A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City

Summary

Summary of "A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City" from NPR's Up First

Introduction

In the March 16, 2025 episode of NPR's Up First, titled "A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City," listeners are taken on a poignant journey through the eyes of Anas Bhabha, a dedicated Palestinian journalist reporting from Gaza. This episode delves deep into Anas's experiences during and after the prolonged conflict between Israel and Hamas, highlighting the personal and professional challenges he faces while striving to bring accurate news to the world.

Background

Anas Bhabha stands out as one of the few full-time Palestinian journalists in Gaza working for an American news organization. Hailing from Gaza City, Anas has been NPR's primary correspondent on the ground, providing firsthand accounts from hospitals, displacement camps, and bombed areas. His role became even more critical following the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which led to Israel banning international journalists from Gaza. Despite these restrictions, Anas continued his reporting with limited resources, relying mostly on his cell phone to communicate with NPR's team outside Gaza.

Life During the Conflict

Anas narrates the relentless devastation in Gaza, describing the landscape as "the same destruction everywhere" ([00:40] Anas Bhabha). His commitment to reporting is unwavering, even under dire circumstances. On January 19, 2025, a ceasefire allowed Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, marking a significant moment for Anas and hundreds of thousands of others, including himself.

Return to Gaza City

After 15 months of displacement, Anas finally returns to Gaza City on his 31st birthday. His anticipation of reuniting with his family and seeing his old neighborhood is quickly met with heartbreaking reality. As he approaches his home, he finds it devastated:

• Destruction of Landmarks: "The mosque of my neighborhood, it was totally flattened to the ground" ([04:08] Anas Bhabha).
• Empty Household: Despite his house's structural resilience—designed by his father to resemble an Italian villa—it stands empty. Anas discovers shattered windows, an unexploded artillery shell, and a kitchen devoid of any furnishings.

Emotional and Physical Struggles

The emotional toll on Anas is immense. He grapples with insomnia, significant weight loss, and constant anxiety:

• "I started to feel that Mr. President, Donald Trump is just giving me and the other people of Gaza the chance to say goodbye for one last time for our houses before he takes it from us." ([26:40] Anas Bhabha)

Despite these hardships, Anas remains determined to document the unfolding tragedy. His interactions with Aya Batrawi, NPR's correspondent in Dubai, reveal a mutual dependence; while Aya provides the broader narrative, Anas offers crucial on-the-ground insights.

Challenges of Reporting

Reporting from Gaza during the conflict presents numerous challenges:

• Communication Blackouts: Frequent power outages disrupt Anas's ability to send updates, forcing him to move to areas with better connectivity, even if it means putting himself in harm's way ([10:25] Anas Bhabha).
• Overwhelming Scenes: Anas often arrives first at bombing sites, witnessing unimaginable horrors, such as rescuing a semi-conscious woman from rubble ([19:07] Anas Bhabha).

Personal Connections and Coping Mechanisms

The episode highlights the human side of the conflict through Anas's interactions and personal reflections:

• Family Separation: Anas is separated from his family, who evacuated Gaza early in the war. Their communication is limited to monthly calls to avoid worrying them about his safety ([24:16] Anas Bhabha).
• Acts of Kindness: Despite his struggles, Anas demonstrates unwavering community spirit, exemplified when he shares firewood with a neighbor to help warm a newborn ([28:09] Anas Bhabha).

Hope and Rebuilding

Upon returning home, Anas attempts to rebuild amidst the ruins. Although he finds parts of his house damaged, such as the shattered lock and empty kitchen, signs of his former life, like his garden, provide a glimmer of hope. Anas expresses a deep sense of resilience:

• "We truly can live without nothing. But you cannot take the dignity which is called Al Karama." ([28:46] Anas Bhabha)

However, his plans are thwarted by external political pressures. President Trump's proposal to take over Gaza Strip adds another layer of uncertainty, forcing Anas to put his rebuilding efforts on hold ([26:18] Anas Bhabha).

Conclusion

The episode concludes by highlighting the fragile ceasefire and ongoing struggles in Gaza. Anas Bhabha continues his reporting from Gaza City, embodying the resilience and determination of its people. Despite personal losses and immense challenges, Anas remains committed to documenting the truth, ensuring that the world's eyes remain on Gaza.

