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On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The leader of Hamas says a truce agreement with Israel is nearing, as health officials say Gaza hospital conditions continue to be dire. USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook explains why thawing permafrost has the military's attention. A federal appeals court has ruled that private individuals and groups including the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a section of the Voting Rights Act. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub looks at the link between cancer and the nervous system. The ACLU condemns a school district in Kansas for forcing an 8-year-old Native American boy to cut his hair.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, November 21st, 2023. This is The Excerpt.

Today, the latest amid deteriorating hospital conditions in Gaza. Plus, what pathogens lie below thawing permafrost. And, the key to beating some cancers may be in our nervous system.

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Most of the premature babies evacuated from Gaza's Shifa Hospital on Sunday were transported to Egyptian medical facilities yesterday. Of the original 39 premature babies that authorities warned were in danger at the hospital amid shelling and fighting, eight have died. And the surviving babies face an uphill battle after getting sick amid a lack of medicine, clean water, or power for incubators. Israeli forces raided the hospital last week. The babies were moved yesterday on the same day that 12 people were killed and others injured in what the Hamas-run health ministry said was Israeli shelling at another hospital in North Gaza. Israel said it returned fire from militants but did not shell the hospital. Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields in and around hospital complexes. That's a claim both Hamas and hospital officials deny. The World Health Organization has evacuated some patients and staff from Shifa in recent days. But WHO officials say they remain concerned about the safety and health needs of more than 250 patients and 20 staff workers who remain. They say planning is underway to evacuate them.

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Reuters earlier today that the Palestinian militant group was near a truce agreement with Israel without revealing more details. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said yesterday that "we're closer than we've ever been" on to reaching a deal for the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas last month. Around 240 people were taken captive.

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Deadly pathogens lying dormant in Arctic permafrost could become the latest threat from climate change that has the attention of scientists, medical professionals, and the Pentagon. I spoke with USA Today Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook to learn more.

Howdy, Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Good to be here, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for hopping back on. So, Tom, can you remind us what is permafrost?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Taylor, it's just what it sounds like. It's permanently frozen ground and it covers a vast part of Alaska, 85%, and huge chunks of Russia and the Arctic.

Taylor Wilson:

What do we know about the release of pathogens from thawing permafrost? And what role does global warming play here?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, we know that there have been instances in the past where carcasses of animals in permafrost areas have thawed and released anthrax spores, which are very deadly, but those have been sort of isolated incidents. The concern now is with global warming, there are bigger chunks of permafrost that are thawing and they're releasing pathogens, some of which we don't even know about yet. So it's caused concern at the Pentagon and elsewhere about what just might be up there and what's going to be released and whether or not it's going to be safe for troops to operate there.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, Tom, I want to hear a little bit more about why this has so much of the Pentagon's attention.

Tom Vanden Brook:

A couple of weeks ago now, Pentagon officials were at a conference held out in Seattle by the Department of Energy that looked into this, pathogens and permafrost. The concerns for the Pentagon are that, again, if they're having to operate in the Arctic and there's increasing competition there with China and Russia, that some of these pathogens might be released and that troops could get sick by just being there and working and living and breathing in those areas, and they're trying to develop a map as to where those higher risk areas are.

Taylor Wilson:

Tom, part of the issue with thawing permafrost, as you mentioned, is we still don't know a lot of what could happen here. What work still needs to happen to close this research gap and better understand the potential dangers of thawing permafrost?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Yeah, and that was the big finding of this conference. I'm told that there's just not enough known about this. A lot more research has to be done. I mean, there are some pathogens that are known. Anthrax obviously is one of them, but there are corpses that have been up in the Arctic that were buried that had smallpox, influenza. And there's a concern that maybe some of these would be able to thaw out and still be viable and could infect people. But not enough is known since they're calling for a lot more research on it.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon for USA Today. Thank you, Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that private individuals and groups, including the NAACP, do not have the ability to sue under a section of the Voting Rights Act. The decision goes against years of precedent. The two to one decision from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals out of St. Louis ruled that only the US Attorney General can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires political maps to include districts where the preferred candidates of minority populations can win elections. The majority of the decisions said other federal laws make it clear when private groups can sue, but that similar wording cannot be found in the voting law.

