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Today's top stories
NATO leaders committed to increasing their defense spending to 5% of their country's GDP at the summit held in The Hague in the Netherlands, yesterday. President Trump spoke about the NATO alliance, one he has often disparaged, with warmth. He spent a lot of time during the summit discussing the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.
- 🎧 Even before the NATO summit started, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was talking about the Iran strike, NPR's Deepa Shivaram tells Up First. Rutte was praising Trump for a lot of things and even called Trump "daddy" on stage. Trump called the increase in defense spending a win. The president has complained for years about the alliance not spending enough money, so the summit was tailored to him this year.
A federal judge has ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be released from jail pending his criminal trial. Abrego Garcia is the Salvadoran native whom the government mistakenly deported to a mega prison in El Salvador. The government originally claimed it could not bring him back to the United States. Then, it did bring him back, after which he was indicted on human smuggling charges. Federal Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville has delayed his release by at least a few days in order to clear up some of the conditions of his release.
- 🎧 Immigration officials are standing by to detain Abrego Garcia once he is out of jail. Marianna Bacallao with NPR network station WPLN says she counted at least six Homeland Security vehicles parked outside the courthouse yesterday. The prosecution has pointed out that ICE could deport Abrego Garcia before he has the opportunity to stand trial, which is part of the prosecution's argument to keep him in jail. The judge asked the Department of Justice, which is prosecuting in the case, to work with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure Abrego Garcia can make his court dates. The DOJ essentially stated it is out of their hands.
Senate Republicans are racing to pass Trump's signature domestic policy bill by their self-imposed deadline of July 4. They have been struggling to resolve some key sticking points that have thrown their schedule into flux. The bill contains a lot of Trump's agenda, including tax cuts and more money for border security and defense. While senators are united on border security and defense spending, they're divided on how to pay for it.
- 🎧 The future of Medicaid is one big issue the senators face, NPR's Elena Moore says. There is currently a proposal that would require states to decrease the amount they can tax Medicaid providers, which could end up saving the government cash. Some senators are against the idea as they worry it will hurt rural hospitals. There is also a debate over scrapping a bunch of clean energy tax credits. Some senators say taking away those investments could cause Americans to lose jobs and face higher prices. If the Senate is unable to pass the bill, it would go back to the House of Representatives.
Today's listen
During the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. decided to put money into helping orphans with AIDS. The disease had left around 12 million children, mostly in Africa, without a parent. This year, the Trump administration halted most foreign assistance, including to this program. In the wake of aid cuts, Billiance Chondwe, also known as Pastor Billy, has been trying to find meds for 9-year-old Diana Lungu, an HIV-positive orphan in Zambia who can no longer get them. Without the pills, the virus would surge back. NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel met with Pastor Billy and Lungu and learned from them how these abrupt changes could impact Lungu's life. Listen to more about the pastor's search for the meds and read the story here.
From our hosts
This essay was written by Leila Fadel, Morning Edition and Up First host
When we tell stories about world events, global leaders making historic decisions, protesters demanding equality or court rulings that change the trajectory of a nation, it feels like we sometimes forget the people who make up the why behind it all. Individuals — so many with very little power — are the ones who live with the impact of policy, the ones who force change or are forced to accept imposed change.
Today, on the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in every state in this country, I want you to think about love — about Jim Obergefell and his late husband, John Arthur, who died from ALS.
John was Jim's love, but they could only be married in 2013 when the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down. In Ohio, though, where they lived, it still wasn't recognized. So Jim and his sick husband-to-be flew to another state to finally be husband and husband.
In death, though, Jim was reminded that their love, their partnership, was seen as less. He could not be included on his husband's death certificate as a spouse. Ohio called John unmarried on that death certificate. That wasn't true.
So Jim fought.
He fought to be equal and to be recognized as John's husband in life and in death.
Today is the ten-year anniversary of the culmination of that fight, one that led to the Supreme Court decision that we commemorate today.
On this day, Jim thinks of John, and he wishes they had more than three months as husband and husband.
"But more than that, I think about those queer kids who have grown up in a world where marriage is just simply a possibility, one of many for their future. And that's what kids deserve," he said.
Despite efforts to roll back LGBTQ+ rights and other rights of marginalized groups, Jim doesn't get disillusioned.
"I just keep moving forward knowing that all we can do is use our voices and work hard to be included in with the people, and that's what we should all be doing," he said.
Jim just wanted to be married to the man he loved. Because of that, he changed the country. There is power in love. Listen to our full conversation or read the story here.
3 things to know before you go
- Eric Johnson's husband, Dennis Hopkins, was given a 50% chance of surviving his next round of treatments for stage four lung cancer. During a hospital stay, the couple met their unsung hero: a nurse named Sherry, who offered straightforward insights that helped them navigate the following days with a sense of peace.
- A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday ruled in favor of AI company Claude in a copyright infringement case against a group of authors. The first-of-its-kind ruling could allow AI companies to train their language models on copyrighted works.
- Morgan Wallen's album I'm the Problem remains at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for the fifth consecutive week as it vies for "album of the summer."
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