Up First from NPR - Deadly Kentucky Storms, Supreme Court Ruling, European Presidential Elections

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Deadly storms and tornadoes tore through several states overnight. In Kentucky, a local mayor says more than 20 people were killed. Also, the Supreme Court says the Trump administration cannot deport a group of Venezuelans while their cases are being litigated in the courts. Plus, it's a big weekend for elections in Europe with voters in both Poland and Romania going to the polls.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Deadly storms and tornadoes tear through several states, leaving devastation. In Kentucky, more than 20 people are reported to have been killed. I'm Ayesha Rasco. And I'm Scott Simon and this is Up First from NPR News. The Supreme Court says the Trump administration cannot deport a group of Venezuelans while their cases are being litigated in the courts. President Trump is trying to use a wartime law to deport the detainees who are accused

of being gang members. And it's a big weekend for elections in Europe. Voters in both Poland and Romania head to the polls to elect new presidents, but what's at stake for the region? So stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend Severe storms and tornadoes swept through Kentucky causing widespread devastation Rescue crews are now searching for survivors after homes and buildings were torn apart.

One of the worst affected areas was the city of London, Kentucky, where there are reports of multiple casualties. We're joined now by Karen Zarr from Member Station WUKY. Karen, thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me. What areas of your state seem to be hit worse? Well, we are in Lexington, which is the central part of Kentucky, and it seems like south of us sustained the most damage. Now, those reports were in the overnight, and as the sun comes up, officials in several counties say that they're going to have a better assessment of the scope of the damage. And as the storm was passing over the WUKY studios here in Lexington last night. We were under tornado watches and you

could see the rotations on the radar and then as the storm moved south those watches quickly turned to warnings and weather spotters captured what appeared to be funnel clouds and several local meteorologists confirmed tornadic activity. We of course are waiting on confirmation from the National Weather Service. And the death toll went up throughout the night. Laurel County where most fatalities are reported? Yes, I spoke with London Mayor Randall Weddell. He said at least 23 people have died in the county and some are still unaccounted for.

I'm hopeful that in those cases that they've been took to the shelter, you know, where they've just not made contact yet. There's also one reported fatality in Somerset where it appears a tornado or straight-line winds cut through. Mayor Weddle and officials in Somerset are saying the best way everyone can help right now is by staying away from the area so that first responders can continue recovery efforts. Right now we are worried with human life and we are trying to ensure that there is no one in this debris that needs help. The roads are pretty much open and cleared, but right now our main focus rather than any tree land on the road, our main focus is to make sure

that no one is laying in this debris. Karen, what kind of damage have you seen? Several videos came in, one in particular where a father and son in Somerset filming the storm and it was pitch black, but as the lightning would flash, you could see what appeared to be a funnel cloud touching down and they of course quickly went inside. Mayor Weddle has sent photos and there are areas where there used to be a neighborhood and

there's nothing left but sticks. It is completely flat. He says the damage is devastating and it looks similar to what we saw in Western Kentucky several years ago. For some of the areas that were hit by flooding just last month also affected by last night's storms. We are still gathering reports and again in areas where the destruction wasn't as severe or widespread. Officials say we won't know the extent of the damage until they're able to do surveys by the light of day. And as you mentioned, dozens of Kentucky counties were affected by storms in April, but we also saw storms in February.

So FEMA has been on the ground in Kentucky for several months. That is going to be an incredible asset for us because currently we have recovery centers open across the state, helping people who were affected by those storms so that they can apply for individual assistance. Ironically, just a week ago, 24 more counties were added to the list approved for individual

assistance. WKYS Karen Czar, thanks so much. Thank you. President Trump is taking a sweeping approach when it comes to immigration policy. He wants to speed up arrest and deportations. But the president is facing legal resistance at the highest level, the US Supreme Court. NPR immigration reporter Jimena Bastillo has been covering those legal challenges and joins us.

Jimena, thanks for being with us. Good morning. Yesterday the court issued its latest order on Trump's immigration policies this is related to the Alien Enemies Act what did they say? The Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction which extends the pause on deportations of Venezuelan immigrants in North Texas via the use of the Alien Enemies Act. Earlier this year Trump invoked that rarely used wartime power in order to streamline deportations, but the Supreme Court had already ruled that the government has to give immigrants a chance to contest their deportations under this act.

Lawyers on behalf of Venezuelans held at a Texas detention facility moved to quickly stop their clients' removals when they learned that they had only received hours' notice that they were about to be removed using the Alien Enemies Act. The Supreme Court said in its Friday order that it meant to preserve its jurisdiction over the case while letting lower courts decide just how much notice should be given to people the government wants to quickly remove using this power, but the court did not directly address the larger question of whether Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act at all was legal. The Trump administration has criticized federal judges who've taken steps to block its policies.

Presidents even called for their impeachment. How did he respond to this latest order? In a post to his social media site Truth Social, Trump said quote, the Supreme Court will not allow us to get criminals out of our country, end quote. And one of the biggest, strongest rebukes of the Supreme Court specifically, Trump explicitly said that he believes that the court is not allowing him to do what he was elected to do on immigration. He complained that the court is forcing his administration to go through what he called a long protracted and expensive legal process to deport migrants in the country.

