Trump Targets Birthright Citizenship Again, and Activists Describe Abuse in Israeli Custody

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0:32From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, August 7th. Here's what we're covering.

0:43We have a few subjects that we're going to discuss, all important, but one in particular important having to do with birthright citizenship. At the White House yesterday, President Trump took aim again at birthright citizenship, signing a pair of executive orders to try and restrict who can automatically become an American citizen. We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we're making adjustments. The move came just weeks after the Supreme Court rejected the president's previous effort to end birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

1:25Trump's new orders are focused in part on limiting so-called birth tourism, where women travel to the U.S. so their newborns can become Americans. And it would put in place other restrictions on who could qualify for citizenship. Trump has long blasted birthright citizenship as a scam that attracts migrants. For now, it's not clear how the orders would be enforced. And one Department of Homeland Security official threw cold water on the birth tourism order specifically, telling the Times that it basically just restates existing immigration law. Trump's renewed efforts to limit birthright citizenship will almost certainly face new litigation and court challenges.

2:08Still, experts say that the Trump administration is fundamentally reshaping the country's immigration policies, with more than 700 immigration restrictions being imposed since Trump returned to office. One professor at Cornell University told The Times, quote, The Trump administration is winning its war on immigrants. As a result, the United States has net negative migration for the first time in 50 years.

2:39Now, two other updates on the administration. The Times has learned that the CIA has secretly set up a Cuba task force, turning up the pressure campaign on the Cuban government as President Trump demands that the island make economic and political changes. The task force has begun adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, as well as officers who specialize in covert operations, according to people briefed on the plan. They say the task force is supposed to try and create fissures among the political elite in Cuba in the hopes of pressuring Cubans to replace leaders the White House sees as anti-American.

3:19For months, the administration has had a crippling oil embargo in place on the island, and Trump has said, quote, I think I can do anything I want with it. They're a very weakened nation right now. The CIA declined to comment on the task force, but this is not the first time the agency has been involved in Cuba. In the 1960s, the CIA set up a task force, whose members oversaw the failed U.S.-backed mission to overthrow the Cuban government, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion.

3:51And the Trump administration says it's moving forward with a plan to overhaul Head Start, a key federal child care program for preschool-age kids. Right now, Head Start, which is aimed at helping the nation's poorest families, serves about 700 ,000 children, and it has a lot of regulations, like curriculum requirements for math and literacy, and ensuring kids get regular medical and dental screenings. But the Times has learned the administration plans to remove most of those, even a requirement that kids brush their teeth after meals. The administration says the changes will streamline the program, And it estimates that by scrapping class-sized limits specifically, Head Start can serve more children.

4:37Trump administration officials say that what this is really about is lifting onerous federal regulations, sending control of this program back to the states. And sort of a big thing they say, which will probably happen, is allowing hundreds of thousands more children to access the program. My colleague Coral Davenport has been covering the proposed changes. She says last year, the administration tried to freeze funding for Head Start altogether, saying that would end, quote, radical indoctrination of our children. That effort failed, but the new proposal could still fundamentally change the six-decade-old program.

5:18So it does seem clear that with these changes in place, the program itself will have far fewer services. They will not necessarily have a guarantee of the quality of education, the health care. So there will be more kids in the program, but the program will do much less. The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to post the proposed changes in the coming days. They will be open to public comment and could still be changed and amended. The changes are expected to be implemented in Head Start classrooms sometime next year.

5:54Back in May, hundreds of activists boarded a flotilla of boats and set off across the Mediterranean toward the Gaza Strip. It was the largest in a series of similar efforts over the past two years, with the stated goal of getting food and aid to the war-ravaged territory. The group also hoped their trip would bring media attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where international experts say Israeli restrictions contributed to famine. But within days, like with all the other recent flotillas, Israeli forces moved in, stopping the boats and apprehending the activists before they could make it to Gaza.

