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Today's top stories
A father and son pair of gunmen killed at least 15 people in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, according to officials. At least 42 people have been hospitalized. Police shot and killed the 50-year-old elder gunman, authorities said. His 24-year-old son was wounded and remains hospitalized. Authorities have not yet charged him in the case.
- 🎧 It has been a difficult time, not just for Australia's Jewish community, but for the country as a whole, since the attack took place, journalist Kristina Kukolja tells Up First. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the violence, calling it an "act of antisemitism" and an "act of terrorism." Authorities have not yet identified the victims, but police believe their ages range between 10 and 87. Albanese will meet with leaders of Australia's states and territories today. Australia has some of the world's strictest gun laws, but the prime minister is seeking even tougher ones after the Bondi attack.
Authorities are still searching for the gunman who opened fire inside a Brown University academic building two days ago, killing two students and injuring nine others. This comes after officials determined yesterday evening that they had no basis for holding a man in his 20s, whom police had briefly held as a "person of interest" in the case.
- 🎧 While walking through campus yesterday, Paul C. Kelly Campos of network station Ocean State Media said every person he talked to was tearful, and many were visibly distraught. Brown University medical student Anh Nguyen said the lockdown order was issued while he was taking his exams. Nguyen informed Campos that he feels "like something this unimaginable is happening way too often." This is the second school shooting Nguyen has experienced; his first one happened during undergrad.
Director Rob Reiner and his wife, producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their Los Angeles home yesterday, according to law enforcement. Rob Reiner spent decades directing films, including When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men.
- 🎧 Authorities say they expect to release preliminary autopsies later today, according to reporter Steve Futterman. Police say that at that time, they will be free to release more specific details in the homicide investigation. Authorities are not seeking a suspect or a person of interest, which suggests they may already know or suspect who committed the crime, Futterman says.
Deep dive
Pap smears can be uncomfortable and even deeply upsetting for people who have experienced sexual or medical trauma. The procedure involves doctors collecting a sample of cells from the cervix and is important for detecting early signs of cervical cancer. Now, a new approach is becoming available: You can get tested for HPV, which causes cervical cancer. New American Cancer Society recommendations say patients can safely swab their own vaginas to collect samples for the test, which means they can avoid an invasive pelvic exam. However, the new approach is not yet widely available. Here's what you need to know.
- 🩺The immune system fights off HPV similarly to how it fights off a cold. But if your body can't do that, your risk of cervical cancer increases. Testing for high-cancer-risk strains of HPV identifies people who could develop cancer.
- 🩺 HPV testing detects 90% to 95% of pre-cancerous abnormalities, while pap smears only detect about 70% to 80% of pre-cancers, according to Dr. Rebecca Perkins, an OB/GYN at Tufts University.
- 🩺 In May of 2025, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first at-home HPV testing kit. It can only be used through a telehealth company called Teal Health, and your primary care doctor can't order it for you.
Life advice
December holiday activities can quickly fill your calendar. When they're piled on top of your normal day-to-day tasks, you may swiftly move from feeling festive to frazzled. Psychotherapist Niro Feliciano, author of All is Calmish: How to Feel Less Frantic and More Festive During the Holidays, offers practical tips to reduce stress and foster deeper connections around this time of year. She shared with Life Kit that many tips only require a small shift in the way you view the holidays.
- 🎁 Shorten your to-do list to the moments that matter the most to you. Show up as much as you can for those moments.
- 🎁 Instead of naming all the things you have to do, name what you get to do. The shift in mindset can turn an obligation into a privilege.
- 🎁 If there is a tradition on your list that doesn't bring you joy, it is OK to let it go.
For tips on how to be less frantic during the holiday season, listen to this episode of NPR's Life Kit. Subscribe to the Life Kit newsletter for expert advice on love, money, relationships and more.
3 things to know before you go
- A new study in the journal Science Advances finds that tanning bed users face a much higher risk of melanoma and have DNA damage linked to cancer across nearly their entire skin surface.
- A United Airlines flight bound for Tokyo safely returned to Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Saturday after the plane's engine failed during departure, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
- The annual Abortion Onscreen report indicates a significant drop in the number of characters who went through with an abortion in television shows over the past few years. Storylines related to the topic appeared on TV 65 times this year.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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