Trump’s 2-Hour Call with Putin, and Why Iran Is Pushing Gender Transition Surgeries

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, October 17th. Here's what we're covering.

0:13Today at the White House, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with President Trump. The two are expected to talk about a big thing on Zelensky's wish list, Tomahawk missiles. Ukraine is eager to buy them from the U.S. because they have a range of more than a thousand miles, allowing the country to strike even deeper into Russia. Lately, it's been ramping up its campaign to cause as much damage as possible to Russian targets, like oil refineries, as a way to bring Russia to the negotiating table. The tomahawks would be the longest-range weapons the U.S. has ever provided to Ukraine, and Trump said earlier this week he was open to making the sale.

0:51The Pentagon drew up plans to transfer the missiles, awaiting Trump's order. But yesterday, Trump got on the phone with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. After speaking with him for two hours, Trump abruptly changed his tone on the weapons. We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean, we can't deplete for our country. So, you know, they're very vital. They're very powerful. He suggested he might hold them back if Putin is willing to negotiate an end to the war. But did President Putin try to dissuade you from selling tomahawk missiles? Well, of course, what do you think he's going to say? Please sell tomahawks?

1:30Trump's apparent pivot on the missiles is part of a pattern of how he's dealt with Putin. Multiple times this year, Trump has been on the brink of putting new sanctions on Russia or giving new military aid to Ukraine, only to have a conversation with Putin and come out of it pushing for more talks instead. Each time, Putin has then continued the Russian assault on Ukraine. Critics say it's a trap that Trump has fallen into again. Trump says he plans to meet with Putin face-to-face in the next two weeks at a summit in Hungary.

2:09On Thursday, John Bolton, President Trump's former national security advisor, was indicted for mishandling classified information. He's facing 18 counts that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. Prosecutors say that when Bolton was serving in Trump's first term, he sent more than 1 ,000 pages of notes about his day-to-day activities, which included top-secret defense information, to his family members. Those notes sometimes came from his AOL or Gmail accounts. At one point, prosecutors say Bolton followed one of them up with a message saying, quote, none of which we talked about!

2:43Exclamation point! Exclamation point! Exclamation point! The person responded, shh. Making matters worse, Bolton's emails were later hacked by someone associated with the government of Iran. Bolton's relationship with Trump eventually imploded, and Bolton went on to publish a highly critical behind-the-scenes book about the administration. Now he's the latest in a string of Trump's perceived enemies to be charged by the Justice Department. But my colleague Devlin Barrett, who covers the DOJ, says it is different from the recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

3:20For those cases, Trump installed his former personal lawyer, who had no prosecutorial experience, to bring the charges. For one thing, the prosecutors who have handled this case are the career prosecutors inside the Justice Department who normally handle national security cases, and they're the ones that brought this case to the grand jury and got the indictment. It's also different because this investigation, which sort of began in the first Trump administration, really gained new momentum during the Biden years and was investigated and taken seriously during the period of time in which Joe Biden was the president and his attorney general was running the Justice Department.

4:01So it's not the same procedure, the same alarming procedure that you saw in some of these other cases involving people that Trump has publicly criticized. Bolton is expected to make his first court appearance later today in Maryland. In a statement, he said his indictment was part of an intimidation campaign against critics of President Trump, writing, quote, I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.

4:34Now, two other updates on the Trump administration. The U.S. military commander who oversees all operations in Central and South America, where the U.S. has been carrying out strikes on boats it says were smuggling drugs, is stepping down. Admiral Alvin Holsey is leaving the position suddenly, less than a year into what's typically a three-year job. It's unclear why, but one current U.S. official and one former one told The Times that Holsey had raised concerns about the recent boat attacks. The administration has said the strikes were necessary to prevent dangerous drugs from entering the U.S., though many experts in military law have questioned the administration's claim that it can lawfully kill people suspected of drug trafficking instead of arresting them.

5:18With Holsey's departure, there was no public mention of any friction over that issue. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thanked the admiral for his service on social media, And Holsey, in a statement, urged those in his command to, quote, keep charging. Also, the initiatives I've just announced are the boldest and most significant actions ever taken by any president to bring the miracle of life into more American homes. In the Oval Office yesterday, President Trump announced an initiative to make in vitro fertilization more accessible for Americans. He said the goal is to reduce the cost of the drugs necessary for IVF and to encourage more employers to offer coverage for it, just like they do dental or vision.

6:05At the moment, it's unclear how much the plan will lower the price, which can hit$15 ,000 or$20 ,000 for a single IVF cycle, or if companies will get on board. The announcement is one of Trump's clearest efforts yet to embrace the pronatalist movement, which is aimed at raising the U.S. birth rate. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who joined the administration in April, said at the event, quote, I know what you're all thinking, and you're probably right. There are going to be a lot of Trump babies. Notably, the president stopped short of requiring employers to cover IVF, potentially in deference to some Christian conservatives in his base who are staunchly against the procedure, saying they have ethical concerns with IVF because it can involve discarding human embryos.

6:57And finally. Welcome to Iran, a land of breathtaking beauty and world-class health care. The Times has been covering how in Iran, with the country's economy crippled by war and sanctions, the government is trying to promote medical tourism as a way to bring in outside cash. Imagine receiving the highest quality of care in cutting-edge medical facilities, all while experiencing the warmth and hospitality of Iran. They've been pushing the country as a destination for hair transplants, nose jobs, and also for gender transition surgeries for transgender foreigners. For 40 years, Iran has performed more gender transition surgeries than many other countries in the world.