Notable Quotes

• Anas Bhabha on Destruction: "Wherever you put your eye to the horizon, it's the same destruction everywhere." ([00:40] Anas Bhabha)
• Anas Bhabha on Returning Home: "I do believe that my house is going to be okay." ([04:08] Anas Bhabha)
• Anas Bhabha on Reporting: "I cannot stop for a second. If I stop, that means that I'm gonna fight that ghost inside of me." ([06:04] Anas Bhabha)
• Anas Bhabha on Hope: "We truly can live without nothing. But you cannot take the dignity which is called Al Karama." ([28:46] Anas Bhabha)

Attribution

This summary is based on the transcript provided from the Sunday Story segment of NPR's Up First, featuring hosts Aisha Roscoe, Justine Yan, and Aya Batrawi, with primary contributions from reporter Anas Bhabha.

Transcript

[Aisha Roscoe]

Aisha I'm Aisha Roscoe, and you're listening to the Sunday Story from Up first, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. If you've been listening to NPR's reporting on Gaza over the past year and a half, there's a name you've likely heard, NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Bhabha.

[Anas Bhabha]

With Anas Baba in Khan Younis, Gaza.

[Aya Batrawi]

That was NPR producer Anas Bhabha.

[Aisha Roscoe]

ANAS Bhabha Anas is one of the only Palestinian journalists in Gaza working full time for an American news organization. He's from Gaza City and he's been NPR's eyes and ears on the ground. He sends dispatches from hospitals, displacement camps.

[Anas Bhabha]

And bomb sites, dust everywhere, the powder of the guns and explosions all over the earth. Wherever you put your eye to the horizon, it's the same destruction everywhere.

[Aisha Roscoe]

Annas does all of this with little more than a cell phone. He works closely with a team of NPR journalists who've been covering this war from outside of Gaza. Israel has banned international journalists from independent access to Gaza since Hamas deadly attack on October 7, 2023. On January 19 of this year, a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect. The ceasefire permitted Palestinians to return to the north of Gaza.

[Anas Bhabha]

And today we are returning hundreds of thousands of people, literally hundreds of thousands, thousands of people.

[Aisha Roscoe]

Anas Baba was one of them.

[Anas Bhabha]

Nothing. Still the same. Gonna keep reporting here.

[Aisha Roscoe]

Justine Yan is a producer for the Sunday Story. She's been keeping in touch with Honest since he returned to Gaza City in late January to try and understand what it's like to be a reporter covering the war while also living through it. Justine takes up the story after the break. Stay with us.

[Justine Yan]

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[N/A]

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[Justine Yan]

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[N/A]

I started calling Anas Baba after the ceasefire went into effect and he was home in Gaza City. The only place he could find with a good Internet connection was a cemetery next to a hospital that had generators. So that's where he'd sit to talk with me about what he'd been through during this war and how home had been an idea that sustained him for 15 months.

[Anas Bhabha]

I was always fantasizing how it's gonna be the first moment that I'm gonna see my old neighborhood.

[N/A]

He said he wasn't sure what he'd find. But as he walked down the street, reality sunk in.

[Anas Bhabha]

The mosque of my neighborhood, it was totally flattened to the ground.

[N/A]

He walked past a community kitchen and.

[Anas Bhabha]

It was flattened to the ground.

[N/A]

And another building that had housed 20.

[Anas Bhabha]

Families, it was flattened to the ground. I kept walking and trying to tell myself that my house is okay. I do believe that my house is going to be okay.

[N/A]

And in a way, it was. Unlike so many other houses, his was still standing. Anas's house is at the end of a small street. It's four stories high with concrete verandas on the top three floors. He said his father designed it to look like an Italian villa. Anas lived here with his mother and father, his sister and two of his younger brothers. They all evacuated Gaza early in the war, and he hasn't seen them in almost a year. So when he walked up to the front door of his house, he was alone. He reached for the keys in his pocket, but there was nothing left to unlock.

[Anas Bhabha]

The doors were exploded. I found shutters of the locust itself. So the dream of unlocking my door was taken. So I just kept the keys inside my pocket and I entered the house. Once I entered, I started to feel the beating of my heart going crazy.

[N/A]

All of the windows had been shattered by bombs. There were gaping holes in the walls. And on the third floor, he found an unexploded artillery shell. Ana surveyed the damage, the broken glass and piles of rubble. The kitchen was totally empty.

