The Headlines - Israel Approves Gaza City Takeover, and Trump to Deploy Federal Agents in D.C.

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Plus, your Friday news quiz.On Today’s Episode:Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Plan to Take Control of Gaza City, by Adam Rasgon, Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman and Isabel KershnerTrump Orders Surge of Law Enforcement in Washington, D.C., by Chris CameronAs Trump Administration Plans to Burn Contraceptives, Europeans Are Alarmed, by Jeanna Smialek and Stephanie NolenHow One Company Maintained a Monopoly on U.S. Fire Retardant, by Chris HambyWhat Can MLB Learn From the Savannah Bananas? A Lot, It Turns Out, by Brittany GhiroliTune 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's Friday, August 8th. Here's what we're covering. Will Israel take control of all of Gaza? We intend to in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, and to pass it to civilian governance. That is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Israeli forces will escalate their campaign in Gaza, pushing forward into the entire territory, despite warnings from the country's own military leadership. Israel has already seized about 75% of Gaza, and many of the territory's 2 million residents have been forced into the remaining portion, often living in dire conditions with little food or water. Hours after Netanyahu's announcement, his security cabinet signed off. off on a plan for troops to move into the core of Gaza City, an area they've largely stayed away from until now, where Hamas is believed to be holding Israeli hostages. Many family members of the hostages have been opposed to a ramped-up military campaign, fearing that Israeli troops could accidentally

kill them or that Hamas could execute them as the conflict intensifies. At the same time, Israeli military leaders have raised multiple concerns. They say Hamas has already been critically weakened. so a new escalation is unnecessary. They're also warning that their troops are exhausted and burnt out after nearly two years of fighting. And they're worried that if Israel does take full control, the military could end up responsible for governing millions of Palestinians, though Netanyahu has said Israel's not interested

in permanently holding control of the territory. It's not clear how quickly the offensive may begin. It's likely to take days or even weeks to call up the reservists Israel will need and prepare for the new military campaign. The crime is ridiculous. I could show you a chart comparing D.C. to other locations, and you're not going to want to see what it looks like. In Washington, D.C., President Trump has ordered a surge of federal law enforcement agents

to be deployed as of 12.01 a.m. this morning. He's claimed that crime there is, quote, totally out of control. You know, we just almost lost a young man, beautiful, handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him the night before last. Just days ago, a federal employee who worked at Doge was beaten by young assailants during an attempted carjacking, and the White House has shared videos that have gone viral recently of crowds of rowdy teenagers in D.C., confronting people on the street.

The city has long had some of the highest rates of gun violence in the country, but overall, crime there has fallen sharply in recent years. Last year, violent crime was at a 30-year low. The deployment that Trump has ordered includes members of the FBI, the DEA, U.S. Marshals, and other agencies, though it's unclear how many agents are involved or what they've been tasked with doing. Trump has a long history of stoking fears about violent crime in cities and calling out alleged teenage offenders in particular. He wrote on social media last night, quote, They are not afraid of law enforcement because they know nothing. ever happens to them, but it's going to happen now.

In Europe, a bizarre tug of war is playing out over nearly $10 million of birth control pills and other contraceptives. The pills, IUDs, and other supplies were purchased by USAID before the Trump administration took over. They were supposed to be shipped from a warehouse in Belgium to clinics in some of the poorest countries in Africa, where public health experts say they're essential for preventing unintended pregnancies and reducing maternal deaths. But when the administration abruptly dismantled the foreign aid agency, those supplies were left in limbo. At first, the contractor handling them looked into selling them to the UN or another group. But last month, the Washington

Post reported that the U.S. government has decided to pay to have them burned instead. Officials did not say why or why the U.S. wouldn't just sell or donate the stock, much of which doesn't expire for years. That's left some European politicians scrambling to figure out if they can stop the supplies from being incinerated. Belgian diplomats have been in talks with U.S. officials about an alternative plan, but they haven't been able to get an answer on if the contraceptives are still in the warehouse. Meanwhile, some politicians in France have urged their government to simply seize the supplies, though the French government has said it can't legally do that.

Across the U.S., authorities are racing to get wildfires in multiple states under control. We're doing everything in our power to make this fire get contained. In Ventura County in Southern California, thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as a fast-growing fire that started yesterday afternoon continues to spread. And at the Grand Canyon, a major fire there has now burned for more than a month, destroying dozens of buildings and forcing officials to close portions of the National Park. Meanwhile, the Times has been investigating one of the key tools that firefighters use to try and put out wildfires, that bright red liquid that gets dropped from planes and helicopters.

