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--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. Today's Friday, October 18th.
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--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yaya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas terrorist organization, who was responsible for the October 7th massacre, is dead. The Israeli military announced yesterday that its troops killed Yaya Sinwar, one of the most wanted men in the world.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For the past year, Sinwar tried to escape justice. He failed. Since October 7th, Israel had put the full force of its military and intelligence services into finding Sinwar. Many believed he was in underground tunnels beneath Gaza, surrounded by hostages taken from Israel. But he was ultimately found above ground, with no sign of hostages nearby.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Israeli soldiers who killed Sinwar didn't expect to run across him. They were on a routine patrol in southern Gaza when they got into a firefight with a group of militants, according to Israeli officials.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The militants fled to a nearby building, and the Israeli military, backed by drones, destroyed part of it. In the debris, they found a body they realized looked like Sinwar. Israeli authorities say they used dental records and fingerprints to confirm it was the militant leader.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke after the announcement of Sinwar's death. While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: To the people of Gaza, I have a simple message. This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Sinwar was considered a driving force behind Hamas's refusal to surrender. But it's not yet clear what will happen in his absence.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The leadership of Hamas has now been gutted over the last year at nearly every level.
--:-- Ben Hubbard: Times correspondent Ben Hubbard who covered the group for over a decade says that pushed things into uncharted territory. I mean Hamas has fought many many wars with Israel over the years. Many of its leaders have been assassinated. But we've never really had a time when you've had this much destruction to the organization and this many of its leaders killed in such quick succession.
--:-- Ben Hubbard: I think inside of Israel, there is hope in some quarters that this could provide kind of a breakthrough in terms of reaching a ceasefire.
--:-- Ben Hubbard: Senior was seen as being one of the hardliners and somebody who was not interested in coming to an accommodation to release the hostages and have a ceasefire in Gaza. And so having him out of the way could open up new pathways for negotiations to ending the conflict.
--:-- Ben Hubbard: But we also don't really know who comes next. Who actually has the control anymore to impose whatever decision is made on the rest of the organization?
--:-- Ben Hubbard: From what we understand, the fighting in Gaza now is very decentralized. It's not like Hamas was sitting at some sort of command center telling the remaining fighters in Gaza what to do and where to go.
--:-- Ben Hubbard: People are basically, from what we understand, acting of their own accord. I mean, small, small, small groups of fighters who make their own decisions based on their own locations and go out and carry out attacks on Israeli forces kind of wherever they get the opportunity.
--:-- Ben Hubbard: And so, you know, is there enough of a structure left in the organization for someone to be able to negotiate on behalf of everyone who's left and to impose whatever decision is made on them to tell all of these kind of small fighting groups left in Gaza, it's time to stop.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For more about the implications of Sinwar's death, listen to today's episode of The Daily.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Biden reacted to news of Sinwar's death while on a trip to Germany. He spoke to reporters at the airport and reiterated the need for a ceasefire.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's time for this war to end and bring these hostages home.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And so that's what we're ready to do.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Biden is in Berlin to showcase U.S.-Germany cooperation, particularly in helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Nearly every week for the last few months the Biden administration has announced that it sending another shipment of arms either to Ukraine or more recently to the Middle East.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Some Pentagon officials worry that the flow of weapons and reshuffling of resources could be hurting the U.S. ability to respond to a new conflict if one arises.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The deployments have made a dent in American supplies. This week, the Army secretary said it needed to be careful about not overextending itself.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But she added, in a world this volatile, you know, sometimes we have to do what we have to do.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last night in Texas, the state Supreme Court halted the execution of a death row inmate hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Robert Roberson was convicted over 20 years ago of killing his two-year-old daughter, who doctors at the time said had suffered from shaken baby syndrome related to abuse.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Diagnosis of the syndrome has come under scrutiny in recent years, as some doctors and defense lawyers have challenged it in this and other cases.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Roberson's execution would have been the first in the country related to the syndrome, but a series of last-minute legal moves by a group of state lawmakers opposed to his death sentence led the court to place a stay on the execution for now.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Roberson's defense has claimed his daughter did not suffer from shaken baby syndrome. Instead, they've put forward medical experts who argue that she most likely died from complications of pneumonia.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: His team has also said that Roberson's autism played a role in his conviction. They say investigators interpreted his lack of emotion as evidence of his guilt.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Roberson has garnered a lot of support. More than half of the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives has lobbied for his case to be reviewed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The detective who helped convict Roberson now says he believes he's innocent.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, what did it feel like when you were outside and you saw the Kmart?
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: Oh, we were getting excited. Some shoppers in New York are making a bittersweet pilgrimage to Kmart.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: Like I've even said, like, I don't ever want to go to New York City. And then she's like, oh, the last Kmart's there. I'm like, let's go.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: The last full-size Kmart is closing this weekend, leaving just a smaller store in Miami and a handful in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: That's all that's left of what was once the country's leading discount store.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: There are signs everywhere. Everything must go.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: Times reporter Alexandra Petrie visited the store in Bridgehampton, New York, where she found empty shelves, a cracking linoleum floor, and some diehard Kmart enthusiasts.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: It's just like a Kmart smell. The smell. Kmart is a smell.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: Including a pair of sisters who came from Duluth, Minnesota, just to see the last store.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: It's just this weird nostalgia for us. Gloria McCourtney and Chrissy Economos grew up going to their local Kmart.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: It was their place to hang out. Yeah, some days we'd literally just go walk around. Right, meet me at Kmart.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: Kmart was dominant in the 1980s, though it then struggled in the 90s and ultimately could not compete with Walmart, Target, and most recently with the rise of Amazon.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: The chain filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and had an ill-fated merger with Sears after that and continued to collapse.
--:-- Alexandra Petrie: But in New York, the sisters on their final Kmart trip were still able to score some deals. All sales were final.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. This show is made by Robert Jemison, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schumann.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The headlines will be back on Monday.