[Anas Bhabha]

No cooking gas, no blades, no mugs, no spoons, nothing. My house was super sad. There was no people here. In order to spread life, I tried my best to stay strong. But having that rush of emotions was good for me, truly was good for me, because I thought that I lost that sensation.

[N/A]

Anas is used to being in reporter mode.

[Anas Bhabha]

I'm on the on, on, on on, on. Go, go, go, go, go, go. Mood. Yes. I cannot even stop for a second. If I stop, that means that I'm gonna fight that ghost inside of me.

[Aya Batrawi]

Now the bombs have stopped. I think now is a good time to ask him to sit. What it's been like.

[N/A]

This is Aya Batrawi, NPR's correspondent in Dubai. She's been working closely with Anas since the start of the war.

[Aya Batrawi]

I still think he's in a little bit of a fight or flight mode, like, because he hasn't really settled in yet.

[N/A]

Aya has covered the Middle east for more than 15 years. After Hamas's attack on October 7, her editors in Washington called her and asked her to fly to Israel to join the NPR team there. Ea got on a plane to Tel Aviv the next morning, and she got her assignment.

[Aya Batrawi]

From day one, I was told, call Gaza.

[N/A]

From then on, Ea was on the phone with Anas almost every day, trying.

[Aya Batrawi]

To figure out how we tell the story together and like, what the story.

[Anas Bhabha]

Should be from the first of the beginning. From the beginning.

[Aya Batrawi]

It was a very intense, very intense time.

[N/A]

In the chaos of that first week, Anas and EA collaborated on several stories. Anas would upload recordings and videos he'd gathered on the ground, and Ea would write the stories for the radio, including this one.

This is the sound of Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa.

[Aya Batrawi]

All of its beds are full, like all of Gaza's hospitals, clinics, and medical.

[N/A]

Centers serving its population of 2 million. Every functioning hospital is at full capacity. The stream of wounded and dead.

[Aya Batrawi]

So he was there interviewing staff, documenting some of the cases coming in, just getting us information of what it was like on the ground.

[N/A]

This was some of the last reporting EA got from Anas in Gaza City before he had to evacuate.

[Aya Batrawi]

I remember having this call with him and he was like, okay, this is the situation. They're telling us to evacuate to the south, all of Gaza City. It was kind of like panic mode.

[N/A]

Israel rained down paper leaflets across parts of Gaza's north, telling residents to leave their homes.

Ayo went on the radio again and again, trying to describe what was happening.

Bears Era Petrawi is in Jerusalem. Aya, thanks for being with us.

Hi, thanks, Scott.

What do you hear from people inside of Gaza?

I've been talking to them all week. It's been sheer terror and trauma. They tell me the sounds of the bombs this time are different. And even Israel has said that this war is different and, and that the response will be harder and harsher than Hamas has ever seen.

[Aya Batrawi]

I can hear in my voice like, my voice like quivering and going away because it had been such an intense week already, had been like seven days of non stop reporting and calls. And yeah, like I can hear in my voice already like a sense of, of exhaustion.

[N/A]

I spoke with our producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, who also had to leave with his family. He told me scenes of mothers carrying their babies and walking foot for miles. Fathers walking with kids on their back, young children having to walk for miles and miles, all of them trying to head south.

Anas documented every step of that journey.

[Anas Bhabha]

I'm standing at the moment inside of Nasser Medical Complex in Khanun City, sending.

[N/A]

Dispatches to his colleagues in Israel.

[Anas Bhabha]

I'm now standing in the middle of the rubbles of what was before a peaceful neighborhood in Rafah city.

[N/A]

But sometimes EA didn't hear from Anas for days.

[Aya Batrawi]

Was the phone line down because they run out of fuel to keep their telecoms operating? Or something was struck. He had to use an ESIM or was there like 3G or 4G available?

[N/A]

There were multiple communications blackouts during the war.

[Anas Bhabha]

There is nothing like being disconnected. It's a feeling that you don't know anything. You are not able to understand what happens around you.

[N/A]

Just as EA depended on Annas's reporting, Anas depended on EA to help him see the bigger picture. So that meant sometimes Anas took big risks, like moving closer to the Israeli border to connect to their cell towers.

[Anas Bhabha]

I just put myself in danger in order just to get some Internet near to the borders. I can't stay there much more.

