Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. President Trump on Christmas Day said the U.S.
military launched what he called a powerful and deadly strikes against the Islamic State forces in Nigeria. The Pentagon released a video alongside a statement from the president calling it an unclassified clip showing a missile being fired from a ship.
The attack came after Trump spent several weeks accusing the leadership of that West African nation of failing to stop the persecution of Christians. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. worked with Nigeria and claimed the mission had been approved by the country's government.
Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the cooperation included sharing intelligence and strategic coordination. Nigeria's population is split almost evenly between Muslims and Christians, and the Boko Haram extremist group has sought to establish its version of Islamic law, claiming Muslims in some cases are not Muslim enough.
In Turkey, police detained 115 suspected members of ISIS in coordinated raids across the country over allegations of plots linked to Christmas and New Year's. Authorities say they issued more than 130 arrest warrants after learning of the planned attacks. The BBC's Sebastian Usher has more.
This is not unusual in Turkey. They take these preventive measures regularly and often detain quite large numbers of suspects. And it's been pretty successful. I mean, if you go back about a decade in Turkey, there was a real threat from ISIS coming across the border from Syria and then from Iraq with what was going on with Islamic State then.
Since then, there have been attacks, but not on that scale and not with that regularity.
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Chapter 2: What military actions did President Trump announce on Christmas Day?
The American Academy of Pediatrics is suing the Federal Health Department over the sudden cancellation of $12 million in grants. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffins reports pediatricians allege the grants were canceled in retaliation for speaking out.
AAP represents 67,000 pediatricians across the country. The organization has pushed back forcefully against the vaccine recommendations implemented by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist. In the lawsuit, AAP says the Department of Health and Human Services retaliated against their organization because of that public criticism.
The millions in canceled grants supported work on sudden infant death prevention, rural health, early detection of birth defects, and more. The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., and says that without court intervention, these programs will end within weeks. HHS did not respond to NPR's request for comment.
This is NPR. Officials in Taiwan are monitoring the Chinese coast waters and the ships sailing in restricted waters next to some of the islands. Such Chinese patrols are increasingly common around Taiwan, and according to a Pentagon report, some of China's efforts to erode Taiwan's control over its own waters. NPR's Emily Fang has more.
China says its Coast Guard ships are near the Taiwanese Kinmen Islands as part of a routine patrol. Taiwan's Coast Guard dispatched three ships to monitor the Chinese group and said sailing in bad weather was, quote, unprofessional and irrational.
The Pentagon says China has increasingly used its Coast Guard in various Taiwan-themed military exercises and patrols around Taiwan's Kinmen Islands, which are very close to China's eastern shore.
The annual Pentagon report on China, which came out this week, noted that China's overall military has made steady progress towards its goal to be capable of what Beijing calls a strategic, decisive victory over Taiwan, a democratic island China hopes to one day control. Emily Fang, NPR News.
The bodies of two members of the Iowa National Guard who were killed in a December 13th attack in Syria have been returned to their families, this during a Christmas Eve ceremony in Des Moines.
The American flag-grey coffins carrying the service members Edgar Brian Torres Tovar and William Nathaniel Howard arrived after processing through a solemn transfer ritual at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The guardsman, along with a U.S. civilian interpreter who were killed in the attack, he was also buried over the weekend. This is NPR News.
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