Up First from NPR - ICE Shooting In Texas, UNGA: Ukraine Warning, Government Shutdown Standoff

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

A deadly shooting at a Dallas ICE office leaves one detainee dead and highlights rising violence around immigration enforcement. Ukraine's president warns that Russia’s war is fueling a dangerous new arms race as President Trump signals support for Ukraine reclaiming its territory. And a White House memo orders agencies to prepare mass firings if the government shuts down, with health care premiums still at the center of the standoff.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Alfredo Carbajal, Miguel Macias, Diane Webber, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lindsay Totty.We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Join us again tomorrowLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A shooting at an immigration facility is one of at least three in Texas so far this year. The suspected gunman is dead. What is the FBI saying about the motive for an attack that killed a detainee? I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. Ukraine's president says Russia's war is a global threat. We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history. because this time it includes artificial intelligence. Will Volodymyr Zelensky get the support he wants from President Trump? And the White House is raising the stakes on a government shutdown.

A new memo orders agencies to prepare mass layoffs if funding runs out. And health care costs are a big part of the fight. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. This message comes from Rince, who knows that greatness takes time. So does laundry. So rinse will take your laundry and hand deliver it to your door expertly cleaned. And you can take the time pursuing your passions. Time once spent sorting and waiting, folding and queuing, now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up that Irish flute or those calligraphy pens or the daunting Beef Wellington recipe card

and leave the laundry to rinse. Rinse, it's time to be great. At least one immigration detainee is dead and two are in critical condition after shooting at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office yesterday. This is at least the third instance of gun violence at immigration facilities in Texas this year. Different incidents, different backstories, but ICE is in the news as the Trump administration tries for a mass deportation. With us now is Tolawani Osibamoo of member station K-E-R-A in Dallas. So we mentioned some details about the shooting, but how far have authorities gotten in their investigation so far? Yeah. Well, yesterday was a pretty chaotic and tragic day in one of the busiest immigration facilities in North Texas. And we still have a lot of questions today. Aside from the victims, the suspect is also dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Dallas police said the person shot at the ICE office from a nearby building. The FBI says they're investigating the shooting as a, quote, act of targeted violence. Joe Rothrock with the Dallas FBI office says local and federal authorities will be participating in the investigation. There will be no resource not utilized to bring all those individuals who are responsible to bring them to justice and to hold them accountable. FBI director Kosh Patel called this a despicable politically motivated attack on law enforcement. Authorities haven't indicated any specific motive, but they did release a picture of five unspent bullet casings found at the scene. and one had the words anti-ice. Okay, now we've also seen a name and a picture floating around about the shooter.

Anything confirmed on that? Tell us what we do know about that shooter. Well, acting ice director Todd Lyons identified the shooter to CBS News as Joshua John. NPR found that John most recently lived in Fairview, which is a suburb about 30 miles north of Dallas, and police had swarmed his home there yesterday afternoon. And one of his neighbors, Sherry Davis, said it was a very small, tight-knit community, but she didn't know much about John.

I would have never imagined that such a thing, you know, someone that felt so disenfranchised would live so close to me. Collin County court records don't show that John has a history of any violent crimes. However, he was arrested and pleaded guilty to marijuana charges in 2016. Authorities haven't released the identities of the victims, one of them who's in the hospital is a Mexican national. that's according to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Okay. Now, as we mentioned earlier, I mean, this is just the most recent attack on an immigration

facility in Texas. What can you tell us about the other incidents that have led up to this moment? Well, on July 4th, a gunman shot at a local police officer during a protest outside an ice facility in Alvarado. That's about 30 miles south of Fort Worth. 17 people have been arrested. And then three days after that shooting, a man opened fire at a Customs and Border Protection facility in McAllen, a border city along the Rio Grande. He was killed by law enforcement. And then in late August, the Dallas Ice Office that was the site of yesterday's shooting got a bomb threat where a man at the entrance of the building claimed to have an explosive

in his bag. Immigration and immigrants have been at the center of the political divide, often portrayed in a negative light. And yesterday, some immigrants became victims of this political rhetoric. Tolawani Osi Obamawo is a reporter with K-E-R-A in Dallas. Thank you very much. Thanks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia's war on Ukraine is fueling an arms race that is threatening humanity and that the war will spread if Russia is not forced into a durable peace deal. Zelensky said that at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

He spoke during a week when President Trump again shifted his stance on the war, asserting this time that Ukraine could win and that the United States would keep supplying weapons. But how do all those words sound when they're heard in the country that's under attack? Joining us now to discuss all of this is NPR's correspondent Joanna Kukisus, who is in

