News from around the nation.

Israel and Hamas agree to first phase of Gaza ceasefire plan; Poll: Most Americans, Kentuckians support extending ACA tax credits; High rents raise barriers to adulthood, Mississippi researcher finds; Ecosystems benefit when more Marylanders let leaves lie, survey finds.

Transcript

The public news service Thursday afternoon update, I'm Mike Clifford.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan that will allow for the release of all hostages in Gaza, Israeli withdrawal to an agreed point, and the release of some Palestinian prisoners.

That's the take from CNN.

In a report, President Trump said the hostages are likely to be released on Monday.

A formal declaration ending the war in Gaza must first be made for a hostage release to to take place, according to a senior Hamas official.

A government spokesperson said a ceasefire in Gaza will begin within 24 hours of a meeting of Israel's security cabinet later today.

And as the federal government shutdown continues with expanded ACA tax credits at the center of lawmakers' debate, a new poll finds more than three quarters of the public say they want Congress to extend the subsidies set to expire at the end of this year.

Ashley Kurtzinger with KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research, polling, and news organization that conducted the survey says with open enrollment right around the corner, many people remain unaware the tax credits have an expiration date.

And when we ask people who purchase this type of coverage, what would you do if your premiums nearly doubled?

Four in 10 said that they would go without health coverage.

Losing that extra help would increase premiums by an average of more than 100 percent, from around $800 in 2025 to 1900 in 2026.

This is Nadia Romligon for Kentucky News Connection.

And high rents and home prices are raising the barriers to adulthood for many young people in the state of Mississippi.

Rohan Shah is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Mississippi.

He says the trend of young adults living with their parents is driven by a housing shortage, which limits career opportunities and delays life milestones, such as marriage and starting a family.

The main reason that people are choosing to move back home is the high cost of housing.

That's either buying a house or renting a house.

Now that has itself has an underlying cause, which is the difficulty of building new properties in places where people want to live.

Shah says that comes down to zoning and planning regulations.

His research focuses on adults aged 24 to 35, who are increasingly opting to live with parents to save money.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

And more folks in states like Maryland for letting leaves lie instead of bagging them and throwing them away, a boon to local ecosystems, but many people are still required to bag and dispose of their leaves.

David Mizodchuski with the National Wildlife Federation explains that bagging leaves and sending them off to landfill contributes to climate change.

Who would have thought that a simple choice of what to do with your leaves in the fall could actually have a tie to something as big and massive as global climate change, but it's really true, there is a connection.

A survey by the National Wildlife Federation found that nearly 20 percent of people don't collect removed fallen leaves during autumn, up from 15 percent last year.

But nearly a third of people report throwing away six or more bags of leaves each season.

This is public news service.

Lawmakers in Indiana are taking a closer look at how to improve postpartum care for Hoosier mothers.

Our Joe Ulori explains.

The Interim Study Committee on Public Health is hearing from doctors and policy experts who want to see Indiana adopt more programs used in other states.

Kendall Spear with the National Conference of State Legislatures says other states have made progress by strengthening support for mothers after birth.

It has been projected that there will be a shortage of over 5,000 obstetrician gynecologists to meet demand by 2030.

States are looking to strengthen and support that OBGYN workforce while also bringing in other workers.

Some Indiana lawmakers say any changes must balance the cost of expanding coverage with long-term health benefits, they note that proposals must go through a full debate in the next legislative session.

Next, consumer advocates in Massachusetts are calling on Microsoft to extend free support for its Windows 10 software.

The company plans to stop automatic security updates on October 14th, impacting an estimated 400 million computers worldwide.

Nathan Proctor, with a public interest research group, says users will need to purchase new devices or risk exposing themselves to potential cyber attacks.

So many of the computers that are running it actually don't have the option to upgrade to Windows 11 and they're just kind of stuck.

Proctor says users wanting security updates will have to pay or enroll in other Microsoft services and that the costs for small businesses could quickly add up.

Microsoft has extended support for its European customers but not in the US.

I'm Catherine Carley.

Finally, the Northern Blues Restoration Partnership is now five years into a 10 year project protect communities from wildfire, restore biodiversity, and reintroduce healthy fire to the landscape in northeast Oregon.

Fire ecologists say over 100 years of aggressive logging paired with fire suppression in the west has set the stage for catastrophic wildfires.

But now, says Casey Radcliffe of the Nature Conservancy, with guidance from indigenous burning practices along with decades of research, the relationship to fire is shifting.

Land managers now are saying, well, we were trying to stop this thing, control it.

We actually need to welcome it back in a way that feels like it's safe for our communities, but really results in much better outcomes than we could do without it.

Made up of a coalition of tribes, state agencies, landowners and NGOs.

The Northern Blues Restoration Partnership is working on 10 million acres across 13 counties in northeast Oregon and southeast Washington.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

A study of Oregon's 2021 Bootleg Fire shows forest treated with mechanical thinning and prescribed burn significantly reduced fire severity.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.