[N/A]

EA and the rest of the team worried about Anas's safety. When there were bombings in an area Anas was thought to be in, someone would reach out just to ask, are you okay?

[Aya Batrawi]

Is it near you?

[N/A]

And Anas would respond as soon as he could. He was alive and he had recordings for them. Most mornings, Anas told me he Woke up at 4am and began scrolling through updates. What had happened while he was asleep.

[Anas Bhabha]

The problem, it was at least 90 airstrikes every day. So what am I going to cover? Am I going to cover like the airstrike on the school or the airstrike on the mosque or the airstrike that's on the hospital or the airstrike that killed 100 person, or it's going to be the, like the children that they were amputated.

[N/A]

One thing he always did was try to name the victims.

[Anas Bhabha]

An Israeli airstrike targeted a house of Rafah, the house that belongs to Shaheen's family, which is an airstrike targeted a civilian house Rafah City, the household of the family which is Abu Qamar family and they were hosted by a family called Abu Hanud family and he shared.

[N/A]

The grief of survivors.

[Anas Bhabha]

This is the sound of a mother that's mourning his 10 years old child. She already lost a daughter before and now she lost another son. It's too much. I wish that I do have 100 clone of me that can be everywhere to just document every single thing. But it was impossible.

[N/A]

It all felt impossible for Ea Batrawi too. After a few weeks in Israel, she went home to Dubai. From there she continued to work with Anas to tell stories from Gaza. And that was a different sort of challenge.

[Aya Batrawi]

I can't remember exactly when I came across it on Instagram, but this is like a collage by this group called Gaza Poets and it sort of spoke to me so much because it's how I feel felt. It just says in big black letters in the middle Gaza is being bombed. And all these tiny little words around it saying things like I eat breakfast while Gaza's being bombed. I read a book while Gaza's being bombed. I laugh at a joke while Gaza's being bombed. I go to the gym while Gaza's being bombed. I fall asleep while Gaza's being bombed. Reporting was actually like a really important way to release some of that pressure that was building up.

[N/A]

After the break. Howeya covered the war from afar, while Anas only got closer and closer.

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[Justine Yan]

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[N/A]

We're back with a Sunday Story I'm Justine Yan. For Dubai based correspondent Eya Batrawi. As the war dragged on, it got harder to make sense of what was happening.

[Aya Batrawi]

It's war, it's war, but it's also a war that was happening so quick and so fast and one that had the full, full backing of the United States. And also there are certain numbers that certainly have defied the history books. Like Oxfam reports that more women and children were killed in one year of war in Gaza than in any other war in decades. The Committee to Protect Journalists says more journalists were killed in Gaza than any war on record. Same with healthcare workers, civil defense, rescue workers. Like, the list goes on and on. I really had to think, how do you tell the story of Gazan?

[N/A]

Everywhere she looked, there were images of atrocities. Men, women, children injured and killed.

[Aya Batrawi]

It was livestreamed every day on like, every platform. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp. People saw and had access to see everything.

[N/A]

Everywhere she went, everything she did, she thought of Gaza. Her own life outside the frame of the war felt unfair.

[Aya Batrawi]

Like, why are my kids able to just bike, stub their toe, cry for an hour and get ice cream? And like, all these other kids are like, dying these very slow, painful deaths under the rubble? There's such a disconnect that for me was a moment where I felt like, I don't know if I can keep doing this. I don't have the luxury to tap out. Like, you have to keep going. You have to keep reporting. This is what you do. You have to keep documenting.

[N/A]

It became her only way to cope with a feeling of helplessness, because every.

[Aya Batrawi]

Single aspect of this conflict has been under dispute or questioned, starting with death tolls. The number of dead, who died, how they died, why they died, even just the number of aid trucks going in. You'd think that's a pretty straightforward thing to count.

[N/A]

It's not a made phone call after phone call to doctors, rescue crews and aid workers on the ground, trying to verify the basic facts. And while doing that, she'd also call on us.

[Aya Batrawi]

And a lot of times it would just be venting frustrations, just like being there for each other as colleagues, reassuring.

[N/A]

Each other that what they did mattered.

[Aya Batrawi]

And then there's also just the element of, like, how are you? How are you? You know, what did you eat for breakfast? Did you get food today? Did you sleep well?

