The Headlines - Iowa Moves to Eliminate Trans Rights, and Zelensky Heads to the White House

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Plus, Conan O’Brien on hosting the Oscars. On Today’s Episode:Iowa Lawmakers Pass Bill to Eliminate Transgender Civil Rights Protections, by Mitch SmithAfter Insults and False Claims, Trump to Host Zelensky for Minerals Deal, by Peter BakerTrump Says Canada and Mexico Tariffs Will Go Into Effect Next Week, by Ana SwansonMexico Transfers Dozens of Cartel Operatives to U.S. Custody, by Alan FeuerNetanyahu Sends Team to Cairo as Days Dwindle in Gaza Truce, by Aaron BoxermanIn Syria, Comedians Explore a Stage With No Limits. For Now, by Raja AbdulrahimConan O’Brien Is Terrified of the Oscars. (He’s Hosting Anyway.), by Melena RyzikTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Friday, February 28th. Here's what we're covering. On Thursday, Republican lawmakers in Iowa overwhelmingly passed a bill that would end state civil rights protections for transgender people. It effectively undoes discrimination protections around gender identity that the state put into place almost two decades ago.

If the governor signs the bill into law, as expected, Iowa will become the first state in the country to remove broad and explicit protections for trans people. Back in 2007, when a Democratic trifecta inserted this gender language into our code, most could not have foreseen the ultimate ramifications of the change. Now we do. Supporters of the bill say it's necessary to remove the protections because otherwise they could be used to mount a legal challenge to other state laws. Iowa has laws restricting gender transition treatments for minors and barring transgender

women and girls from playing in women's sports. Critics of the bill held protests at the state Capitol this week as it was up for debate. They say they fear transgender people will face widespread discrimination and harassment without the protections. You have children, you have grandchildren. If their rights were taken away, would you stand up for them? I think you would.

The Iowa bill comes as the Trump administration has moved to limit trans rights at a national level. The president issued an executive order saying the government will only recognize the gender people were assigned at birth. On social media last night, Trump posted, thank you, Iowa. So President Zelensky is coming to see me on Friday, Friday morning.

Today, President Trump is hosting Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the White House to sign an agreement over mineral rights. Their meeting comes a week after Trump called Zelensky a dictator. Did I say that? I can't believe I said that. Next question. Yesterday, Trump brushed past that comment and said he and Zelensky are ready to work

together. The exact terms of the minerals agreement haven't been released, but it will mark a clear shift for the countries, effectively turning their alliance into a business relationship. You know, we're doing the deal, and we're going to be in there. We're going to be actually in there, digging our hearts out. Ukraine will share some of the revenue from its valuable mineral resources.

Trump has said that's payback for the military support the US has already provided. Zelensky's made clear he wants a future guarantee of U.S. protection, but a draft of the deal the Times reviewed only vaguely referenced that, with no specific commitment. Also on Thursday, — From the talks with Canada and Mexico so far, are you not seeing the progress that you wanted in order to extend that?

— I don't see it at all. No, not on drugs. President Trump announced his plan for tariffs on Canada and Mexico is back on, starting next week. The 25 percent surcharges have the potential to upend supply chains and drive up prices, especially for cars and some food products. Trump first announced the tariffs last month, then almost immediately paused them, saying he was giving the country's time to meet his demands for border security, including stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. But now...

The drugs continue to pour into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. We're losing substantially more than 100,000 people. I mean, dead. They're dead. Trump says neither country is doing enough. That has Canada unsure of how to appease the president, since very little fentanyl actually comes across the northern border. U.S. authorities only seized about 40 pounds of the drug coming in from Canada last year,

compared with 500 times that amount at the U.S.-Mexico border. On Mexico's part, it's been moving troops to the border and escalating its raids on drug labs. And yesterday, Mexican authorities transferred 29 top cartel members into American custody, turning over people U.S. authorities have been trying to prosecute for decades. In Gaza, the first phase of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is set to expire tomorrow night.

And what comes next is a big question mark. Phase one of the agreement was designed to pause the fighting and build momentum toward a more long-lasting deal. But Israel and Hamas are still as far apart as they've ever been on the crucial issues that need to be resolved, like if Hamas will agree to disband its forces and if Israel will agree to end the war completely. If the deadline tomorrow comes and goes without a deal for phase two, it does not necessarily mean fighting will restart right away.

Under the current plan, the truce can be extended if negotiations are actively ongoing. In Syria, my colleague, Raja Abdul Rahim, has been reporting on what life has looked like there since the fall of the brutal Assad regime. After decades of war and political repression, Rajaz says people have spent the past three months celebrating a newfound sense of freedom.

There's music in the streets, families are having picnics in places the government had made off limits, and Syrians are packing into small venues for comedy. Syria is a country that I've covered for a long time, and one of the things that I've noticed is how much Syrians have this sort of dark, gallows humor, and that they used it as a way to cope and to sort of almost poke fun or laugh at their situation, which really was tragic.

Roja recently went to one of the comedy shows. She says there was a lot of classic stand-up material about religion, marriage, and sex, but the biggest punchline of the night was about Bashar al-Assad, the ousted dictator. Basically just a few weeks earlier, those jokes would have landed people in prison, possibly gotten them killed. These were jokes that people would not have even said in their own homes, you know, among, because Syria was a country that basically lived under the warning that the walls have ears. One of the comedians told me about how all this time he

would write jokes about President Assad or his wife, Esma' al-Assad, or the government, and then file them away, meaning that they were jokes that he could only tell abroad and didn't think that he would ever be able to tell them in Syria. But one of the things that we're not necessarily hearing jokes about are the new leaders, the new rulers of Syria. Comedians and Syrians in general are very unsure about what this new government, which is dominated by Islamist officials, will they tolerate an open comedy scene

and what red lines will be drawn, if any? So basically these comedians are trying to take advantage of the opportunity now and get their lines in while they can. And finally, the Oscars are this Sunday. Some movie buffs are preparing to go all out, hosting viewing parties, maybe building out a menu of themed snacks in honor of the nominees. That might mean demi s'mores, or maybe a bowl of popcorn if you're a Conclave fan. Have you been to the Oscars? I've never been to the Oscars. This is the only way I could get invited.

The host this year will be Conan O'Brien, who talked with my colleague, Milena Ryzik, about taking on the famously tricky job of trying to keep people laughing at a ceremony that can push four hours. The pressure is definitely on as the show tries to reverse its slipping viewership numbers. It's not the communal campfire that it maybe once was, but I still think the Oscars has meaning. I still think that really good cinema, especially when it's from different countries,

different points of view, has an incredible amount of resonance and importance right now. And this is the night that celebrates that. And so that's why that's the attitude I'm going into it with, which is just very excited and appropriately, appropriately worried. For live coverage of the Oscars on Sunday, all the winners, all the red carpet fashion, you can go to NYTimes.com. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the Friday politics roundtable. This show is made by Will

Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy and Paula Schuman. The headlines will be back on Monday.