human cost

Israel plans to expand its military offensive into Rafah, a city on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where many Palestinians are sheltered. On the show today, guest host Reema Khrais reflects on her personal connection to the major conflict and shares some of her reporting on the experience of Palestinians in Gaza right now. Plus, how the Joe Biden administration is grappling with growing pushback against unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel. Then, we’ll smile about lifelong female friendships and AI-generated breakup texts.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Some Palestinians leave Rafah refuge, fearing Israeli assault” from Reuters

• • “A conversation with Baba” from Marketplace’s “This Is Uncomfortable”

• • “My name is Hana” from Marketplace’s “This Is Uncomfortable”

• • “Calls grow in Europe to halt arms exports to Israel as US Senate passes aid package” from CNN

• • “Senators say ‘BFD’ presidential memo will lead to Israeli aid cuts. The White House has a different story” from The Independent

• • “A bill with $14 billion for Israel’s war in Gaza passes the Senate but may falter in the House.” from The New York Times

• • “U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts” from Council on Foreign Relations

• • “How to stay friends for 50 years? Ask the women of Sugar Hill.” from The Washington Post

• • “Can you tell which of these break-up texts are AI-generated? Take our quiz” from The Washington Post

• • “I go to strangers’ weddings for fun. Getting invited is pretty easy, and I’ve made a lot of new friends.” from Business Insider

We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Tommy and Ben look back on a year of war in Ukraine and discuss what people got wrong, lessons learned, and where things stand today. Then, Ben and Tommy talk to reporters and Ukrainians about the war including FT reporter and longtime Ukraine resident Christopher Miller, 18-year-old Ukrainian student and artist Assia Vlasenko who escaped Ukraine AFTER SIX MONTHS OF OCCUPATION, Research Director at the European Expert Association Maria Avdeeva who has been documenting Russian war crimes, and FT reporter and Putin expert Max Seddon.

• View Assia's art here

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.