Good morning. The Federal Trade Commission Chair believes gender-affirming care should be considered a deceptive and unfair practice for underage patients.

It is about caring for the most vulnerable among us and protecting them from manipulation, deception, and abuse.

Also, California's environmental laws

have made housing shortages even more challenging. We'll hear how the governor is proposing to fix it.

And a high school biology teacher who's helping her students think beyond the textbook.

Kids these days understand coding, and no kid will tell you that code

just happens by itself. And Cal Thomas on Truth and Harvard's decision to study conservatives.

It's Thursday, July 17.

This is the world and everything in it from listener-supported World Radio.

I'm Jenny Ruff.

And I'm Myrna Brown.

Good morning.

Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.

Explosions in Damascus, as Israeli airstrikes targeted the Syrian Defense Ministry on Wednesday.

Strikes also hit the presidential palace and army headquarters.

The Israeli military said the rare attacks in the heart of Damascus were an effort to protect members of the Jews minority from Syrian government forces.

They were also designed to push Islamic militants away from Israel's border.

Syrian officials say the strikes killed at least three people and injured more than 30.

In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, it's complicated, obviously. These are historic longtime rivalries between different groups in the

south, west of Syria, Bedouins, the Druze community, and it led to an unfortunate situation

and a misunderstanding it looks like between the Israeli side and the Syrian side.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem.

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