[Anas Bhabha]

Once I return from any documenting an airstrike, I feel that I'm still doing nothing. The burned blood and flesh after an airstrike, I do Wish that no one, truly no one can smell it. In his life.

[N/A]

In the South, Anas was displaced again and again. He lived in his car. That's where he slept at night.

[Anas Bhabha]

I do suffer from insomnia, I'm not gonna lie about that. I cannot sleep that much.

[N/A]

He was always hungry. Annas has lost almost 70 pounds since the start of the war. And there were days he couldn't eat because of what he saw. The repetition of bombing, evacuation and bombing again.

[Anas Bhabha]

It's a cycle and a loop never ends that just keeps going and going and going. But that takes you more and more and more and more to the same spot. Always numb, always anxious, always on your toes.

[N/A]

Anas has often been among the first to arrive at the scene of a bombing. Several times he's tried to save someone's life. After one airstrike in Al Barah, central Gaza, Anas found a group of people trying to rescue women and children trapped in a building that had just been bombed.

[Anas Bhabha]

It was a human chain, so he joined it.

[N/A]

Someone passed him, a young woman. She was semi conscious and couldn't breathe. He carried her out of the building.

[Anas Bhabha]

And they started to take out most of the sands and even small debris of sand and cement out of her own throat. Once I just like make sure that it's opened, I started to give her a CPR and she took the first exhale and inhale and opened her eyes.

[N/A]

There's no footage of this moment because Anas had put down his phone. He wasn't reporting anymore. It took more than 15 months for the bombs to stop. The day the ceasefire went into effect, January 19, 2025. It was also Anas's birthday. He turned 31. About a week later, Anna set out on the coastal road towards Gaza City. It was a seven mile walk north. He was surrounded by thousands of other Palestinians also heading home.

[Justine Yan]

E.A.

[N/A]

Batrawi called him. Oh, my God.

[Aya Batrawi]

How do you feel?

[Anas Bhabha]

I feel like I'm flying too late.

[N/A]

It was a march and a celebration. People were waving Palestinian flags, singing, chanting, playing drums. Reunions were happening all along the road. People who'd stayed in the north during the war were meeting people who'd been displaced to the south. Anna spoke to a woman who hadn't seen her son in 16 months. He left as a boy, she said, and now I meet him as a man.

[Anas Bhabha]

I'm feeling that there is like shiver all over my body. Electricity that's just like gives me more energy to keep going, to keep walking. I'm grateful. I'm feeling that with Every step that I'm just like, putting here, it's me back.

[N/A]

As he and the crowds got closer to Gaza City, EA reminded him to take in the moment.

[Aya Batrawi]

Wait, I want you to. Just like you said, the sea is on your left, the Mediterranean, the coast. Can you just, like, take a big breath of, like, the fresh sea air for me?

[N/A]

When Anas finally returned to his house, it was not as he remembered it. He found the shattered lock, the empty kitchen, the unexploded artillery shell. But there were some signs of his former life, like his garden.

[Anas Bhabha]

I do have lemon tree. I do have palm tree. Or you do have an olive tree. And they got bigger.

[N/A]

To be honest, it all gave Anas an almost irrational hope.

[Anas Bhabha]

I started to shout, is anybody here? Is there anyone inside the house? To be honest, I wanted my mother or my sister or maybe my brothers to answer me and to say, yeah, we are here. We're waiting for you. But no one answered me. And when I entered my own parent room, I felt a little bit brokenhearted that I didn't find my father and my mother just to scream on me to go out. You need to knock first.

[N/A]

Did you really think that they would be there?

[Anas Bhabha]

Just saying. After 16 months of war, we didn't have anything in our lives that we can control except our own dreams and our own fantasies.

[N/A]

And so Anas went from room to room, letting the house welcome him home.

[Anas Bhabha]

I laid on every single person of my family bed for around one minute, even if it was dusty and super dusty, but it was just like, I'm praising them.

[N/A]

Anas family is now in Europe seeking asylum, but so far they haven't received it. They're not classified as refugees, so they're in limbo, waiting.

[Anas Bhabha]

I only call them once a month, 40 minutes.

[N/A]

You only call them once a month?

[Anas Bhabha]

Yes, because I don't want them to be attached to me. Because maybe at one day, at any moment, I'm going to be killed. Because I told them since the start of this war that I want to stay here and I want to keep doing what am I doing.

