Morning Report

TODAY’S MILITARY story

Hegseth ousts top Army officer, expanding purge

What happened
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George without explanation. A Pentagon spokesperson said that George (pictured above right, with Hegesth) “will be retiring” as the Army’s top uniformed officer, “effective immediately.” Hegseth also reportedly fired Gen. David Hodne, head of Army’s new Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green, chief of the Army Chaplain Corp.

Who said what
With George’s dismissal, Hegseth has “removed most of the leaders of the military services,” The Wall Street Journal said. He has “moved quickly” to reshape the Pentagon, Reuters said, but “firing a general during wartime is nearly without precedent.”

“Senior Army officers reacted with anger and frustration” to George’s abrupt removal, The New York Times said. His tensions with Hegseth were “not rooted in substantive differences” over Army policy, but instead reflected Hegseth’s “long-running grievances with the Army,” his “troubled relationship” with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and a clash over Hegseth’s “highly unusual” decision to block the promotion of four Army officers, two of whom are Black and two women. George had forged a tight partnership with Driscoll, “whom Hegseth has perceived as a threat” due to his close White House ties, CNN said. “Hegseth can’t fire Driscoll,” an administration official told The Washington Post. “So he’s going to make his life hell.”

What next?
Hegseth was expected to replace George with Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the recently installed Army vice chief of staff and Hegseth’s former top military aide.

TODAY’S PUBLIC HEALTH Story

EPA puts microplastics, drugs on tap water list

What happened
Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin yesterday said his agency has added microplastics and pharmaceuticals to a draft list of contaminants in drinking water, describing it as a “historic step” for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a MAHA champion, joined Zeldin at yesterday’s briefing to announce a $144 million initiative to study and measure microplastics in drinking water.

Who said what
“This is a direct response to the concern of millions of Americans, who have long demanded answers about what they and their families are drinking every day,” said Zeldin (pictured above, with Kennedy). The EPA is required to update the Contaminant Candidate List every five years under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to the list “gives local regulators a tool to evaluate risks in their water supply,” NPR said, but it “doesn’t actually guarantee” research or regulatory limits. In fact, the EPA “rarely moves pollutants off the list,” The Associated Press said. “I think it’s fair to call this theater,” Earthjustice attorney Katherine O’Brien told NPR, and a “distraction from the real harm that these very same agencies are doing by undermining actual legal protections” against toxic chemicals in drinking water and food. “This is an important first step,” said Gannon University plastic pollution researcher Sherri Mason, “and I think we should recognize that.”

What next?
The draft Contaminant Candidate List will be open for public comment for 60 days and is expected to be finalized by mid-November.

It’s not all bad

A woman has been declared cancer-free after receiving a new dual immunotherapy treatment for Stage 3 colorectal cancer. Mrinali Dhembla, 26, has Lynch syndrome, an inherited genetic condition that increases the risk of developing colorectal cancer early. Because of the mutations in her cancer cells, Dhembla was an “excellent candidate” for immunotherapy, her oncologist, Dr. Nicholas Hornstein, told ABC News. The treatment gave her immune system a “boost” to become “effective at eradicating” the tumors.

Under the radar

India’s ‘reversal’ of transgender rights

India has long recognized a “third gender” and was one of the first countries to allow people to legally self-identify as transgender. But its parliament just passed amendments to such laws that remove the right to self-identification and narrow the definition of “transgender.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party–led government got the bill through both houses last week despite a boycott by opposition parties and widespread protests by the LGBTQ+ community. Virendra Kumar, the minister for social justice and empowerment, claims the amendments still protect people who “face severe social exclusion due to their biological condition.” But Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi called it a “brazen attack” on transgender rights.

People of a “third gender” have been recognized in India for thousands of years. They feature heavily in Hindu holy texts — for example, the half-male, half-female deity Ardhanarishvara — and were often revered under Muslim rulers of the Mughal Empire.

In 2014, India’s Supreme Court officially recognized third-gender people as “being citizens deserving of equal rights.” And that paved the way for the 2019 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which affirmed the right to self-identify as transgender or nonbinary. The new amendments to the 2019 law remove those rights to self-identify, requiring instead a medical certification of gender reassignment.

If Indian President Droupadi Murmu signs the bill into law, it will be “a major reversal” of “hard-won rights,” said Jayshree Bajoria, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch. This law, said N. Kavitha Rameshwar at The Times of India, “seeks to be that one rogue wave that will wash away” a decade of progress in transgender rights “as if it were all but a castle of sand.”

On this day

April 3, 1966

The Soviet Union’s Luna 10 became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon. Soviet Russia was also the first country to crash and land a spacecraft on the lunar surface, but only the U.S. has sent people to or around the moon. NASA’s Artemis II, expected to circle the moon next week, marks humanity’s first lunar travel since 1972.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Fast start, murky ending?’

“Trump has boxed himself in on a war with no clear end,” The New York Times says on Friday’s front page. “Iran war: Fast start, murky ending?” says USA Today. “Trump’s Iran speech fails to allay worries, at home and abroad,” the Los Angeles Times says. “Americans don’t buy president’s Iran pitch,” The Washington Post says. “Iran girds against U.S. ground threat,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Mosque president, activist detained by ICE,” says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “View from space is ‘absolutely phenomenal,’” The Minnesota Star Tribune says. “Bondi is out as attorney general,” The Boston Globe says. “Dems to Bondi: ‘Good riddance,’” says The Philadelphia Inquirer.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Burgle bungle

A serial bank robber in New York City accused of hitting six Chase branches over five days walked away with just $605. The suspect, Gustavo DeJesus Torres, allegedly handed the tellers notes demanding money and threatening harm if they didn’t comply, police said. He nabbed $320 from a branch in Queens and $265 from one in Brooklyn, but it was all downhill from there; he walked away with $20 from a Manhattan branch and left three of the banks empty-handed.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.