Israel withdraws from a Gaza hospital, AT&T data breach affects millions of users

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Today’s Top Stories

After a two-week raid, Israeli forces have withdrawn from Gaza’s main hospital. The IDF said it raided al-Shifa because Hamas had regrouped there. This all comes as the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to allow food aid into Gaza, but the court has no way to enforce this order.

NPR’s Jane Arraf tells Up First that Palestinian health officials say they were prevented from evacuating patients and staff from the badly damaged complex, where there’s already a severe shortage of medicine, medical supplies and drinking water. The World Health Organization said 21 patients have died since Israel began its siege of the hospital on March 18. Israel says it was not responsible for any patient deaths. Meanwhile, the ICJ observes that famine in Gaza is setting in. Israel has denied this claim. The World Food Programme and its partners say they have enough food to feed everyone in Gaza, but not enough food is being let into the area. 

California’s fast-food workers will start making a minimum wage of $20 per hour today — a 25% raise from $16 in most cities and counties. Fast food workers are among the lowest-paying workers in the U.S. The workers are often women, immigrants and people of color; many live below the poverty line.

California often sets the tone for other states on labor, NPR’s Alina Selyukh reports. Restaurant chain owners and franchisees claim that higher wages will force them to raise prices, cut workers’ hours and even close shops. However, studies show something different. After Seattle raised wages a decade ago, researchers found that restaurants and workers adapted and didn’t lose jobs. 

AT&T says it is investigating a data breach involving the personal information of over 70 million current and former customers. The breach, which occurred two weeks ago, has not had a “material impact” on the company’s operations, but has comprised social security numbers, full names, and phone numbers of some customers, according to an AT&T press release. The company has so far not identified the source of the leak, at least publicly.

Thousands of fans attended Cowboy Carter listening parties in Nashville, Washington, D.C., and Georgia over the weekend. Beyonce’s latest album combines the sounds of classic country with hip-hop, bluegrass and Chicano rock. The much anticipated album contains collaborations with Dolly Parton and reimaginings of songs like The Beatles’ “Blackbird.”

NPR music’s Sidney Madden and Sheldon Pearce have been listening since the strike of midnight. They share 10 takeaways from the album with All Things Considered.

Life Advice

Reading as a habit can be hard to maintain, whether you’re starting over or reading every night. Goodreads and The StoryGraph make it easy to track how many books you read each year, but if you’re having trouble setting a goal, try these tips.

Think genres, not numbers. It can be fun to change up the types of books you’re reading, instead of focusing on how many books you can get through. Scroll through NPR’s Books We Love and pick a genre that you normally don’t gravitate towards to get some inspiration.  Make reading a community affair. Book clubs or reading parties can be a great way to encourage you to read more.  Don’t be afraid to adjust. Sometimes, life gets in the way, and you don’t have time for hobbies like reading.  

From our team

This essay was written by Phil Harrell, Morning Edition senior producer.

There was a time when NPR would produce one fraudulent, absurd story per show on April Fools Day — a practice that was discontinued. Those were more innocent times, back when “fake news” would only be a threat once a year.

By the end of the story, it was pretty obvious that the whole thing was in jest. But every once in a while, unattentive listeners got fooled, and some of them wrote to NPR about how shocked — SHOCKED! — they were about this story that wasn’t being reported anywhere else for some reason.

There’s the time we told you about Starbucks building a coast-to-coast coffee pipeline.

We also tried to convince listeners that there were people who longed for dial-up modems again: The Slow Internet Movement.

We brought you “news” of a sagging market for maple syrup — which meant that neglected trees were so full of sap, they were exploding.

I even got to produce one about a pre-school so exclusive that unborn applicants had to submit to DNA testing in utero to search for markers of intelligence. The New York Times even weighed in on that one!

But rest assured: you can listen to NPR today with absolute confidence in the thorough, fact-based reporting we will offer.

NPR won’t try to trick you today, but other companies and people on social media might. Here are five tips for not getting fooled.

Before you go

Tonight’s women’s NCAA game will be a rematch between two powerhouses: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese. Last year, the two trended after Reese made a gesture widely known as wrestler John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” taunt. Dairy cows in five U.S. states have tested positive for bird flu, but your morning coffee probably doesn’t have infected milk. Eight decades after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the body of one soldier who was presumed dead has finally been identified. 

This newsletter was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi. Suzanne Nuyen contributed.