As Israel turns its focus to Iran, the death toll mounts in Gaza — and hunger deepens
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Alex Padilla recounts his removal from DHS news conference in emotional Senate speech
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference last week. Padilla said he asked to attend and was escorted into the press conference by FBI and National Guard officials. The Department of Homeland Security initially accused Padilla of “disrespectful political theatre” Padilla called the remark an “un-American mission statement,” and urged his colleagues to fight back against the administration.”No one will redeem America but Americans. No one is coming to save us but us,” he said. “If this administration is this afraid of just one senator with a question, colleagues, imagine what the voices of tens of millions of Americans peacefully protesting can do” “I pray you never have a moment like this,” he added.
Padilla was in the same Los Angeles federal building last Thursday where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was outlining President Trump’s decision to send in National Guard troops and U.S. Marines in response to the protests. Padilla said that a meeting he had scheduled with a separate official down the hall was delayed by the Noem event, so he decided to attend.
Padilla said he asked to attend and was escorted into the press conference by FBI and National Guard officials. As he tried to question Noem, another set of officials grabbed him and removed him from the room.
“You’ve seen the video. I was pushed and pulled, struggled to maintain my balance. I was forced to the ground. First on my knees and then flat on my chest, and was handcuffed and marched down a hallway repeatedly asking, ‘Why am I being detained?'” Padilla recalled. “Not once did they tell me why. I pray you never have a moment like this.”
The Department of Homeland Security initially accused Padilla of “disrespectful political theatre,” charging that he did not comply with requests to back away. Secretary Noem said she and Padilla eventually spoke after the scuffle.
In his remarks Tuesday — his first on the Senate floor since the incident — Padilla said his detainment marked a turning point in what he described as the Trump administration’s “undemocratic crackdown” on protest.
“At one point,” Padilla said, “the United States Secretary of Homeland Security said that the purpose of federal law enforcement and the purpose of the United States military was to, quote, liberate Los Angeles from our governor and our mayor. To somehow liberate us from the very people that we democratically elected to lead our city and our state.”
Etienne Laurent / AP / AP Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is pushed out of the room as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference regarding the recent protests in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 12.
Padilla called the remark an “un-American mission statement.”
He railed against President Trump’s efforts to focus raids on regions led by Democratic officials, and urged his colleagues to fight back.
He took to the Senate floor surrounded by his Democratic colleagues. Several Senate Republicans, including Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis were also in attendance.
Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, is an MIT engineering graduate who entered politics after marching with his parents for immigration rights. He was appointed to his seat in 2021 to fill the vacancy created after Kamala Harris became vice president and won election the following year. He is the first Latino to represent California in the Senate.
Over the course of his roughly 20-minute address, Padilla said his experience should “shock the conscience of our country.” And he warned that if President Trump “can deploy the Marines to Los Angeles without justification, he can deploy them to your state too.”
“No one will redeem America but Americans. No one is coming to save us but us,” Padilla said. “And we know that the cameras are not on in every corner of the country. But if this administration is this afraid of just one senator with a question, colleagues, imagine what the voices of tens of millions of Americans peacefully protesting can do.”
Copyright 2025 NPR
Sabrina Carpenter joins the ‘song of the summer’ race, just in time
“Manchild,” the first single from Sabrina Carpenter’s forthcoming album Man’s Best Friend, enters this week’s Hot 100 singles chart at No. 1. On the Billboard 200 albums chart, Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem rules for a fourth consecutive week. Four albums debut in the top 10, while another re-enters the chart for the first time in nearly two decades. The final top 10 chart debut belongs to the arena-friendly, hardcore-adjacent Baltimore band Turnstile, which hits new career highs across the board with NEVER ENOUGH. “It remains to be seen how long the song remains atop the chart,” Carpenter’s new art director says, “but it’s an unalloyed delight to report that that new song is your new No. No.1″”Ordinary” held at No., 1 for a second week, while the usual suspects — three Morgan Wallan songs; ancient hits by Shaboozey, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone; Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther (feat. SZA)”; et al — rounded out the top ten.
TOP ALBUMS
Last week, Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem held on at No. 1 for a third consecutive week, as the country superstar’s 37-song blockbuster proved exceptionally durable. This time around, it’s back at No. 1 for a fourth week — thanks to another round of massive streaming success — but the rest of the top 10 gets a welcome shakeup. Four albums debut in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, while another re-enters the chart for the first time in nearly two decades.
