The Headlines - Israel's Looming Plans for Gaza City, and a Surge in Stalking in Women's Sports

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

Plus, why steamy fan fiction is topping the best-seller list. On Today’s Episode:‘We Can’t Take It Anymore’: Gazans Fear Looming Israeli Operation, by Adam Rasgon and Iyad AbuheweilaWith Moves on West Bank and Gaza City, Israel Defies Global Outcry, by Lara JakesIn Pursuing Trump Rival, Weaponization Czar Sidesteps Justice Dept. Norms, by Jonah E. Bromwich, Glenn Thrush, Alan Feuer and Michael S. SchmidtAmid Threats From Trump, Adam Schiff Forms Legal Defense Fund, by Shane GoldmacherStalking Has Become an Unsettling Part of Sports Landscape, by Carson Kessler and Nathan FennoWhy Magic, Dragons and Explicit Sex Are in Bookstores Everywhere, by Alexandra AlterTune 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 Thursday, August 21st. Here's what we're covering. The Israeli military says it's launched, quote, the next phase of its war in Gaza, moving forward with its plans to invade Gaza City and calling up over 50,000 additional troops for the effort.

Israel claims that the city and its surrounding neighborhoods are still a stronghold for Hamas and said its troops will move into areas they have not previously entered during the war. Military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the times the operation will unfold in two parts. First, troops will encircle the city and order those still living there to move south.

They'll have to pass through checkpoints where Israel says it will screen for militants. Then the soldiers will move in, in force. But some Palestinians in Gaza City tell the times that Israeli troops have already been sending in remote-controlled vehicles, packed with explosives, to blow up buildings block by block. One resident said, I hear the big explosions all the time. They are getting closer.

A government minister from Israel's high-level security cabinet, Eli Cohen, said the operation should turn Gaza City into a wasteland. In a recent interview on a right-wing TV channel, he said, Gaza city itself should be exactly like Rafa, which we turned into a city of ruins. Rafa in southern Gaza was once viewed as a refuge for Palestinians trying to flee the violence before Israel flattened much of it earlier this year. Several world leaders rushed to condemn Israel's announcement yesterday that it's stepping up its offensive in the territory,

including the president of France, who said that it, quote, risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war. Meanwhile, Israel announced another new effort yesterday, despite international outcry, this one in the West Bank. Officials have approved a highly controversial new settlement project there, even though much of the world considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal. The project had been delayed for more than two decades because of widespread opposition, including from the Biden and Obama administrations. But as the Trump administration has eased off on pressuring Israel, the Israeli government has

raced forward this summer with its plan, which officials say is explicitly designed to crush Palestinians' hopes for their own independent state. The idea is to build about 3,400 housing units on a strip of land that cuts right through the middle of the West Bank, effectively chopping the territory into smaller pieces that would be harder to govern as one state in the future. Israel's far-right finance minister said yesterday that every new housing unit and development would be another, quote, nail in the coffin of the idea of Palestinian statehood. The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, called the new settlement a dangerous escalation.

In Washington, the Times has been covering a sweeping effort by President Trump to put pressure on the people he considers his political enemies. Over the past few months, top officials in his administration have seen. started to use the federal government's intelligence and law enforcement powers to go after those people, from former President Barack Obama on down, even if there's little evidence of any actual wrongdoing. The president has given me a new assignment as the director of the weaponization working group. At the center of the effort is Ed Martin, a lawyer and Trump fundraiser with virtually no experience overseeing investigations, who Trump tapped earlier this year to serve at the Justice Department. There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people. And if they can be charged, we'll charge them.

