What fighting in the Middle East means for the U.S. troop presence in Iraq After the U.S. killed a commander of an Iran-backed militia in Baghdad, pressure is mounting on Iraq’s government to expel America’s 2,500 military personnel. Read more on NPR

A hospital is suing to move a quadriplegic 18-year-old to a nursing home. She says no The young North Carolina woman has refused to go to a nursing home in another state. While she wants to leave the hospital, she asks to live in her own home, close to family and her school. Read more…

Sen. Joe Manchin on why he can’t endorse Trump, but isn’t sold on Biden West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin talks to NPR’s Michel Martin about Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, and his decisions against another run for the Senate or a new bid for president. Read more on NPR

Scientists scanning the seafloor discover a long-lost Stone Age ‘megastructure’ The more than half mile long wall, called the Blinkerwall, was likely used by Stone Age hunter-gatherers to herd reindeer toward a shooting blind. Read more on NPR

How the dead serve as bargaining chips in the Israel-Hamas conflict Israel and Hamas are both holding the bodies of those killed on the other side, refusing to release them. They’ve done so for years and are again using the enemy dead as leverage in the current war. Read more on NPR

Feast your eyes on Taiwan’s distinct food (and understand a history of colonization) Taiwan has endured a long history of colonization. As a trip to the culinary center of Tainan reveals, those outside forces have helped create a cuisine that is distinctly Taiwanese. Read more on NPR

Nikki Haley says Biden is ‘more dangerous’ than Trump but neither is fit for the job In an interview with NPR, Nikki Haley says in a rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, Biden is a bigger threat. But she’s hoping she presents voters with another option. Read more on NPR

What GOP infighting in South Carolina can (and can’t) tell us about 2024 In Horry County, South Carolina, a squabble over who is the official county party sheds light on struggles the GOP faces more broadly in 2024. Read more on NPR

Private company Intuitive Machines is set to land on the moon. Here’s what to know The Houston-based company hopes to make the first successful commercial landing on the lunar surface. It would also be America’s first soft landing in decades. Read more on NPR

A man shot dead in Spain may be a Russian army defector A man who was shot dead in the region of Alicante, in Spain, is believed to be Maksim Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine last year. Read more on NPR