[N/A]

In the first days of being home, I, Ana started settling back in. He wanted to fix his house. There was a lot to do. That leak on the roof, those windows without glass, damage to the walls. He went to the market and bought some materials.

[Anas Bhabha]

I started to buy some plastic wraps, and even I was planning to have some bricks in order to build again the most damaged areas of my house.

[N/A]

Anas and his neighbors even made plans for rebuilding the neighborhood.

[Anas Bhabha]

We can live with the Dust. We can live with the debris, but we learned by the hard way that always be fast. We don't have that much time in our lives.

[N/A]

Then, just a week after Palestinians were allowed to return to Gaza City, President Trump gave a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

I also strongly believe that the Gaza Strip, which has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it, and especially those who live there and frankly, who's been really very unlucky. It's been very unlucky. It's been an unlucky place for a long time. Being in its presence just has. It's not been good. And it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there.

There was no reason, Trump said, for Palestinians to stay in Gaza.

It's right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site.

And he put forward a plan.

The US Will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it.

Anas put his own plan to rebuild his house on pause.

[Anas Bhabha]

I started to feel that Mr. President, Donald Trump is just giving me and the other people of Gaza the chance to say goodbye for one last time for our houses before he takes it from us. It's just like the farewell.

[N/A]

It's been cold in Gaza City. Ana sees people often, children, searching the rubble for firewood.

[Anas Bhabha]

I reached to a point four days ago that I burned one of the. My house doors. Yes, I took it off. So yesterday I took some of the wood, I started the fire, and I started to think, what am I gonna eat today? Thank God. I grabbed some tomatoes with me, five eggs, a chili pepper, and some olive oil, and I made the shakshuka. Yes, it's an Arabian Palestinian dish that we truly love. So I made the shakshuka, which was the first time, to be honest, in 15 months to eat it. And I was super, super, super happy with that, with the app with the result.

[N/A]

Then he heard a knock on the door. It was his neighbor.

[Anas Bhabha]

And he told me that I smelled that you made a fire.

[N/A]

The neighbor asked if Anas could spare any wood.

[Anas Bhabha]

I told him, yes, I do have it. Do you want it? And he told me, yes, I want it. I give it to him. And he told me that he wants it for his own daughter, that she got birth two weeks ago, and he needs to keep the room as warm as possible. I told him yes for sure. And if you need any woods, I'm gonna get like, I can take off another door for you.

[N/A]

And so instead of rebuilding for now, Anas will keep taking the doors down from his house for himself and for his neighbors.

[Anas Bhabha]

We truly can live without nothing. But you cannot take the dignity which is called Al Karama. So the last thing that anyone can take from you is your dignity. Our land is our.

[Aisha Roscoe]

The ceasefire remains fragile. The first phase of the deal between Israel and hamas ended on March 1, with no agreement as to what comes next. On March 2, Israel blocked all goods and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza to pressure Hamas into a different deal, one that frees more hostages but does not end the war. Honest Baba continues to report for NPR from Gaza City. This episode was reported and produced by Justine Yan, additional production by Adelina Lanciones, editing by Jenny Schmidt, fact checking by Will Chase and audio engineering by Jimmy Keeley. Thanks to Aya Batrawi, Dee Dee Skanke, Daniel Estrin and Mary Glendenning. The Sunday Story team includes Andrew Mambo, Kim Naderfeh Petersa, and our senior supervising producer, Leanna Simstrom. Irene Noguchi is our executive producer. I'm Aisha Rascoe. Up first is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

[Justine Yan]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Breast cancer cells multiply faster because of CDK4.6 proteins. But what if blocking those proteins and stopping runaway cell division was possible? Dana Farber Scientists laid The foundation for CDK46 inhibitors, new drugs that are increasing the survival many advanced breast cancers. Dana Farber's momentum of discovery keeps finding new ways to outmaneuver cancer. [e-mail] Everywhere this message comes from Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right. They offer premium wireless plans for less and all plans include high speed data, unlimited talk and text and nationwide coverage. See for [e-mail] Switch this message comes from Bombas. Their slippers are designed with cushioning so every step feels marshmallowy soft. Plus, for every item purchased Bombas donates to someone in need, go to bombas.com NPR and use code NPR for 20% off your first order.