The latest entry in Lil Wayne’s best-selling Tha Carter series — he’s up to Tha Carter VI — debuts at No. 2, largely on the strength of streaming. Strong streaming numbers are a recipe for sustained chart success, so look for Tha Carter VI (the rapper’s 13th top 10 album) to stick around for a while.
On the opposite end of the streaming-to-sales ratio is the latest album from the K-pop band ENHYPEN. DESIRE: UNLEASH debuts at No. 3, almost entirely on the strength of sales — and the usual variant editions that so often inflate first-week numbers. It’s the group’s fifth straight top 10 album, but with roughly 95% of its numbers coming from sales (which don’t carry over from week to week), it’s destined to be a short-timer on the charts.
New at No. 4, it’s as if Santa got our letter later than expected: We finally get a whole new album of frothy pop bangers, just in time for the official start of summer. Addison Rae has had a few singles land on the Hot 100, and now she’s got a top 5 album with Addison.
The final top 10 chart debut belongs to the arena-friendly, hardcore-adjacent Baltimore band Turnstile, which hits new career highs across the board with NEVER ENOUGH. It’s Turnstile’s second album to hit the Billboard charts — Glow On peaked at No. 30 in 2021 — but at No. 9, it’s opening its chart run with a major milestone.
Finally, My Chemical Romance’s 2004 album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge — which previously peaked at No. 28 back in 2005 — cracks the top 10 for the first time two decades later, thanks to a deluxe reissue. The band hadn’t landed an album in the top 10 since 2014, but now it’s resting comfortably at No. 6.
TOP SONGS
On last week’s Hot 100 singles chart, things were looking awfully samey, as Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” held at No. 1 for a second week, while the usual suspects — three Morgan Wallen songs; ancient hits by Shaboozey, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone; Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther (feat. SZA)”; et al — rounded out the top 10.
This week, last week’s top nine songs sit in the exact same order — that’s the bad news. The good news is that they all slide down exactly one spot in lockstep: Alex Warren at No. 2, Morgan Wallen at Nos. 3 and 4, Kendrick Lamar at No. 5 and so on, all in the precise alignment in which they charted last week.
But debuting at No. 1… thank heavens, the “song of the summer” sweepstakes have finally been joined by an honest-to-goodness pop jam. For those of us who’ve surveyed the top 10 and lamented the curious dearth of playful bangers — Warren, Wallen and the shambling undead corpses of last year’s hits aren’t cutting it on that front — it’s an unalloyed delight to report that Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” is your new No. 1 song this week.
It remains to be seen how long the song lasts atop the chart — “Ordinary” sure isn’t going anywhere, while some of Carpenter’s powerhouse first-week streaming numbers might let up a bit once fans’ initial curiosity subsides — but “Manchild” has room to benefit from what will likely become a huge airplay surge in the weeks to come. And, with conversation swirling around Carpenter’s newly announced Man’s Best Friend (and its Smell the Glove-coded cover art), her odds of sticking around seem extremely high. A buzzy video won’t hurt, either.
WORTH NOTING
The Billboard charts are as capricious as they are stubborn. For every immovable object — like Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic Rumours, currently at No. 25 in its 637th week on the chart — another album is disappearing from the Billboard 200 almost as quickly as it arrived.
Of the three albums that bounded into the top 10 last week — SEVENTEEN’s HAPPY BURSTDAY, Miley Cyrus’s Something Beautiful and Taylor Swift’s resurgent Reputation — all three bound right back out of the chart’s latest iteration. Given its streaming pedigree and Swift’s cultural footprint, it’s no surprise that Reputation’s drop is the least severe (No. 5 to No. 32), while the typical chart trajectory of K-pop (hot, bright, brief) destined HAPPY BURSTDAY to drop from No. 2 to No. 47. Most alarming by far is the plunge experienced by Something Beautiful. After debuting at No. 4 last week, Cyrus’s new album plummets all the way to No. 102 in its second week; her last album (2023’s Endless Summer Vacation) spent more than a year on the Billboard 200 while producing one of the decade’s biggest hits in “Flowers,” so the decline feels especially precipitous.
