A federal judge ordered the Department of Defense Monday to return books about gender and race back to five school libraries on military bases.

In April, 12 students at schools on military bases in Virginia, Kentucky, Italy and Japan claimed their First Amendment rights had been violated when nearly 600 books were removed from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools they attend. The students are the children of active duty service members ranging from pre-K to 11th grade.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, and the ACLU of Virginia filed a motion on behalf of the families requesting the return of “all books and curriculum already quarantined or removed based on potential violation of the Executive Orders.”

Earlier this year, President Trump issued executive orders demanding federal agencies remove and prohibit any materials that promote “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”

In January, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued the memoranda “Restoring America’s Fighting Force,” which prohibited “instruction on Critical Race Theory (CRT), DEI, or gender ideology,” and “Identity Months Dead at DoD,” which barred using official resources for celebrations such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

According to the plaintiffs, DoDEA officials sent emails directing teachers to remove books and cancel lesson plans and events that would be in violation of Trump’s executive orders and Hegseth’s guidance.

Books removed from school libraries at military bases covered such topics as sexual identity, racism and LGBTQ pride. You can see a list of the books here.

Two elementary schools cancelled Black History Month events, teachers at a middle school were told to remove posters of education activist Malala Yousafzai and painter Frida Kahlo and another school cancelled Holocaust Remembrance Day.

According to the motion filed by the ACLU, the students claimed that when they protested the school’s actions, they were punished and became “increasingly afraid to discuss race and gender in their classrooms, because they fear being silenced by teachers fearful of violating the EOs and DoDEA guidance.”

In her decision, U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles sided with the students and their families, writing that “the removals were not rooted in pedagogical concerns” but rather there was “improper partisan motivation underlying [defendants’] actions.” Giles wrote that DOD officials must “immediately restore the books and curricular materials that have been removed.”

The Department of Defense and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have not yet responded to NPR’s request for comment.

President Donald Trump claimed a key victory in a US appeals court Monday as a divided three-judge panel decided he is allowed to deploy federal troops to the city of Portland, Oregon.

Trump had claimed the right to send the national guard to the liberal stronghold for the purported purpose of protecting federal property and agents. The ruling marks an important legal victory for Trump as he continues to send military forces to Democratic-led cities.

Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield spoke out against the ruling, saying that if it’s allowed to stand, Trump would have “unilateral power to put Oregon soldiers on our streets with almost no justification”.

“We are on a dangerous path in America,” he added.

Catching up? Here’s what happened 19 October 2025.

Sam Rivers, bassist for rock band Limp Bizkit, has died. He was 48 years old.

Rivers’ death was confirmed by the band, who wrote online on Saturday: “today we lost our brother”.

“Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player — he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound,” Limp Bizkit said in a social media post Saturday. “He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human. A true legend of legends. And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, every memory.”

The band did not share any details about his death.

Rivers’ last post on social media was on Friday, in which he shared a “Save The Date” video for Limp Bizkit performing at the Rock for People festival in Hradec Králové, a city in the Czech Republic, in June 2026. Rivers and his bandmates last performed in August at the Leeds Festival in the United Kingdom.

In 2015, Rivers left the band after suffering from liver disease but rejoined the group in 2018.

“I got liver disease from excessive drinking … I had to leave Limp Bizkit in 2015 because I felt so horrible, and a few months after that I realized I had to change everything because I had really bad liver disease,” Rivers said during an interview with Variety. “I quit drinking and did everything the doctors told me. I got treatment for the alcohol and got a liver transplant, which was a perfect match.”

The nu-metal band skyrocketed in popularity in the ’90s, being nominated for three Grammys. Their hits, including “Rollin’” and “Nookie,” also landed on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Fred Durst, fellow bandmate and frontman for Limp Bizkit, remembered the first time he heard Rivers play at a Jacksonville, Florida bar while searching for bandmates to form the group. Rivers was playing in a band at the bar and Durst said he was “killing it on the bass.”

“I saw Sam play and I was blown away,” Durst recalled in a video posted on social media Sunday morning. “He’s playing a five-string bass too. I’d never really seen someone using a five-string bass… he was so smooth and good and he stood out. I could hear nothing else but Sam… everything disappeared besides his gift.”

When he approached Rivers after his performance and told him that he wanted to form a band, Durst said the bassist didn’t hesitate.

“He looked at me and he says ,’Killer. I’m in. Let’s do it’,” Durst recalled. “I’ve gone through gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday and… I’m thinking, ‘My God, Sam’s a legend….he did it. He lived it.’”

Limp Bizkit’s new single, “Making Love to Morgan Wallen,” topped several Billboard charts in September.