We speak with Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada about the ceasefire in Gaza, which has allowed half a million displaced people to return to what’s left of their homes in the north of the territory, as Israel’s ban on UNRWA goes into effect. Hamas militants released another three Israeli captives Thursday, as well as five Thai nationals, all of whom were taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023, attack.

Rescue workers in Washington, D.C., have launched a massive recovery operation in the Potomac River after a regional passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair late Wednesday, with both aircraft crashing into the water. American Airlines Flight 5342 had 60 passengers and four crew members on board and was en route to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Wichita, Kansas. The Black Hawk helicopter had three soldiers on board conducting a training flight.

We continue our conversation with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who responds to President Donald Trump’s freezing of trillions in federal funding this week, which the White House walked back just a day later. Wyden helped pressure the administration to abandon the plan after publicizing how it disrupted Medicaid payments in states across the country. “The credit deserves to go to the whistleblowers who brought it to us,” he says.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, was questioned by lawmakers Tuesday in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, which largely focused on his decades of anti-vaccine activism, as well as his views on abortion and other healthcare issues.

For a fraction of the cost, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s free, open-source artificial intelligence is outcompeting the world’s previous leading AI model, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, upending the financial predictions of Silicon Valley and causing major turmoil in the U.S. stock market. This comes just after President Trump announced a $500 billion private sector investment plan to boost AI infrastructure in the United States and amid the threat of a major trade war between the U.S. and China.

We take a look at Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first 100 days in office with Edwin Ackerman, an expert on Mexican politics. Sheinbaum has proved enormously popular with the Mexican public, championing populist reforms and issuing forceful rebukes of Donald Trump’s scapegoating and demonization of Latin America, including his attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” and his threat to enact crushing tariffs on Mexico, the U.S.’s second-largest trading partner.

As Senate confirmation hearings begin Wednesday for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, his cousin Caroline Kennedy has published a video slamming him as holding “dangerous and willfully misinformed” views on vaccines and other public health issues. Caroline Kennedy is the former U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia and daughter of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle.