U.S. and Allies Strike Syria, But What’s Next?

Here’s what you’ll find on today’s show:

— Over the weekend, a U.S.-led coalition, involving the assistance of Britain and France, executed airstrikes against three Syrian targets believed to be related to the country’s chemical weapons program. The strikes were intended as a warning against further use of chemical agents by the Assad regime. But in Damascus the morning after the strikes, Syrian propaganda was in full force with pro-Assad demonstrators in the streets celebrating the limited assault. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told reporters he was in a good mood as he met with Russian officials.

— In 1990, Oklahoma teachers poured out in massive demonstrations for better pay and more school funding. After four days on the picket line, teachers won a major concession from the state legislature, a $6,000 raise funded by an increase in state taxes. In 2018, the mechanics of Oklahoma’s only other teachers’ strike for nearly three decades are a bit different. Teachers made less today than they did in the ’90s, adjusting for inflation, and, according to an analysis by Vox, one quarter of educators left the state or the profession entirely last year.

— Over the past decade, genetic testing has become an increasingly popular and relatively inexpensive way of prying into your genomic history. Direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe reports having more than five million customers and according to AncestryDNA, roughly seven million people have taken their tests. 23andMe is also FDA approved to tell consumers about the likelihood they’ll develop certain diseases, including breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. Users have the additional option of exporting their data to third-party sites that can analyze their D.N.A. and provide further disease risk information. But how accurate are these disease analyses? 

— 12-year-old Jerome is shot dead on the very first page of Jewell Parker Rhodes’ new novel “Ghost Boys.” The story chronicles the life, death, and afterlife of a young African American boy, who is killed by a police officer who believes he has a gun. The object turns out to be a toy. Jerome comes back to Earth as a ghost, where he sees his family grieving and ultimately befriends two other children. One of them is Sarah, the daughter of the police officer who killed him, and the other is Emmett Till, a “ghost boy” like Jerome.