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Today’s top stories
Today marks the beginning of the first phase of President Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza. This follows the Israeli government’s approval of a ceasefire deal with Hamas, allowing for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and around 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israeli soldiers gather near armoured vehicles at a position along the Israel-Gaza border fence on Oct. 10. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Oct. 10 that Israeli forces have begun pulling back from parts of the territory, particularly in Gaza City and Khan Yunis. Israeli Prime Minister’s office said that the government had “approved the framework” of a hostage release deal with Hamas, as both sides edged closer to ending more than two years of hostilities in Gaza.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
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Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
- 🎧 The Israeli military announced they would pull back from deep inside Gaza to an agreed upon line, starting the ceasefire, NPR’s Aya Batrawy tells Up First. Immediately after, crowds of people in Gaza headed back to their homes. But many of them will find their residences are now gone. There is some skepticism over the deal because the two previous U.S.-backed deals have fallen apart. But Trump says this deal is about more than Gaza — it is about Mideast peace.
- 🎧 Officials said last night that the U.S. is sending around 200 troops to the area as part of an international stabilization force. Their role is to oversee the area to ensure there are no violations of the signed agreement, says NPR’s Deepa Shivaram. Trump also stated he is trying to leave on Sunday to visit the region, most likely to Egypt, but it is unclear where he plans to go. When the hostages are released, the president says he hopes he will be in Israel, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited him to address the country’s parliament.
The Justice Department yesterday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution. The charges come after persistent pressure from Trump to prosecute one of his longtime political foes. The indictment claims that James lied on her mortgage application for a $109,600 loan to purchase a property in Norfolk, Va., in 2020. It alleges she promised her financial lenders it would be a secondary residence for her personal use, but instead she rented it out.
- 🎧 The indictment was handled by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, the same place where former FBI Director James Comey was indicted a few weeks ago. The White House had pushed out the top prosecutor at that court after lengthy investigations showed that the evidence in both cases was too weak to charge Comey or James, says NPR’s Ryan Lucas. After Trump publicly called for the Justice Department to prosecute them, they were indicted, triggering alarm bells that the president was using the DOJ to target his perceived political enemies. James says she is being targeted for doing her job as N.Y. state attorney general.
Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised her for her relentless efforts to promote democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.
Deep dive
High Angle View Of white glass, fork, knife and plate on a colored table
Francesco Carta fotografo/Moment RF/Getty Images
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Francesco Carta fotografo/Moment RF/Getty Images
Health officials are expected to release new dietary guidelines this fall, and based on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s public comments, a radical change could be made to what Americans have seen in years past. The Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture update the guidance every five years to reflect the latest research findings. The advice in the 2025 scientific reports hasn’t changed much from previous years, and includes an emphasis on consuming fruits and vegetables, lean meats and whole grains. However, Kennedy has promised big changes. This is what could be in store:
- 🍽️ The guidelines have traditionally recommended limiting saturated fats, which are typically found in red meat. However, Kennedy enjoys meat and saturated fats. Some recent research into low-carb, higher-fat diets like the carnivore diet shows potential improvement in markers for cardiovascular health.
- 🍽️ Kennedy has championed full-fat dairy products, calling for the end of the “attack on whole milk, cheese and yogurt.” Some researchers argue that data doesn’t support the existing recommendation to favor low-fat dairy.
- 🍽️ The Trump administration has committed to developing a “government-wide definition” for ultraprocessed food. Some experts are concerned about the impact of a new definition, and say it should avoid sweeping up foods that are beneficial to one’s health, like certain yogurts or whole-grain breads.
Weekend picks
Laufey
Emma Summerton/TK
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Emma Summerton/TK
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: Fresh Air film critic Justin Chang says After the Hunt isn’t a great movie, but Julia Roberts shines in her role as a Yale professor whose life unravels after a colleague is accused of sexually assaulting a student.
📺 TV: In The Last Frontier, a plane full of inmates crashes in Alaska, forcing local law enforcement and the CIA to work together to find them. Among those being sought is a highly dangerous, CIA-trained fugitive whom the agency may not be particularly eager to apprehend.
📚 Books: Thomas Pynchon’s first novel in 12 years, Shadow Ticket, is a mystery that dives into the disappearance of a cheese heiress and draws private eye Hicks McTaggart down a rabbit hole.
🎵 Music: Laufey displays her love of classical and jazz music in her new album, A Matter Of Time. Listen to her perform some of the tracks from the album in this Fresh Air interview or read the transcript.
🎭 Theater: The Bread and Puppet troupe, a mainstay of radical political performance for decades, is touring the U.S. The 2025 show is pro-Palestinian. It includes performers waving flags bearing red poppies, a symbol of Palestinian loyalty to the land.
❓ Quiz: I got two questions wrong today, and that still feels like a win. Get your brain churning and start your morning by testing out your knowledge.
3 things to know before you go
An election judge sets up a Dominion voting machine during a public accuracy test of voting equipment on Aug. 3, 2022, in Burnsville, Minn.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
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Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
- Dominion Voting Systems, the company at the center of false fraud claims about the 2020 election, has been acquired by Liberty Vote.
- Derrick Groves, the 10th and final man who escaped from a New Orleans prison in May, was captured on Wednesday in the crawl space of an Atlanta home.
- László Krasznahorkai, a 71-year-old Hungarian writer, has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in literature. He is known for postmodern and apocalyptic novels.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
