Up First briefing: U.S. conducts airstrikes on militants in Iraq; 2023 U.S. union wins
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Today’s top stories
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in a speech yesterday that Israel will keep fighting the war against Hamas. His statement came after he spoke with President Biden over the weekend. Though Biden did not ask for a cease-fire, the U.S. wants Israel to curtail bombing and employ a more precise ground operation. “That’s not happening — at least not yet,” NPR’s Tom Bowman reports on Up First.
Check out npr.org/mideastupdates for more coverage and analysis of this conflict.
India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, is on the second day of a five-day visit to Russia. He’s expected to discuss trade and other issues with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. Russia is India’s top arms supplier, and India has been a big buyer of Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine. But Russia and India’s decades-long close relationship is complicated by India’s growing relationship with the U.S.
It’s been a big year for unions. More than half a million workers went on strike this year — and many emerged with big wins.
Enlighten me
Enlighten Me is a special series with Rachel Martin about what it takes to build a life of meaning.
After Rachel Martin’s parents died, she says she felt an “existential void.” They led rich spiritual lives, and their absence made her reflect on how she could lead a more meaningful and happy life. This conversation with her siblings is one of the first Martin recorded for Enlighten Me. Listen to them discuss how losing their parents made them reckon with their own faith and spirituality, and read the interview here.
Life advice
Christmas party season may be over, but New Year’s Eve celebrations are right around the corner. Don’t feel bad if your social battery is low and you have to decline some social invitations. A new study finds that people tend to overestimate how much it matters to the inviter. Here’s some advice on how to say no:
This newsletter was edited by Treye Green.
: December 25, 2023
A previous headline incorrectly stated that the U.S. conducted airstrikes in Iran instead of Iraq.