6:44While they were being held, Israel's national security minister posted a video of himself walking among the handcuffed activists and taunting them. And soon, reports began to emerge that the activists had been physically abused by Israeli forces. Almost as soon as the allegations of abuse emerged, Israel officially denied them and said that the activists had been treated according to the law. But together with two of my colleagues, we interviewed at length two dozen of these activists who told us stories of abuse not just on ships in the Mediterranean, but also on Israeli soil. Their accounts were consistent and lined up with medical records that six of them gave us.

7:32Catherine Porter is part of the team at the Times that has been speaking with some of the members of the flotilla. Activists were held in what they believed were two separate Israeli Navy boats on which there were makeshift prisons made up of shipping containers that were lined up like a giant square. On top of the shipping containers were soldiers who were massed and armed, and they described at times being shot at by these soldiers with what they believed to be rubber bullets. The soldiers often, according to the activists, threw down flash grenades to move them around inside this open holding pen.

8:16The activists said that they accessed the holding pen through a darkened shipping container. And once they were pushed into it, they were greeted by Israeli soldiers that they said beat them, often punching in the ribs, kicking them in the back. and one of the activists, a woman from Australia, said she was raped inside the container. She said after being punched and kicked, a soldier pulled down her pants and underwear and inserted what she believed to be his hand inside her vagina. The activists also told us that the abuse had continued after they were brought to Israeli soil. Once they reached the port of Ashdod, they were taken off the ships and many said the beatings continued.

9:01Catherine says that within a few days of being detained, all the activists were deported from Israel. The allegations from those in the flotilla echo other accounts of abuse in Israeli prisons. A previous investigation by the Times found that dozens of Palestinians have died inside Israeli prisons, while others faced abuse, including beatings, broken bones and electric shocks. One Palestinian told The Times that Israeli soldiers raped him with a stick. In response to questions from The Times about how the flotilla activists were treated, Israel's military and its prison service both rejected allegations of abuse, and the country's foreign ministry said the allegations had been, quote, scripted in advance for one goal only, defaming Israel.

9:51The foreign ministry characterized the rape allegations specifically as an outright lie, but said Israel would investigate if it received an official complaint. For the Times' full reporting on the flotilla, go to nytimes.com.

10:13Yesterday, the tech giant Meta was ordered to pay more than$500 million over claims it misled users about the safety of its platforms. It is the largest financial penalty yet in Meta's ongoing legal battles over social media harm and addiction. The case was filed by the attorney general of New Mexico, who accused Meta of not doing enough to stop sexual predators from contacting minors on its platforms. Earlier this year, a jury in the state ordered the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to pay over$300 million. Now, the new fine of over$500 million comes on top of that. and the judge overseeing the case also ordered Meta to make changes to how young people use its platforms.

10:59That includes prohibiting Facebook and Instagram from sending push notifications to underage users in New Mexico from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and limiting the amount of time they can spend on the platforms to 90 hours a month, so roughly three hours a day. In his ruling, the judge wrote that Meta's platforms are a, quote, significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico's youth. The New Mexico case is one of thousands of lawsuits that Meta and other social media companies are facing across the country. They've been filed by teens, school districts, and other states, and they claim that those companies' products have caused widespread harm in a variety of ways.

11:41In a statement, a spokesman for Meta said that the company disagreed with the New Mexico ruling, which it planned to appeal, and that, quote, we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.

12:01And finally, around the U.S., there's a growing number of so-called sober spaces, which are trying to offer a different way of dealing with addiction. They're built around things like fitness or meditation or social activities, and they're becoming increasingly popular. For example, the Phoenix in Boston is a free gym where members are asked to be at least 48 hours sober before visiting. They've got rock climbing, weightlifting, etc. From 2020 to 2025, their new member enrollment climbed from about 20 ,000 people to over 420 ,000 people. The model isn't new per se, but one researcher said it's having a bit of a renaissance.

12:43These places can work for people who feel like they need more than they're getting from other approaches to treating addiction. For example, the clinical approach is often limited to a short time period, like a set number of weeks in rehab, after which people can feel like they're on their own. And 12-step programs like AA aren't always a fit for everyone, with their emphasis on a higher power and often complete abstinence. Having a new place for people to go can help them break old habits. You're around different groups of people, and there's an activity that doesn't revolve around drugs or alcohol.