Elsewhere on the albums chart, not every oldie is as sedentary as Rumours:
Thanks in part to a viral reunion on the Tony Awards telecast, the ever-sturdy cast album for Hamilton leaps from No. 31 to No. 15 in its 507th week on the chart. That’s coming up on nearly 10 chart years for an album that is, at least this week, outperforming the likes of Shaboozey, Fuerza Regida, Chappell Roan and Alex Warren.
leaps from No. 31 to No. 15 in its 507th week on the chart. That’s coming up on nearly 10 chart for an album that is, at least this week, outperforming the likes of Shaboozey, Fuerza Regida, Chappell Roan and Alex Warren. Though Sly Stone’s death didn’t send any of his catalog back onto the charts — more’s the pity — the loss of The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson did trigger a chart resurgence for the group’s 1966 classic Pet Sounds . Though widely considered one of the greatest albums ever recorded, Pet Sounds peaked at No. 10 and has spent just 48 weeks on the Billboard 200 in its 59-year history. This week, it re-enters the chart at No. 136.
. Though widely considered one of the greatest albums ever recorded, peaked at No. 10 and has spent just 48 weeks on the 200 in its 59-year history. This week, it re-enters the chart at No. 136. Finally, the album isn’t an oldie, but the band sure is: More than 50 years after the release of their debut album, The Doobie Brothers are back on the Billboard 200 with a new album called Walk This Road. It debuts at No. 76, so congrats to those with “The Doobie Brothers outperform Miley Cyrus” on their bingo cards for this week.
Copyright 2025 NPR
As Israel turns its focus to Iran, the death toll mounts in Gaza — and hunger deepens
At least 59 people were killed by Israeli military drones and artillery fire Tuesday. Most of the deaths, at least 45, occurred at an intersection in southern Gaza’s city of Khan Younis. It was the deadliest single incident of people desperately trying to lay their hands on food since late March. Israel says its restrictions on food and its continued blockade of other aid is to keep the items from benefiting Hamas.. Half a million people in Gaza are now starving and the entire territory is at risk of famine, according to a report last month by dozens of independent experts on hunger. The U.N. says Gaza’s main hospital has exceeded its operating capacity and is operating with limited supplies. The hospital has evacuated the maternity ward to make room for the wounded from Israel’s attack in Khan Younes Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders says. The group says many of the injured required amputations, and many of them needed surgery to save their lives, but the hospital was unable to cope with the number of patients. The dead and wounded were brought to the nearby Nasser Hospital, the last functioning hospital.
toggle caption Moaz Abu Taha/APAimages via Reuters
GAZA CITY and DUBAI — Israel’s primary focus is now its war with Iran, but Israeli troops are still holding territory deep inside Gaza, and Tuesday marked the deadliest day in recent weeks for Palestinians there trying to reach food distribution sites and trucks.
Health officials in Gaza say at least 59 people were killed by Israeli military drones and artillery fire Tuesday, and more than 200 wounded, trying to get food. Most of the deaths, at least 45, occurred at an intersection in southern Gaza’s city of Khan Younis, where a large crowd of people had amassed waiting for trucks to enter carrying flour.
Sponsor Message
It was the deadliest single incident of people desperately trying to lay their hands on food since late March, when Israel began allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza following nearly three months of total blockade.
Israeli attacks on Palestinians trying to reach food aid since March 27 have killed at least 400 people and wounded more than 3,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which releases daily death counts. Those killed while seeking aid are among the ministry’s overall death toll of nearly 55,500 people killed in the war.
Israel says its restrictions on food and its continued blockade of other aid is to keep the items from benefiting Hamas. The group holds an estimated 20 hostages still alive and the bodies of 33 deceased hostages, taken in the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The aid restrictions have plunged families in Gaza into extreme hunger. Half a million people in Gaza are now starving and the entire territory is at risk of famine, according to a report last month by dozens of independent experts on hunger.
toggle caption Mariam Dagga/AP/AP
“I saw so many dead people”
People began amassing late Monday afternoon in an area of Khan Younis on word that aid trucks were going to enter from Israel, said Salim Saigaly.
Sponsor Message
The 32-year-old teacher walked from his tent encampment near the coast for several hours in the hopes of getting a sack of flour to feed his four children.
“Most of the time I try to distract my children when they talk of hunger, until they go to sleep,” he said, adding that often doesn’t work. “So, I decided to go and take the risk and get some flour.”
He and others slept on the road overnight, waiting for the trucks. He said he was planning to grab a sack of flour off the trucks, but was also carrying the equivalent of $170 to buy one from others there in case he couldn’t get it on his own.