But the decision from the Supreme Court shows that they think it's not that simple. The justices point out that once detainees are placed into custody of another government, officials tell the court that the courts can't provide any relief if there are errors. Justice has also heard arguments related to questions about birthright citizenship. How did these play out? On his first day in office, you might remember Trump issued an executive order to reinterpret the 14th Amendment, stating that being born in the U.S. does not guarantee automatic citizenship if your parents do not have legal status or are here on a temporary basis. Most of the Supreme Court arguments focused on whether judges should be allowed to issue universal injunctions and broadly stop a president's policies, but the bigger stakes of Trump's

immigration plans are not lost on the court. During oral arguments, conservative Brett Kavanaugh really questioned DOJ attorneys over exactly how the government was supposed to manage and oversee babies born without citizenship in the U.S. and government lawyers said they didn't know. Elsewhere, Jimena, the White House is putting off complying with the orders of two federal judges on big immigration cases. One of those judges again took the administration to task yesterday. Please tell us. Well, Maryland Fairgold Judge Paul Azines increasingly is growing as exasperated by the government's efforts to not provide information on whether it is facilitating the release and return of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia.

Abrego-Garcia is a man who lived in Maryland and was deported to El Salvador by error, and the administration has said that this was an administrative error. Zinies has asked the government to explain exactly what steps it has taken, but she says that the government continues to stonewall in quote, bad faith. And it's been more than a month since even the Supreme Court agreed with Zinies that the government needs to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. In a hearing also on Friday, a Justice Department lawyer tried invoking a state secret's privilege to withhold information on these steps, but Judge Zinis is

skeptical of that argument, saying she simply just hasn't been given enough information to determine whether the government's efforts to free Abrego Garcia from El Salvador should be covered by national security concerns. And here's Jimenez-Bastillo, thanks so much. Thanks Scott. Poland and Romania hold presidential elections tomorrow. Both votes feature far-right politicians standing against more pro-Western candidates. It comes amid a surge in support for populist parties across the continent. And Peer Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz joins us now from Berlin.

Rob, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. Let's begin in Poland, please. The far-right law and justice party, which had chipped away at the country's democratic institutions for years, lost control of parliament a couple of years ago. So how does this presidential race figure into all this? Yeah. So in autumn of 2023, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist civic coalition had a surprise

victory over the Law and Justice Party. But since then, Tusk's coalition has had a very difficult time undoing some of the damage that law and justice had done, especially on the country's judiciary. And that's because each time they've tried to pass new laws that aim to restore the courts, outgoing president Anjay Dutta, an ally of law and justice, has vetoed them, effectively becoming a barrier to Tusk's agenda. But now Duda is termed out as president and the civic coalition has a chance here to win the presidency because their candidate, Rafał Czarskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, has a commanding lead in the polls. Law and Justice's

candidate, Karol Nawrodzki, is trailing by around 5%, but because there are several other candidates in this election, we likely won't see any single candidate get a majority tomorrow. So it'll likely head to a runoff between two of the leading candidates in early June. And why are political analysts calling this one of the most important presidential elections in a generation?

Well, one reason is that we're seeing another resurgence, Scott, in this part of Europe of the far right. And even in Poland, the Law and Justice Party is gaining ground again, which makes analysts think that they could win the next parliamentary election in 2027. And that if there isn't a president to check their power, these observers say Poland's democracy could be in trouble. Here's political analyst Andrzej Bobinski.

Then the president is super important as somebody who will be basically checking the next government and will be an important safeguard of the constitutional order. Rob, let's move on to Romania. Voters there cast ballots tomorrow in the second round of their presidential election. What should we know? Well, since we're talking about the resurgence of the far right in Europe, Romania is a good example of that. Last November, a relative unknown far right pro-Kremlin candidate, Talin Gorgescu, surprisingly won, but a judge later annulled the election after state intelligence revealed that Russia had been involved in setting up almost 800 TikTok accounts supporting him having undue influence over the electorate. Russia has denied these accusations. So now

Romanian voters will decide between two candidates, a hard right nationalist who's a fan of President Trump and Vladimir Putin. His name is George Simeon and a pro-Western reformer, Nicolchor Dan, who's also the mayor of Bucharest, Romania's capital. Political analysts are framing this election as one of East versus West. And is there a clear front runner? Well, unlike the Polish election, there is not a clear front runner in the Romanian election. The polls are all over the place and given what happened last November, the outcome of this election could be unpredictable

and full of controversy. Many Europeans are nervously watching this one. And Bureau of Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz, thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for having me. And that's up first for Saturday, May 17th, 2025. I'm Ayesha Rasca. And I'm Scott Simon.

Elena Torgue produced today's episode with help from Danny Hensel. Our editor is Martin Patience, and he had help from Jacob Fenston, Nick Spicer, and Ed McNealty. Michael Radcliffe is our director with support from technical director Andy Huther, and engineers David Greenberg and Arthur Holliday-Lorent.

Our senior supervising editor is Shannon Rhodes, E.B. Stone is our executive producer, and Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday story is the U.S. on the path to authoritarianism. Hundreds of scholars believe that the country's liberal democracy is under assault. Tune in to hear the voices of those who fled repressive regimes of scholars believe that the country's liberal democracy is under assault. Tune in to hear the voices of those who fled repressive regimes and found sanctuary in the U.S. only for the Trump administration's tactics to remind them of home. And for more news, interviews, sports and music, you can tune in to Weekend Edition

on your radio. Saturday and Sunday go to stations.npr.org to find your local NPR station. On NPR's through line, witnesses were ending up dead. How the hunt for gangster Al Capone launched the IRS to power. Find NPR's ThruLine wherever you get your podcasts.