--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, August 8th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday that Israeli forces will escalate their campaign in Gaza, despite warnings from the country's own military leadership.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Israel has already seized about 75 percent of Gaza, and many of the territory's two million residents have been forced into the remaining portion, often living in dire conditions with little food or water.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Hours after Netanyahu's announcement, his security cabinet signed 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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 takes full control of the territory, the military could end up responsible for governing millions of Palestinians.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Though Netanyahu has said Israel is not interested in permanently holding control. It's not clear how quickly the offensive may begin.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's likely to take days or even weeks to call up the reservists Israel will need and prepare for the new military campaign.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He's claimed that crime there is, quote, totally out of control.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You know, we just almost lost a young man, beautiful, handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him the night before last.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Just days ago, a federal employee who worked at Doge was beaten by young assailants during an attempted carjacking.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last year, violent crime was at a 30-year low.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump has a long history of stoking fears about violent crime in cities and calling out alleged teenage offenders in particular.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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 going to happen now
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Europe, a bizarre tug of war is playing out over nearly $10 million of birth control pills and other contraceptives.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The pills, IUDs, and other supplies were purchased by USAID before the Trump administration took over.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But when the administration abruptly dismantled the foreign aid agency, those supplies were left in limbo.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At first, the contractor handling them looked into selling them to the U.N. or another group.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But last month, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. government has decided to pay to have them burned instead.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's left some European politicians scrambling to figure out if they can stop the supplies from being incinerated.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Across the U.S., authorities are racing to get wildfires in multiple states under control.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: LA City, Forest Service, Cal Fire, CHP is here, and we're doing our best to get a hold of it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So you can see the canyon behind us. It's beautiful to look at, but imagine going in there and trying to fight a fire.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Times found that the company, Perimeter Solutions, deployed an extensive lobbying and public relations campaign to undercut its potential rivals.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And as it's gotten a lock on the market, it's raised prices significantly.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For example, the retardant that firefighters in California dropped earlier this year to protect L cost 20 more than it did four years ago
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those higher prices combined with rising demand have helped Perimeter double its profits over the last few years
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One internal government memo called it a, quote, massive risk.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, he drives this one high and deep to right center. Game winning walk off home run.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This summer, at stadiums around the country, massive crowds have shown up to catch one of the hottest attractions in baseball.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It is not Shohei Otani and the Dodgers, or the Yankees, or the Phillies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Players backflip as they make outfield catches, They dance as they pitch.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And on occasion, they pause the game for a brief musical number.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Bananas have been compared to the Harlem Globetrotters, known for their over-the-top, stunt-filled basketball games.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The founder of the Bananas, though, says that comparison's not totally fair, since the outcome of a Bananas game isn't predetermined.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They are actually playing to win against other teams in the league that he created.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The vibe and the rules are just a little different.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Bare-handed snag! What a catch by that guy!
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For the Bananas, the whole shtick is really working.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last weekend, a sellout crowd came to watch the bananas at the Baltimore Orioles' home stadium.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: More than 45,000 people showed up, around double the average attendance of a Major League game there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. But stick around, we've got the Friday news quiz for you after the credits.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Original theme by Dan Powell.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Katie O'Brien, Paula Schumann, and Chris Wood.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Okay, now for the quiz. We've got questions about a few stories The Times covered this week.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Can you answer them all?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: First up.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Good afternoon, everyone. Mr. President, thank you very much for having me here today.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The CEO of Apple Tim Cook was in the Oval Office this week to announce that the company making a billion investment in American manufacturing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Trump has been aggressively pushing Apple to make its iPhone in the U for years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Cook is not going that far but he said that at least one key piece of the phone will be American-made going forward.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's his announcement.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Can you fill in the blank? For the first time ever, every single new iPhone and every single new Apple Watch sold anywhere in the world will contain made in Kentucky.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So what part of all future iPhones and Apple watches is going to be Kentucky made?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The answer? The glass on the screens.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: OK, next question.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This is not a new concept. This has been discussed under Trump One, under Biden.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But we are in the race to the moon.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: What is the agency hoping to build on the moon?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Give you a hint. It's all about power.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The answer? NASA wants to build a small nuclear reactor.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The agency says that'll be crucial for powering any future missions, like building a base on the moon.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Right now, NASA has said it wants to send astronauts up there as soon as two years from now, in 2027, though experts say the timeline for that looks a little unlikely.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Really, it's been kind of a long time since anyone checked on things up there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: No humans have set foot on the moon since 1972.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And last question.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Well, it kind of looks like a spaceship touchdown here in West Hollywood, and it's garnering quite the reaction.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You can see the line.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Elon Musk opened his newest business venture in L.A. recently.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's got a spaceship aesthetic, but it's not a spaceship.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's actually very different from any of his other projects.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So, your question, what business did he open?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The answer? A Tesla-themed diner.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Musk pitched it as a place to grab burgers and milkshakes while your Cybertruck charges up.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Tejal Rao, who covers restaurants for The Times, went to check it out.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I tried the hot dog and chili cheese dog, a grilled cheese, a fried chicken waffle sandwich.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The smash burger was probably the best thing on the menu.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She said despite Tesla's futuristic reputation, the food was kind of conventional.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of them told me, we don't order anything else except for the burgers because everything else is just so bad.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: All right. That is it for the news quiz.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: If you want to tell us how you did or what you think about the quiz, you can always email us at theheadlines at nytimes.com.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The show will be back on Monday.