7:39But it's not because the country has embraced trans rights. It's because they have extremely strict views on gender norms. My colleague Pranav Bhaskar has been reporting on transition surgeries in Iran. He says that for years, the conservative Iranian government has forced gender nonconforming people to undergo transition surgeries. For example, a trans man might be pressured into having a mastectomy. People who don't submit to them can face extreme punishments like public flogging or even the death penalty. Under that system, Iranian doctors perform, by some estimates, thousands of transition surgeries every year, giving them extensive experience in those procedures.

8:21And Pranov says they're charging foreigners a lot less than they would pay elsewhere. For example, a surgery that could cost$45 ,000 in the United States could go for 10 times cheaper in Iran. You know, we found that those cut rate prices are drawing transgender individuals from as far away as Australia, the United States, Britain, and Europe. But even as Iran is becoming more widely advertised as the destination for gender transition surgery, there's firstly concerns about safety. Some activists have likened the country's gender clinics to butcher shops, and according to some reports, there have been complications like bleeding and infection associated with the surgeries.

9:02And adding to the risks are questions about whether there will be rush timelines. for operations that experts say typically involve months of planning and post-operative care. Medical tourism groups are marketing timelines as quick as seven to nine days. At the same time, many trans foreigners traveling to Iran for transition surgery, who we spoke to, described a tension and conflict that they were navigating because they were glad that there was a place that they could go to to get access to this sort of medical care that they saw as life-saving. But they were also troubled that the place that they had to go to had such a long history of targeting and persecuting LGBTQ people.

10:07Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you answer them all? OK, first up.

10:22In recent weeks, there have been tense confrontations between federal agents and protesters across the country as crowds have gathered to push back on the government's escalating immigration operations. In one city, some of those protests have had an unusual look, with demonstrators dressed as frogs, unicorns, raccoons, pickles. We're in costumes to show just how ridiculous that is. People even streaked by an ICE facility there this past week in a coordinated naked bike ride. We're here representing peace. We're here representing love. Your question, what city is this happening in?

11:07The answer? Portland, Oregon. Those big, jiggling, inflatable costumes have become particularly popular at the protests there, giving some otherwise intense scenes with arrests and tear gas a sort of surreal look. A man who's been wearing a chicken onesie to protests told the Times, quote, it just makes it seem sillier when they come after us.

11:34OK, next question. In the U.S., the government shutdown has now stretched into a third week. Flights have been delayed. Workers are furloughed. Some national parks have closed. And in D.C. Anyone hoping to enjoy D.C.'s beloved museums is now out of luck. The Smithsonian museums have shut. Came here for an exhibit, so just a little disappointed, of course. That means tourists are being turned away from some of the most popular destinations in the city, where millions of people go every year to see the collections. We're going to ask you if you can identify three of the most iconic objects the Smithsonian has in its possession.

12:11We'll give you little audio clues. Ready? Here's the first one. It's some very famous footwear. Give them back to me. Give them back. Keep tight inside of them. Their magic must be very powerful or she wouldn't want them so badly. You stay out of this, Glenda, or I'll fix you as well. The answer? A set of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. Okay, next one. It is the object that inspired this pretty famous song.

12:49What object is that in Ode to?

12:55The answer? The Smithsonian has the actual star-spangled banner, a slightly tattered American flag that flew over the ramparts at Fort McHenry and the rocket's red glare and all that during the War of 1812. And your last object is some important gear from an athlete whose sports illustrated called the sportsman of the 20th century. I have roustled with an alligator. I done tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning, throw thunder in jail. Name that athlete and his gear that is at the Smithsonian. A little hint, you would not want to be on the receiving end of it. The answer? Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves.

13:46Only last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone. Known for his boxing more than his humility, when Ali donated them to the Smithsonian, he predicted the gloves would become, quote, the most famous thing in this building.

14:05And final question. In Chicago last year... So you had to come and see for yourself, huh? I couldn't believe it until I saw with my own eyes. A segment of the sidewalk became one of the city's most unexpected landmarks and an internet sensation. It's not our favorite distinction in the city of Chicago being known as the rattiest city. This is not helping. Nicknamed the Chicago rat hole or splatatooey, it was a mark where something seemed to have fallen into the cement while it was still wet, leaving a pretty cartoony impression, complete with what looks like little outstretched arms. But this week, a team of researchers announced the findings of an investigation they'd done, saying, quote, we can affirmatively conclude that this imprint was not created by a rat.

14:49So your question, what did they find created it? I'm going to give you four options. A, a child's toy. B, a squirrel. C, a prankster who drew it into the cement. D, an unlucky frog. Again, those options are toy, squirrel, artistic human, or frog.

15:14The answer? The scientists said they are 99 % certain it was either an eastern gray squirrel or a fox squirrel. Now, to be fair, there were some rat hole truthers out there all along. I just don't believe that a rat hops in the air and belly flaps straight down. The theory goes that the squirrel fell out of a tree onto the wet cement, immortalizing itself. The scientists say squirrels actually fall a lot. But my question, since there are definitely no little footprints leading away from the rat hole, squirrel dent, what happened to it? No? That is it for the news quiz. Our email, as always, is theheadlines at nytimes.com.

15:59If you want to send us your score, tell us how you did. Tell us where that squirrel is now. I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back on Monday.