But if they can't be charged, we will name them. And in a culture that respects shame, there should be people that are shamed. Among the people Martin is now investigating is Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, who successfully brought a case against Trump for inflating the value of his family business. Martin is now investigating James for allegedly committing fraud in real estate transactions. But my colleague Jonah Bromwich has been tracking how, as Martin has gone after James, he's violated the DOJ's own rules and code of ethics. Ed Martin is appointed to oversee this investigation into Tis James,

and days after he's appointed, he sends this very, very unusual letter to one of her lawyers. He essentially asked James to resign, and he says he would take it as a sign that she's acting in good faith. That in and of itself to use the power of prosecution to ask for a political official's resignation that's far, far outside the norm. And then days after sending this letter, Martin goes to James's house in Brooklyn, wearing a long French coat in 85-degree weather. He appears to be posing for the New York Post. It's just the very image of kind of the lawman doing the serious work,

except, of course, Justice Department officials who are overseeing investigations like this, would never themselves go to the site of an investigation. At best, they would send an assistant U.S. attorney, more likely it would be an FBI agent. So this conduct from Martin is very theatrical, very much in violation of some of the basic principles of prosecution, and highlights the way that the Trump administration is playing these investigations for the media, for their base, to score political points and to intimidate the president's enemies. This week, the Times learned that another target of Martin's investigations, Senator Adam Schiff, has started a fundraising effort to cover the legal costs that could come with the increased scrutiny. Schiff, a Democrat from California, was a key player in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump during his first term

and was on the committee that investigated the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Trump has called Schiff a danger to the country and told the Justice Department to investigate him. A spokesman for Schiff said in a statement that the senator needs the legal defense fund to be able to, quote, fight back against these baseless smears. I need some advice right now because I fear that I'm being stalked and I genuinely don't know what to do or who to go to. A new investigation from my colleagues at the athletic has found that a long-standing issue in the world of women's sports is getting worse, stalking. point, every time I travel, I'm afraid that these men, it's three to six of them, middle-aged, are going to show up and harass me.

The athletic looked into more than 50 stalking cases involving current or former athletes that have happened in the past few years, including the Olympic sprinter Gabby Thomas, who posted about her experience on social media, and tennis star Emma Radicanu. It doesn't look good, does it, for Radicanu? It appears to be in tears here, and this is very, very concerning. She's dealt with multiple stalking incidents. The most high profile happened at a tournament in Dubai earlier this year, where officials had to stop the match to kick out a man who they said was showing, quote,

fixated behavior towards her. You never want to see a player in tears on court. This is meant to be a fun game. Experts say that the stalking problem has been fueled in part by the rising popularity of women's sports, as well as easy access to the athletes on social media. In some cases, law enforcement has stepped in. Men who targeted the WNBA players Caitlin Clark and Paige Beckers have faced criminal charges, even jail time.

And sports leagues are also trying to do more to protect their athletes. The WNBA, NCAA, and Women's Tennis Association have all hired a firm that tracks social media activity to find threats and report them. And the LPGA recently added a new service for its golfers where they can press a button while out on the course, and security will come straight to their location. And finally, fan fiction used to be kind of a niche little corner of the internet.

It's where people write their own spins on popular movies, TV shows, and books, basically crafting the storylines they want to see with their favorite characters. A lot of it relies on the ones. the premise, what if they kissed? Think, Buffy and Spike, Kirk and Spock, Mulder and Scully, something for everyone. Over a decade ago, fanfic made the leap to publishing in a big way when 50 Shades of Gray came out. That had started as Twilight Fanfic. And this summer, fanfiction has fully established itself as an undeniable force in book sales. To understand any of what I'm about to say, you do have to learn a new word. This one is for all my Jermaini

And I am completely Dermione obsessed. Dermany Gurley's, I need a recommendation for a fick that's going to wreck me. Dremione is a super popular subgenre of Harry Potter fan fiction that imagines what would happen if the arrogant Draco Malfoy and the bookish Hermione Granger got together. Last month, the novel Rose in Chains, which is adapted from a Dremian story originally published online, debuted at number one on the Times fiction bestseller. list. The number two spot? Also, a Drimini adaptation. The authors have changed all the names to avoid any copyright issues, but everybody knows that the books are channeling Harry Potter,

just hotter. The books are not G-rated. Publishing insiders say it's all part of the rise of Romantasy, the mix of romance and fantasy that's basically propping up the whole industry right now. While fiction sales overall have flattened out, last year, Romantasy sales jumped almost 50%. Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily, how the far-right activist Laura Lumer has become one of President Trump's most influential advisors, even though she has no official role in the administration. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest news and the Friday News Quiz. Thank you.