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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Israel launched fresh airstrikes across southern Lebanon today. The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah says it fired back. NPR's Lauren Frere reports the ongoing violence between Israel and Lebanon is threatening to derail ceasefire talks in Islamabad this weekend.
Lebanese state media say Israeli airstrikes hit in and around the Mediterranean city of Tyre, part of a zone in which Israel says it's trying to seize territory to prevent Hezbollah from firing cross-border rockets from there.
Chapter 2: What recent events are escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon?
The Iran-backed group says it launched rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli ground troops inside Lebanon. In the capital, Beirut, rescuers are still pulling bodies from the rubble of 100 Israeli strikes in 10 minutes on what local media dubbed Black Wednesday, when more than 300 people were killed, according to Lebanon's government.
The World Food Program says the Israeli invasion has disrupted supply lines, leaving Lebanon in a food security crisis. A plane load of aid is due here from Qatar. Lauren Fryer, NPR News, Beirut.
The White House is warning staff to not place bets on popular prediction market sites. NPR's Bobby Allen reports on new scrutiny over whether government officials are abusing confidential information for profit.
A staff-wide email from the White House Management Office put Trump officials on notice over prediction market sites like Cauchy and Polymarket. It said it's a criminal offense to use non-public information to make money on betting markets about federal policy, military strikes, and war.
It comes as a number of suspiciously well-timed bets have raised alarms, including six-figure polymarket bets on a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran hours before an announcement was made. Regulators have cleared the lane for the prediction market industry to boom in Trump's second term.
But accusations that insiders could be profiting off of classified military intelligence have put the sights on the defensive. Bobby Allen in PR News.
The leader of Cuba says he was elected to office and it's not up to the U.S. government to decide whether he stays in power. Katie Silver reports the Cuban president's comments come as the Trump administration calls for a regime change.
Speaking to NBC News, Miguel Diaz-Canel said as a revolutionary, stepping down is not part of his vocabulary and that it's the Cuban people that he responds to.
We have self-determination and independence and we are not subjected to the designs of the United States.
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