Syrians Flee Eastern Ghouta Under Tenuous Ceasefire

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

— Approximately 1,565 patients with gunshot wounds are treated in emergency rooms across the country each week, according to the National Institutes of Health. Trauma surgeons and nurses who are on the front lines are seeing no major changes in legislation or policy, and their frustration is growing as the victims keep arriving at their doorsteps. That frustration is leading some physicians to look towards advocacy efforts to help curb the mounting numbers of victims.

— For the past few years, Syria’s Eastern Ghouta region has been under siege by the Russian-backed government of Bashar al-Assad. In the past month alone, more than 1600 civilians have been killed and thousands wounded as government forces have borne down on the Damascus suburb. Late last week, a tentative ceasefire allowed thousands of civilians and rebel fighters to leave Ghouta and relocate in the northwestern province of Idlib. The city of Douma now remains the only rebel-controlled area near the capital.

— Sacramento has been on edge since 22-year-old Stephon Clark was shot and killed by police last week. Clark was holding a cellphone, yet officers shot at him 20 times, believing he was wielding a firearm. Sacramento police originally arrived at the scene after they received reports of robberies occurring in the neighborhood. They discovered Clark, who was in his grandparents’ backyard, before firing the lethal shots. His funeral is now scheduled for Thursday.

— On Monday, President Trump ordered 60 Russian nationals expelled from the United States, as well as the closing of a Russian consulate in Seattle, in a belated act of solidarity with the U.K. All eyes have been on Russia since Sergei Skripal, a former double agent living in Salisbury, was found poisoned by a rare military-grade nerve agent. Including the United States’ actions on Monday, a coalition of 20 countries have expelled some 100 Russians in what’s being seen as the lowest point in Russian-Western relations since the end of the Cold War.

— In the United States, women of color are more likely to die of breast cancer, cervical cancer, and heart disease than their white counterparts. They are also more likely to face major health complications around pregnancy and childbirth. In a 2017 survey conducted by multiple health agencies in conjunction with NPR, 33 percent of black women said they had been discriminated against by a doctor or at a health clinic because of their race.