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India strikes, transgender troops lose and Energy Star falls

 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

India strikes Pakistan as tensions mount in Kashmir

What happened
India launched missiles at nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir overnight, killing at least 26 people and drawing retaliatory fire. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the strikes targeted "terrorist infrastructure" used to plan the deadly April 22 attack on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir and alleged future terrorist plots. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called it an "act of war." 

Who said what
The two nuclear-armed neighbors "have inched closer to conflict" since last month's terrorist attack, exchanging "small-arms fire across the Kashmir border" despite "diplomatic efforts" to "lessen tensions" now at their "highest point in years" following "years of frosty peace," The Wall Street Journal said. The longtime rivals last came to "the brink of war" over Kashmir in 2019, The New York Times, but India's overnight strike on Pakistan's Punjab Province "represented an escalation" in the simmering conflict.

World leaders called for restraint and de-escalation. "The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," said a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. 

India's Defense Ministry said its strikes were "focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature" and "no Pakistan military facilities" were targeted. "Justice is served," the Indian Army said on social media. Sharif said Pakistan had "every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given." Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets and a drone. India said at least 10 civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling.

What next?
India and Pakistan are "two strong militaries that, even with nuclear weapons as a deterrent, are not afraid to deploy sizeable levels of conventional military force against each other," South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman told The Associated Press. "The escalation risks are real. And they could well increase, and quickly."

 
 
Today's LEGAL story

Supreme Court allows transgender troop ban

What happened
The Supreme Court yesterday said the Trump administration's ban on transgender military service members could go into force while the policy is litigated in a lower court. The justices did not explain their decision, which the court's three liberal justices opposed.

Who said what
The Pentagon said transgender troops would be banned and purged after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling transgender identity a "falsehood" conflicting with "a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle." Two federal judges blocked the ban in March. One stay was paused by an appellate panel in Washington, D.C., but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift a nationwide injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle, a George W. Bush appointee. 

Settle said the government's "unrelenting reliance on deference to military judgment is unjustified in the absence of any evidence" presented to justify forcing out honorably serving transgender troops. Government lawyers argued that "federal judges were overstepping their bounds by intruding on" Trump's authority to "supervise the armed forces," Politico said. The Supreme Court's sanctioning of Trump's sweeping "government-imposed bigotry" is "shameful," Mark Joseph Stern said at Slate, and ts terse, "unreasoned brush-off" of Settle's "diligent, top-to-bottom evisceration" of the government's rationale is "especially galling." 

What next?
The case returns to the 9th Circuit. But the Supreme Court's lifting of Settle's hold "is a strong indicator that the administration is ultimately likely to prevail," NPR said.

 
 
Today's ENERGY Story

EPA is reportedly killing Energy Star program

What happened
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate the Energy Star program for energy-efficient home appliances, multiple news organizations reported yesterday. The popular program has saved consumers and businesses more than $500 billion in energy costs since its 1992 launch under President George H.W. Bush, the EPA said in a report last year. It has also cut greenhouse gas emissions by 4 billion metric tons.

Who said what
The director of the EPA's Office of Atmospheric Protection, Paul Gunning, told an all-hands meeting on Monday that the office was being dissolved and "the Energy Star program and all the other climate work, outside of what's required by statute, is being de-prioritized and eliminated," The New York Times said, citing a recording of the meeting.

President Donald Trump "has long targeted efficiency standards for appliances," The Washington Post said. He proposed "canceling or privatizing Energy Star during his first term, but that plan didn't materialize before he left office." Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told CNN she was "baffled" by the decision, as her constituents "like knowing what the energy usage is of a particular appliance" before buying. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said to Reuters that cutting the "popular" program was "another rash attempt" by Trump's administration to "line the pockets of billionaires and utility companies."

What next?
The EPA reorganization "will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency's core mission, while Powering the Great American Comeback," spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said in a statement.

 
 

It's not all bad

Researchers used 4,000 MR scans from 715 pediatric brain tumor patients to train an AI model to predict the risk of cancer recurrence, achieving better accuracy than traditional methods, according to a Harvard study. Patients typically undergo follow-up testing for years after treatment, and the AI tool searched successive post-surgery scans for even the smallest changes. The AI predicted a recurrence of low- or high-grade glioma tumors within a year with 75% to 89% accuracy. Single image accuracy is about 50%.

 
 
Under the radar

The Y chromosome can disappear over time in human males, increasing their risk of cancer and Alzheimer's disease. And while the exact trigger for such degeneration is unknown, age and environmental factors seem to play a significant role. 

Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes, including a pair of sex chromosomes that can be either X or Y. Having two X chromosomes usually designates a human as biologically female, while having one X and one Y designates a human as male. 

The loss of the Y chromosome, or LOY, has "important effects in shaping the activity of the immune system" and can open the door to "cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease and acute infection," said a January study published in the journal Nature Reviews Genetics. "As men grow older, they lose this chromosome from many of their cells, which drives age-related disease," said New Scientist. 

Y chromosome loss is largely due to "cell division mistakes," said News Medical. That's "enormously common," Lars Forsberg, an associate professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, said to News Medical. And smoking and exposure to environmental toxins can increase the risk. 

This research may help explain why women tend to have longer lifespans. Females seem to be the "stronger sex from a genetic point of view, with a more stable and less disease-prone genome," said the study. And as the Y chromosome degrades on the individual level, there's evidence that the chromosome may be going extinct on an evolutionary scale as well.

 
 
On this day

May 7, 2017

Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France. He beat his challenger, Marine Le Pen, to become the youngest French president in history, at age 39. He's also the youngest French head of state since Napoleon Bonaparte. Macron won reelection in 2022, defeating Le Pen again, and is one of Europe's most prominent leaders.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"U.S. steps up Greenland spying," showing "seriousness of Trump's designs on the Arctic island," The Wall Street Journal says on Wednesday's front page. Prime Minister Mark Carney "insists Canada 'not for sale'" at Oval Office meeting in response to Trump's "call for 51st state," the Chicago Tribune says. "After a stumble" in parliamentary vote, Friedrich Merz "becomes German leader," says The New York Times. As his tariffs kick in, "Trump's focus flips from prosperity to austerity," The Washington Post says. "Victimized by DOGE," fired federal workers "dreaming of turning the tables," The Boston Globe says. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Misdirected self-loathing

A woodpecker fighting its own reflection damaged dozens of car windshields and side mirrors in Rockport, Massachusetts. No one had any idea who was behind the vandalism until resident Janelle Favaloro caught the culprit in the act and snapped a photo. This behavior was probably a misguided and "very aggressive territorial courtship display," as birds "don't understand it's a reflection — they think it's a competitor," wildlife expert Ron Magill told NBC News.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Tauseef Mustafa / AFP via Getty Images; Alex Wong / Getty Images; Justin Sullivan / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images