Kiev, Joanna, so Ukrainians, how are they reacting to President Trump seemingly sudden about face on Ukraine? Well, Ukrainians have been telling me that they are grateful Trump seems to be acknowledging Russia is the aggressor in this war and that he is talking about Ukraine's territorial integrity, because earlier this year, the Ukrainians heard Trump saying

that their country does not have the cards to win and seem to be pushing Ukraine into giving up its territory in exchange for a peace deal with Russia. Now, that said, Trump has also not offered Ukraine things like concrete security guarantees or additional U.S. sanctions on Russia. I spoke with Olexander Krayev. He's the director of the North America program at the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council here in Kiev, and he said that it sounds like Trump is also saying something that he said before. He's not speaking about America doing more or himself doing

something additional. So he's just stating the fact that somebody should do something about it, but definitely not me. So Kriyav said that the Trump administration could be distancing itself from the peace process and shifting the burden onto the European Union. But is that even possible, I mean

at this stage, for the U.S. to distance itself from a peace process? Well, Zelensky has said repeatedly that the U.S. is key to securing a durable peace deal. He up the ante at the UN by saying that the war is fueling a global arms race with, quote, weapons evolving faster than our ability to defend ourselves. I also spoke with Olexander Medesko. He's a lawmaker from Zelensky's party and head of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. And he said Trump has already made big promises like saying he will put maximum

pressure on Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. He promised also severe consequences for Russia, if Russia rejects this. So it's too late for Trump. It is his war. So he just needs to be consistent and to deliver on his promises if he wants to remain a credible politician. And they also spoke with yet another member of Parliament, Ivana Klimbush Tensata, and she said that it would be close to impossible for Ukraine to reclaim occupied land entirely through military means. And without U.S. engagement, it will be very, very difficult because I don't think that Russia is capable of changing its behavior if it doesn't feel the pressure, if it doesn't feel the economic pain, industrial pain, military pain of its own actions.

So what she's saying is Russia won't negotiate unless the U.S. forces it to. Yeah, and there's that. So how has Russia responded to President Trump's apparent shift? Well, the Kremlin has dismissed Trump's suggestion that Ukraine could win this war. Kremlin's spokesman Dimitri Peskov also took issue with Trump calling Russia paper tiger that it looks strong but is actually weak

Peskov said actually Russia's a bear and there's nothing paper about a bear so it's a cryptic message but a sign that Russia won't end its war on Ukraine anytime soon. NPR's Joanna Kikis is in Kiev. Joanna thanks. You're welcome. The shutdown is looking more and more likely, and this time it could be far more severe than in the past. A memo from the White House instructs federal agencies to prepare mass firing plans if funding lapses at the end of the month.

This plan goes beyond the usual temporary furloughs during a shutdown. It would permanently cut jobs in programs that are established by law, but the president doesn't like. As so often happens, Republicans and Democrats do not agree on a funding measure for the fiscal year that is about to start. Republicans want a short-term extension, while Democrats have insisted that extension should include some protections for people who have health insurance premiums to pay. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin covers all things health insurance.

All right, so let's start with deadlines here. The shutdown could start next week, but there are other key dates at play. Yeah, so in just over a month on November 1st, open enrollment begins on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. You might know them as Obamacarehealthcare.gov, that's all the same thing. And this is where people shop for insurance if they don't get through their job. So, you know, a lot of freelancers, small business employees. At the end of the

year, something called the enhanced premium tax credits expire. Those have kept premiums affordable for people who get their insurance this way. And if Congress doesn't act to extend those tax credits in the next week or two, people are going to get sticker shock when open enrollment starts and they see that monthly amount they paid for health insurance is going to go way up next year. Where did these tax credits come from? So when the ACA was passed way back in 2010, Congress created kind of a sliding scale to help give people a break on their premiums. But the way it was originally set up didn't work very well. Premiums were still really high for a lot of people. So enrollment was sluggish. And in 2021, Congress stepped in. They sweetened the pot

with a lot more federal funding, which made premiums more affordable for people at all income levels. Sabrina Corlett of the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reform told me that worked. Enrollment more than doubled. It's now 24 million people. And the uninsured rate for the entire country sank to the lowest it's ever been. Incredibly successful effort to get more people into coverage and reduce the uninsured rate. All right. So what happens, though if the enhanced credits expire. In short, people's costs will go up and enrollment will drop. Ultimately, millions of people could become uninsured. Yesterday, I spoke with Emily Pisa KREDA. She is a senior producer with the healthcare podcast, An Arm and Aleg, which partners with

KFF Health News and NPR member station KUOWW. They just did an episode about her quest to find ACA insurance, something she really needs since she has type one diabetes. She tells me that that she relies on insurance for insulin, which she needs to survive, and all sorts of diabetes supplies, and those really add up. She found a plan that works for her. It's $500 a month, but it could get much more expensive next year if those enhanced credits expire. $500 a month is not little, and to imagine it going up to almost $900 a month seems really scary. I talked to somebody who lives in West Virginia, who's putting money aside that would go to retirement because of these changes.

And another person in Florida told me he's considering finding a new job with benefits if his premium becomes unaffordable. So what are the politics on all this? Where does that stand right now? There are Republican lawmakers who would like to extend these tax credits. Corlett at Georgetown told me, based on who's enrolled, many Republican voters will likely be hard hit by the higher premiums. Other Republican lawmakers think the subsidies are too expensive and argue they might be willing to extend them, but they want to change the program in various ways and not sort that out now. shutdown looming. Either way, it's really hard to see this getting resolved before a shutdown next week

since there are currently no active talks between the two parties. That's NPR health policy correspondence, Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks a lot. You're welcome. And that's up first for Thursday, September 25th. I'm M. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Here's an amazing thing about NPR news. This is not a network in some eastern city. It's in every state, a across the country. There are NPR stations across America. The station is in your community. It is run by people in your community. It serves your

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to your local station. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Alfredo Carvajal, Miguel Macias. Diane Weber, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Lindsay Toddy. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.