Palestinian survivors and doctors say just before 9 a.m., the crowd swelled and moved closer to the main roundabout, which is in an area Israel has ordered evacuated. They say that’s when Israeli drones fired onto the crowd. Artillery shells were also fired.
Israel’s military told NPR the incident is under review and took place near an area where troops are.
“Luckily for me, shrapnel did not hit me, but what actually fell over me were pieces of human flesh and bones,” Saigaly said. “I saw so many dead people.”
He returned to his family empty-handed, having barely escaped with his life, Saigaly said.
Videos from the scene show pools of blood and bodies on the ground, some still wearing empty book bags they’d hoped to fill with flour.
toggle caption AFP/via Getty Images
Gaza’s main hospital struggles to cope
The dead and wounded were brought to the nearby Nasser Hospital, the last functioning hospital in the area and currently Gaza’s biggest. Videos taken by hospital staff and shared online showed bodies piled high on donkey-drawn carts outside its emergency room.
Nasser Hospital, which has been bombed and raided by the Israeli military throughout the war, has just six operating rooms. The hospital was already past capacity, with hundreds of patients being treated inside and around 50 people, including children, in its intensive care unit from other incidents of troops firing onto crowds of people trying to reach food aid in recent days and weeks. The hospital sits in an area Israel’s military has ordered evacuated.
Sponsor Message
Doctors Without Borders, which has staff at the hospital, said its medical team had to evacuate the maternity ward to make room for the wounded from Israel’s attack in Khan Younis on Tuesday. The group says many of the injured required amputations.
“The hospital has exceeded its capacity and is operating with limited supplies. It could collapse at any moment,” the group’s emergency coordinator Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa said.
Daily killings of people trying to get aid
The U.N. says most of the aid it’s been able to bring into Gaza has been taken by hungry crowds off its trucks before they can reach warehouses.
toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR
Over the weekend, more than 20 people in northern Gaza were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for U.N. aid trucks to enter through a northern border crossing, also in a red evacuation zone. Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment on that incident.
Most of the deaths over the past three weeks, though, have been near new food distribution sites built by Israel’s military and run by U.S. contractors and a company called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation or GHF. Israel says its forces have fired warning shots at crowds in these areas, without elaborating.
The Red Cross Field Hospital in southern Gaza said on Sunday it received more than 170 people, many of whom were wounded by gunshots, as they tried to access one of GHF’s sites in southern Gaza. And on Monday, the field hospital said another 200 cases arrived at the hospital under similar circumstances.
There were additional casualties near GHF’s sites on Tuesday, as well, Gaza’s health ministry says.
The U.S. and Israel say the new mechanism run by GHF is aimed at keeping aid from enriching Hamas.
The food is being distributed at four fenced-off sites under erratic operating times. The sites are all located in military red zones of Gaza. This has drawn thousands of Palestinians almost daily to areas designated as off-limits to them, and where Israeli troops are positioned.
Sponsor Message
In a statement Tuesday, GHF said, “People are starving in Gaza and their desperation can create hazardous conditions.” The group said that until there is enough food in Gaza, it will not always complete orderly deliveries but is doing everything it can to provide food quickly.
Farhan Haq, a U.N. spokesperson, said the new system “needs to be stopped” before more people are killed.
“We have made clear, since this particular scheme for aid distribution was developed, that we did not think it would work,” he said. “And now I think the whole world can see that that was the case.”
NPR’s Aya Batrawy reported from Dubai, Anas Baba reported from Gaza City, and Abu Bakr Bashir reported from London.
As Israel focuses on Iran, Gaza death toll rises and hunger deepens : NPR
Israel’s main focus is now Iran. Israel’s military views the war in Gaza as secondary to its new front with Iran. Palestinians say large crowds of hungry people had amassed in a red zone that Israel’s declared off-limits. Israel says its restrictions on aid are to keep it from reaching Hamas, the group that attacked Israel in 2023. The U.N. warns the territory could plunge into famine if it doesn’t get aid.. In Israel, families of hostages who have been protesting Netanyahu to strike a deal have canceled their rallies due to Iranian missiles overhead. And at the U.S., a conference where several Western countries were expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state has been postponed indefinitely.