A judge noted in the dissenting opinion that federal courts nationwide and the Supreme Court have considered a number of cases brought by private plaintiffs under Section 2, and that the court should follow existing precedent. Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project said in a statement, "The eighth Circuit has put the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy, tossing aside critical protections that voters fought and died for."

It's not clear whether the groups will appeal. Election law experts say most challenges looking to enforce section two of the Voting Rights Act are from private plaintiffs, and that the Justice Department has limited resources to tackle the cases.

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The key to beating a number of cancers may lie in our nervous system. I spoke with USA Today Health reporter Karen Weintraub for more. Karen, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt.

Karen Weintraub:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So let's start here. What role does the nervous system play in cancer broadly?

Karen Weintraub:

Yeah, so scientists are just starting to think about this and to figure it out, but they think that it actually plays a much bigger role than they've known in the past. We know that nerves sometimes pass through tumors and that when nerves die, that the tumors might die along with them, that you can't have growth without having nerves. And so the hope is that if you can kill the nerves, you might also damage the tumors.

Taylor Wilson:

How will a better understanding of the connection between cancer and nerves lead to better pain management for patients?

Karen Weintraub:

Some cancers cause tremendous amount of pain, particularly pancreatic cancer. And the hope is that if they can better understand this connection between nerves and cancer, they might be able to kill the nerves that are causing the pain in pancreatic cancer and also damage the cancer itself. So both addressing the pain issue and the tumor at the same time.

Taylor Wilson:

And what treatments aimed at the nervous system could be used to also fight cancer?

Karen Weintraub:

So again, they're still figuring all of this out, but what they've seen so far is that drugs like beta blockers, which are traditionally prescribed for high blood pressure, also seem to help reduce nerve activity. And they've been shown to help patients with breast and colon cancer. So they still need to do a ton more research, but it might be possible that if you have one of these types of cancers, you could take a beta blocker along with your other cancer therapies, it might help fight the cancer.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, why is reducing stress such a critical part of so many cancer fights?

Karen Weintraub:

So they also think that stress certainly affects your quality of life and may exacerbate the cancer. It excites the nervous system. You're in this fight or flight mentality all the time. Your nervous system is excited, is amped up, and that may trigger more cancer growth in some cases. And so being calmer, tamping down that excitement certainly will help make you feel better and might also help with the cancer as well.

Taylor Wilson:

And going forward, what's the biggest challenge on this front in the coming years?

Karen Weintraub:

So the good thing is that there are existing drugs that might already be out there that might help reduce this nervous system activity or alter the nervous system activity and could help with cancer. They just have to do the hard work of figuring that out what works for which cancers. Because in some cases, you might want to amp up the activity. In some cases, you might want to tamp it down. There's a lot of work between now and figuring out exactly what can be done to help people with different types of cancers.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen Weintraub covers health for USA Today. Appreciate the time as always, Karen. Thanks so much.

Karen Weintraub:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is condemning a school district in Kansas for forcing an 8-year-old Native American boy to cut his hair. That's despite long hair being a part of his faith and culture. The ACLU said that Haderlein Elementary School, some 140 miles from Kansas City, has a policy that requires boys to keep their hair short. The mother of the child who is a member of the Wyandotte Nation explained to the school that long hair is part of the family's culture and faith, but school officials still pushed her to cut the boy's hair or risk him being sent home in the future.

The ACLU says the school's decision violates multiple civil rights laws, including the Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act, Title IX of the Education Amendments, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the US Constitution. The boys' tribal customs mainly allow boys to cut their hair or wear it short only when grieving loved ones who have passed away. The boy wanted to adopt the same practice after seeing male tribal members wear their hair long last summer. When reached via email, Girard School superintendent Todd Ferguson said the district cares about making students feel safe and respected and that the education board is planning to review the dress code in an upcoming meeting.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpts from USA Today.