Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman.
Chapter 2: What inquiries are being launched into U.S. military actions?
House and Senate committees are launching inquiries into the deadly U.S. military boat strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. Lawmakers want to know about a news report that says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. troops to kill people aboard an alleged drug boat last September. Reporter John Otis says the U.N. has declared the U.S. strikes violate international law.
U.S. forces have destroyed more than 20 alleged drug boats, killing more than 80 people. But the Washington Post reported that following one of the first strikes back in September, there were initially two survivors clinging to the boat wreckage.
According to the Post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order to kill everyone aboard alleged drug boats and that this order led to a second strike in which those survivors were killed.
John Otis reporting. Hegseth says the report is fake. President Trump says he supports Hegseth. A U.S. appeals court panel says President Trump's former lawyer was illegally installed as the U.S. prosecutor for New Jersey. The appeals court panel agreed with the lower court ruling and says Alina Haba is disqualified from serving in the job.
Pope Leo is visiting Lebanon today and meeting with Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Leo is seeking to promote religious tolerance in a region scarred by conflict. NPR's Ruth Sherlock has more.
Pope Leo began the day visiting a hilltop monastery with sweeping views of the sea to pray at the tomb of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite revered by both Christians and Muslims. At another pilgrimage site high in the mountains, Pope Leo heard testimonies, including from a priest helping refugees and a Filipina domestic worker, about the treatment of migrants in Lebanon.
Leo called on church workers to bring hope to their faithful, saying that even among the rubble of a world that has its own painful failures, it's important to offer prospects for rebirth. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut.
In the U.S., stocks opened lower this morning as gasoline prices dipped. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped about 80 points in early trading.
AAA says the average price of regular gas nationwide has dropped to $3 a gallon, even as tens of millions of people hit the road over the holiday weekend. Truck drivers, however, are not enjoying lower prices. The average cost of diesel fuel is close to $3.74 a gallon, 20 cents more than this time last year.
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