It turns out that the country's entire supply of the liquid, technically called fire-retardant, comes from one company, which has worked aggressively to keep its monopoly while driving up costs for state and federal authorities. The Times found that the company, Perimeter Solutions, deployed an extensive lobbying and public relations campaign to undercut its potential rivals. And as it's gotten a lock on the market, it's raised prices significantly. For a example, the retardant that firefighters in California dropped earlier this year to protect LA cost 20 to 30 percent more than it did four years ago. Those higher prices, combined with rising demand, have helped perimeter double its profits over the last few years. The situation has led federal officials to raise concerns about the dangers of relying on a single company for such a crucial product, since any production or supply issues could hamstring firefighters. One internal government memo called it a, quote, massive risk. In a statement, a top executive from Perimeter denied that the company ever opposed competition

and said it offers fair pricing and has worked to make its supply chain resilient. And finally. The thrill it is to have Banana Ball headlining ESPN 8, The Ocho, for a This summer, at stadiums around the country, massive crowds have shown up to catch one of the hottest attractions in baseball. It is not Shohei Otani and the Dodgers, or the Yankees, or the Phillies. It is the Savannah Bananas. He's going to pull off a backflip catch. The team, which has no ties to Major League or Minor League Baseball, plays its own barnstorming brand of the sport.

Players backflip as they make outfield catches, they dance as they pitch, and on occasion, They pause the game for a brief musical number. The bananas have been compared to the Harlem Globetrotters, known for their over-the-top stunt-filled basketball games. The founder of the bananas, though, says that comparison's not totally fair, since the outcome of a bananas game isn't predetermined. They're actually playing to win. against other teams in the league that he created. They just happen to play their own funhouse version of the sport, with its own rules.

Bare-handed snag! What a catch by that guy! For example, if a fan catches a foul ball in the stands, that counts as an out. And they keep the playing time at a tight two hours, avoiding the kind of endless traditional games that even the MLB has acknowledged can turn people off. The crowd in Camden Yards going to. For the bananas, the whole schick is really working. Last weekend, a sell-out crowd came to watch the bananas at the Baltimore Orioles home stadium. More than 45,000 people showed up, around double the average attendance of a major league game there.

Those are the headlines. But stick around. We've got the Friday news quiz for you after the credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzker, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Katie O'Brien, Paula Schumann, and Chris Wood. Okay, now for the quiz. We've got questions about a few stories the Times covered this week.

Can you answer them all? First up. Good afternoon, everyone. Mr. President, thank you very much for having me here today. The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, was in the Ovalon. office this week to announce that the company's making a hundred billion dollar investment in American manufacturing. President Trump has been aggressively pushing Apple to make its iPhone in the U.S. for years. Cook is not going that far, but he said that at least one key piece of the phone

will be American made going forward. Here's his announcement. Can you fill in the blank? For the first time ever, every single new iPhone and every single new Apple, and every single new Apple Watch sold anywhere in the world will contain made in Kentucky. So what part of all future iPhones and Apple Watches is going to be Kentucky made? The answer? The glass on the screens. For the record, analysts say that if Apple did try and build phones completely in the U.S., the company would have to more than double the price.

Okay, next question. This is not a new concept. This has been discussed under Trump One, under Biden, but we are in the race to the moon. This week, NASA announced it has big ambitions for the moon and said it's going to fast-track plans there for a new project. What is the agency hoping to build on the moon? Give you a hint? It's all about power. The answer?

NASA wants to build a small nuclear reactor. The agency says that'll be crucial for powering any future missions, like building a base on the moon. Right now, NASA has said it wants to send astronauts up there as soon as two years from now in 27, though experts say the timeline for that looks a little unlikely. Really, it's been kind of a long time since anyone checked on things up there. No humans have set foot on the moon since 1916.

And last question. Well, it kind of looks like a spaceship touchdown here in West Hollywood, and it's garnering quite the reaction. You can see the line. Elon Musk opened his newest business venture in L.A. recently. It's got a spaceship aesthetic, but it's not a spaceship. It's actually very different from any of his other projects. So, your question, what business did he open? The answer?

A Tesla-themed diner. Musk pitched it as a place to grab burgers and milkshakes while your cyber truck charges up. Tajil Rao, who covers restaurants for the times, went to check it out. I tried the hot dog and chili cheese dog, a grilled cheese, a fried chicken waffle sandwich. The smash burger was probably the best thing on the menu.

She said despite Tesla's futuristic reputation, the food was kind of kind of On my way out, I was in the elevator with some locals who'd already been to the diner three times in just one week. One of them told me, we don't order anything else except for the burgers because everything else is just so bad. All right, that is it for the news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did or what you think about the quiz, you can always email us at the headlines at nytimes.com. The show will be back on Monday.