by Brittney Melton

December 14, 2025

Good morning. This week, Egypt and Iran objected to playing in a Seattle "Pride" match for the 2026 World Cup, Charlie Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson, made his first in-person court appearance, and the State Department reversed a Biden-era font change that aimed to help readers with disabilities.

Compassion and empathy in wartime

by Ari Daniel, a freelance contributor to NPR's Science desk

Can a war kill compassion? That’s a question for a year with too many terrible conflicts going on. But in one case — the war between Hamas and Israel — a ceasefire has been formalized, although a degree of violence and killing continues.

When the war began in October 2023, I interviewed Israelis and Palestinians to see if they could hold on to compassion and empathy in a region newly on edge. In the wake of the October ceasefire, I spoke again with the interviewees for this story: Has hope survived the war? We asked Israelis and Palestinians we spoke to in 2023.

From left: Yousef Bashir, who is wearing a black blazer, shirt and pants; Dr. Lina Qasem Hassan, who wears a stethoscope around her neck, has glasses on and has her hair in a curly style; and Maoz Inon, who wears a black shirt and can be seen smiling from a side angle.

Yousef Bashir; Adam Rohana; Maoz Inon

I was eager to speak with my sources once more, hear how they’d weathered the war and ask if their perspectives had changed or endured. I wondered how they’d feel about talking to me again. They replied rapidly, eager to pick up the conversation again.

In fact, Lina Qasem Hassan, a Palestinian doctor who lives in Israel, told me that the original NPR radio story and article attracted the attention of other news outlets. The New Yorker profiled her, and The Guardian sent a film crew to Israel to do a short documentary about her. “Your story opened for me so many doors,” she wrote me over WhatsApp.

As I re-interviewed my sources, I could see that their pain about the war was always close to the surface, even as they strived to find a better way forward. Reporting these two stories spaced two years apart taught me that in the midst of all the bloodshed that dominated much of the news coverage, there are people who long for something else, wishing to inhabit a different world.

“I forgive everyone,” Maoz Inon told me. His parents were burned alive by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7, 2023. “I forgive Hamas who murdered my parents. I forgive the Israeli government for betraying and not standing up to the promise to keep them safe and secure. I don't hate anyone. There is no anger within me.”

Inon is still filled with sadness and pain, but he says he's channeling it into an unrelenting activism for peace.

Read more in my article here.

Check out more great reads from the NPR network you may have missed:

➡️ Earlier this year, the Trump administration upgraded several federal databases to create a searchable national citizenship system that would allow states to more easily find noncitizen voters. But an NPR investigation revealed the system known as SAVE has also flagged U.S. citizens. While the SAVE tool's changes made it more accessible, the Trump administration has drawn criticism for rolling the system out without public notice, congressional input or transparency about its accuracy.
➡️ Conservative commentator Brett Cooper — the 24-year-old host of The Brett Cooper Show — discussed her recent criticisms of President Trump and more with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep. Listen to what she had to say or watch the video interview here.
➡️ The U.S. Department of Education announced a proposed settlement to end a popular but controversial Biden-era student loan repayment plan, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. If the court approves, loan servicing companies, which handle day-to-day loan operations, will face a Herculean feat in transitioning millions of borrowers to other plans.
➡️ Hot rocks deep beneath the Earth may alleviate the U.S.' unquenchable thirst for energy to power rising AI usage. Injecting water into the hot rocks generates steam, which in turn produces electricity. But drilling is costly, and injecting water deep underground may trigger earthquakes that could shut down a power plant, said University of Utah chemical engineer John McLennan told WBUR.

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Pod Club

A brunette woman wearing a yellow-green long-sleeved shirt holds a tissue to their face, having just sneezed.

Olga Pankova/Getty Images

Thanks for tuning in last week to the The Indicator from Planet Money episode “Why the U.S. chose not to have a passenger train system like Europe.” It explored why U.S. railroads could still be worth bragging about, even though they don't have systems like those in Europe, Japan, or India.

Today, we’re listening to the Short Wave episode “The closest thing to a cure for allergies.” Over 100 million people in the U.S. experience allergies each year, and many only use over-the-counter allergy medications. However, there’s another treatment that works to lessen these reactions, rather than just managing people’s symptoms: allergy shots. Host Regina G. Barber speaks with Dr. Gina Dapul-Hidalgo about how this immunotherapy works and how certain guidelines have changed to prevent common food allergies in children. Listen to the episode or read the transcript here.

After listening, do you think you would consider allergy shots? Let us know why by clicking here. Your response could be featured in next week’s newsletter.

Love podcasts? For handpicked episode recommendations every week, check out Pod Club — a newsletter written FOR podcast fans BY podcast fans. Subscribe here!

In today’s episode of The Sunday Story from Up First: Author Rhaina Cohen joins host Ayesha Rascoe to discuss what happens when you put friendships at the center of your life.

Major U.S. cities

The words "Sunday Puzzle" over a white background. The name "Will Shortz" is under the Sunday Puzzle title, etched into red dice.

NPR

It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! For this week's on-air challenge, NPR puzzlemaster Will Shortz will read some sentences, and each one will conceal the name of a major U.S. city in consecutive letters. As a hint, the answer's state also appears in the sentence. Every answer has at least six letters. For example, if given the sentence, “The Kentucky bodybuilders will be flexing tonight,” the answer would be “LEXINGTON.” Test your skills here. Check the page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m. ET.

This week's online challenge comes from Robert Flood of Allen, Texas. Name a famous female singer of the past (five letters in the first name, seven letters in the last name). Remove the last letter of her first name, and you can rearrange all the remaining letters to name the capital of a country (six letters) and a food product that its nation is famous for (five letters). Submit your answer here, and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.

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This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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