2023. Last week, the two rappers’ long-running feud exploded in a flurry of dissident pieces.
Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernández/Getty Images
The feud between rap icons Kendrick Lamar and Drake boiled over this past weekend as the two rap stars dropped diss tracks at breakneck speed. NPR Music Editor Sheldon Pearce explains why “Drake fatigue” is real and analyzes how the current rap climate reflects our political climate. Listen to the dissident tracks and read his thoughts here.
- Tensions between the two rappers date back more than a decade. It was revived after Kendrick came out for Drake in a verse of the song “Like That” in March.
- In April, Drake responded with “Push Ups.” In it, he implies that all of Kendrick’s accomplishments were simply meant to spite him.
- On the same day, Drake also released “Taylor Made Freestyle”, in which he used vocal filters from Tupac and Snoop Dogg to prompt Kendrick to respond. The Tupac estate had the song removed from social platforms.
- Kendrick responds with the venomous “Euphoria” two weeks later. Kendrick describes Drake as a master manipulator and taunts him with a list of everything Drake does that irritates him.
- In ‘Family Matters,’ Drake Attacks Kendrick’s Activist Reputation and accuses him of having abused his partner. Sheldon Pearce of NPR claimed that the track demonstrated the peak of Drake’s storytelling power.
- Kendrick then released “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” within hours of each other. The songs are addressed to Drake’s parents, his son, and a daughter he suggests Drake is neglecting. They also shed light on Drake’s questionable relationships with underage girls.
- Pearce says it was ‘impossible to bounce back’ of Kendrick’s last two songs. Drake’s “The Heart Part 6” was “thwarted and defensive.”
3 things to know before you leave
A Victorinox Swiss army knife is on display during Baselworld on March 16, 2016 in Basel, Switzerland.
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A Victorinox Swiss army knife is on display during Baselworld on March 16, 2016 in Basel, Switzerland.
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- The Swiss army knife maker plans to offer bladeless pocket tools. The company says rising violence in some parts of the world has prompted governments to pass stricter laws on the types of blades people can carry in public.
- OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, says it is exploring how to “responsibly” allow users to create AI-generated porn and other explicit content.
- The former interpreter of Shohei Ohtani expected to plead guilty to allegedly stealing more than $16 million from the Dodgers star to pay off his gambling debts. (via LAist)
This newsletter was published by Erika Aguilar.
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