13:19Plus, people get to know you, learn your name, ask how you're doing. A staff member of the Phoenix Gym said she's seen that working. She said one new member showed up again the very next day because he said it was the first time he had a group of people who cared whether he came back.

13:38Those are the headlines. If you'd like to Play the Friday News Quiz. Stick around. It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnik, Miles McKinley, and Zoe Murphy. One last thing. If you are not yet subscribed to The Times, you have the chance to get full access right now for 30 days for free. You just download the Times app and you'll be able to read, watch, listen to everything for 30 days.

14:13Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all?

14:24To start, we're going to play a round of who's talking. Can you name these people who've been in the news this week by their voice? These landmarks and monuments belong to all of us, and they must be protected for generations to come. Who is that? And this is not the way of a civilized society. It is anarchy. That's former Fox News host Janine Pirro, now the U.S. attorney for D.C. Her office just recently dropped charges against people who she initially claimed vandalized the reflecting pool. Now, she says, the damage was actually caused by botched construction work. Next up. Went to law school at night, read textbooks on the late train home while I worked days as a paralegal.

15:12Do you know who that is? We are keeping America safe and we are just getting started. That's Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general who is trying to get officially confirmed to the job. This week, his nomination took a crucial step forward in the Senate. Next one. So coming back and donning the suit again, you know, it felt like the responsibility had gotten greater because there was a decision to be made. How about that? Do you know who that is? Oh, dude, I'm living the dream right now.

15:47That's the actor Tom Holland, who is starring in the two biggest movies in the country right now, the latest Spider-Man movie and The Odyssey. Meaning the box office is basically just 50 % Tom Holland. Okay, some of you have seen, you know, there's those cool kids on the internet. Last one here. They're doing the cool kid chatter, making fun of how I talk. This person has taken a lot of heat for her accent lately. Who is it? Let's be real. They're making fun of Michigan. That's Haley Stevens, who just narrowly lost one of the most expensive Democratic Senate primaries this year in Michigan. Throughout her campaign, some people praised her way of talking as authentic Midwest, while others accused her of exaggerating what is technically known as Northern City's vowel shift.

16:46Next question. They're saying that chunks of the moon are going to be flying into the atmosphere. Early on Wednesday, space enthusiasts had their telescopes trained on the sky, hoping to catch sight of a rare collision. A certain object was on course to crash into the moon at more than twice the speed of a bullet, setting off a flash of light and plume of lunar dust. Your question, what object was it?

17:16The answer? Part of a SpaceX rocket. The rocket carried two private lunar landers up to space last year, then ended up adrift for a while before its unintentional collision with the moon. This incident feeds into an increasingly urgent conversation about what to do with space junk. As more things get launched up there, not only is some of it hitting the moon, more and more of it is falling back down to Earth. According to a study for the federal government, by the year 2035, so less than a decade from now, debris from SpaceX satellites alone could hit someone on Earth every two years. And last question.

17:59One of the world's smallest countries officially got a new name this week. The tiny island in the South Pacific that used to be spelled N-A-U-R-U, which a lot of Americans pronounced Nauru, is now Naoero, N-A-O-E-R-O, to more closely match the country's native language. We are going to ask you about five other countries that have gotten their names updated on the map, often as part of an effort to move on from colonial rule. We will give you the old name. See if you can identify the country. Ready? See how many you can get. Ceylon. That is now called Sri Lanka. Siam. That was switched to Thailand, though there has been talk over the years about going back.

18:48Now this is a tricky one. Upper Volta. That became Burkina Faso. How about Gold Coast? Gold Coast is now Ghana. And last one, what did the government of the Czech Republic start using as an official shorter version of their country's name? The answer to that? Czechia. Some of the people who pushed for the update a few years ago put up a statement saying, Czechia might sound strange to people the first time they hear it, but so do numerous geographic names, like Idaho. That's it for the news quiz. Our email is theheadlines at nytimes.com if you want to tell us how you did. I'm Tracy Mumford. The show will be back on Monday.