Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has named an acting president following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials in a helicopter crash. Prime Minister Benjamin Netyanyahu is facing accusations from his own war cabinet that he doesn't have a strategy for replacing Hamas in Gaza. Michael Cohen will return to the stand in what will likely be the final day of testimony in the New York criminal trial of former President Donald Trump. And a London court is expected to deliver a final decision on whether or not Julian Assange can appeal extradition to the U.S.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by John Helton, Lauren Migaki, Dana Farrington, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfe. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Nina Kravinsky. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.

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"They can just kill anyone."

Since 2016, thousands have been killed in the Philippines' war on drugs. The bloody campaign began under the Philippines' last president, Rodrigo Duterte, who said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts in the country. When current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, he promised to end this spree of state-sanctioned killings of alleged drug users and sellers, and focus on rehabilitation instead.

In today's episode of The Sunday Story, NPR's Emily Feng travels to the Philippines to see what has come of Marcos' attempt to burnish the country's international reputation and to put an end to what most people in the Philippines now refer to as EJKs, or "extrajudicial killings." She found that the killings have continued. And she spoke to researchers, doctors, advocates, and victims' families to try to understand why.

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The first aid trucks crossed into Gaza on a floating pier built by the U.S. government. Boeing's annual meeting was tightly controlled as the aircraft company has come under intense scrutiny. Why even vegan restaurant chains are beginning to serve meat.

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President Biden meets leaders of Black sororities and fraternities ahead of delivering the commencement address at Morehouse College as campus protests continue. Autoworkers in Alabama will vote on whether or not to unionize a Mercedes-Benz plant. And Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has pardoned Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murdering Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Julia Redpath, Eric Westervelt, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from James Willetts. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.

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President Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to a pair of unusually early debates. The Biden administration is moving ahead with a $1 billion arms transfer to Israel a week after pausing a separate shipment of bombs to the country. And officials in Slovakia say that after hours of surgery following an assassination attempt, the country's Prime Minister Robert Fico is in stable but serious condition.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratz, Roberta Rampton, Miguel Macias, Lisa Thomson and Claudia Peschiutta. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to China for a two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says people under 30 and lower-income families are the most likely to be maxed out and fall behind on their credit card bills. And the Canadian wildfire season gets underway as fires prompt evacuations and threaten towns in Western provinces.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Nick Spicer, Julia Redpath, Miguel Macias, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Kyiv as Ukrainian troops struggle to push back a new Russian offensive. President Biden is set to announce new tariffs on Chinese imports targeting electric vehicles, semiconductors and solar cells. And criminal gangs from China and Mexico continue to flood the U.S. with fentanyl at an unprecedented rate despite billions of dollars in spending to keep the deadly drug out.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Nick Spicer, Roberta Rampton, Gigi Douban and Lisa Thomson. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.

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More than two months after toppling the prime minister of Haiti, gang leaders control most of the country's capital city Port-au-Prince. Michael Cohen will take the stand today to testify in the New York election interference trial of former President Donald Trump. And as Israel expands its attacks in the Gaza Strip, it also marks Memorial Day.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tara Neill, Krishnadev Calamur, Peter Granitz, Lisa Thomson, Ben Adler and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Destinee Adams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

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Former Up First host Rachel Martin joins us to discuss her new podcast. Wild Card from NPR is part-interview, part-existential game show in which Rachel rips up the typical interview script and invites guests to play a game about life's biggest questions. We ask her what prompted this new direction and then, Rachel turns the tables and puts Ayesha in the guest seat to play the game. Get more Wild Card here.

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The State Department releases a highly critical report on Israel's conduct in Gaza. The trial of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey begins next week. And a solar storm is creating beautiful auroras in the sky but may also disrupt the power grid.

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