Israel’s war with Iran is drawing military resources from its other war in Gaza. But as NPR’s Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Anas Baba in Gaza report, Palestinians are still being killed and are under a near-total blockade.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Israeli media reported over the weekend the military views the war in Gaza as secondary to its new front with Iran. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted security officials as saying the military’s beefing up its troop presence at Israel’s borders with Syria and Jordan. To do this, Haaretz says, the number of soldiers in Gaza will drop by more than half. In Gaza, already, fewer Israeli airstrikes have been reported in recent days. Israel’s main focus is now Iran.
But the death toll continues to mount in Gaza. Bodies streamed into the Al-Shifa Hospital Saturday. Palestinians say large crowds of hungry people had amassed in a red zone that Israel’s declared off-limits. They were desperate to grab aid off trucks crossing into northern Gaza.
IBRAHIM RAJAB: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: Ibrahim Rajab (ph) says his son-in-law was killed trying to get a sack of flour to feed his four daughters. Witnesses say Israeli troops opened fire and launched artillery shells at the crowd near the border. Israel’s military didn’t respond to NPR’s request for comment. NPR’s Anas Baba describes the scene at Al-Shifa.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: Now, the family members are still mourning their own beloved, a 20-years-old guy, that he was only seeking and aiming for one thing, which is a flour sack for his family that was starving for the past three months.
BATRAWY: Gaza’s health ministry says at least 300 people have been killed and more than 2,600 wounded in the past three weeks trying to reach food aid. The U.N. warns the territory could plunge into famine. Israel says its restrictions on aid are to keep it from reaching Hamas, the group that attacked Israel in 2023. Israel deems Hamas a proxy of Iran. Some Israeli officials say this war with Iran could advance Israel’s aims in Gaza, which include eliminating Hamas.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: (Speaking Hebrew).
BATRAWY: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he sees an opening to advance negotiations on a temporary ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. But mediators tell NPR talks remain frozen. In Israel, families of hostages who have been protesting Netanyahu to strike a deal have canceled their rallies due to Iranian missiles overhead. And at the U.N., a conference where several Western countries were expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state has been postponed indefinitely.
Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
NAACP won’t invite Trump to its national convention, breaking a 116-year tradition
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson made the announcement Monday at a news conference in Charlotte, N.C. The White House responded sharply on Tuesday to the president’s exclusion from the event. The NAACP has filed a number civil rights lawsuits against the administration since Trump’s return to the White House. The organization has also filed suit to block plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. The group says Trump is the first president it has declined to invite to the annual event.. Presidents have historically used their remarks to build stronger ties with the Black community.
The group says Trump is the first president it has declined to invite.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson made the announcement Monday at a news conference in Charlotte, N.C., where the convention is scheduled to be held. The group also shared a statement from Johnson.
“Donald Trump is attacking our democracy and our civil rights … The president has signed unconstitutional executive orders to oppress voters and undo federal civil rights protections,” Johnson said. “… he continually undermines every pillar of our democracy to make himself more powerful and to personally benefit from the U.S. government.”
The White House responded sharply on Tuesday to the president’s exclusion from the event. Trump declined previous invitations during his first term.
“The NAACP isn’t advancing anything but hate and division, while the President is focused on uniting our country, improving our economy, securing our borders, and establishing peace across the globe,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement to NPR. “This is the same vision for America that a record number of Black Americans supported in the resounding reelection of President Trump.”
The NAACP has welcomed both Democratic and Republican presidents to address the convention over the years. Presidents have historically used their remarks to build stronger ties with the Black community.
President Ronald Reagan addressed the NAACP convention in Denver in 1981 and spoke out against racism and discrimination. President George W. Bush spoke at the convention in Washington, D.C., in 2006 amid criticism of his administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. The storm disproportionately affected Black residents in New Orleans and the Gulf region. In his remarks, Bush resolved to work with the Black community to recover from the storm. He had declined previous invitations to the event.
The NAACP has filed a number civil rights lawsuits against the administration since Trump’s return to the White House, including a challenge to efforts to cut federal funding to schools that use diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. The organization has also filed suit to block plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
The Trump administration has enacted a series of substantial changes that the NAACP says conflicts with its mission of achieving equity, political rights, and social inclusion for Black Americans and all people of color. The changes include eliminating DEI programs in higher education and across the federal government; removing some Black historical figures from government websites; and restoring the names of military bases that originally honored white supremacists and owners of enslaved people.
Copyright 2025 NPR