Up First from NPR - Israel Attacks Rafah, Trump & NATO, Biden's Border Options

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Israel is telling 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering in Southern Gaza to evacuate, as attacks continue in Rafah. Former President Donald Trump threatened to abandon NATO allies if they don't spend more on defense. And, after sinking a bipartisan bill to handle the border crisis, Republicans are calling on President Joe Biden to use executive action to solve the problem.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 Krishnadev Calamur, Andrew Sussman and Mohamed ElBardicy.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Lilly Quiroz.We get engineering support from Phil Edfors. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Israeli airstrikes hit Rafah, where 1.4 million people are displaced and sheltering. Where's the humanity? I wonder where's the humanity? Where can Palestinians go for safety? I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadl, and this is Up First from NPR News. Former President Trump suggested America should not defend some NATO allies against Russia. I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills. How are European allies responding to the Republican frontrunner's remarks? And after sinking a bipartisan bill to handle the border crisis, Republicans are calling on President Biden to use executive action.

But how much power does the White House have? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. Now, our change will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to our change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. Israel's Prime Minister has given orders to prepare for a military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. If you picture a map of Gaza, Rafah is at the very bottom at a border crossing to Egypt. It's now the refuge for people from all over the rest of Gaza who fled Israel's offensive in recent months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

has told the army to prepare some kind of plan to evacuate more than one million civilians from Rafah, although it's not clear where they could go. And PR's Eder Peralta is following the story from Tel Aviv, and he joins us now. Good morning. Hey, good morning, Laila. So let's start with these threats from Israel. Palestinians have been displaced multiple times over. Now a majority of residents of the Strip are in this small piece of land in the southernmost

part of the Palestinian territory. Why is Israel now moving into this part of Gaza? Well, Israel says that it's going after Hamas. Remember last October, Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people in Israel, vowed to destroy Hamas. And so far, they have swept from Gaza's north to its south. The bombing has killed some 28,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. And in the past few days, Israel's defense minister and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say that Rafah, a city that, as you said, is along the border with Egypt, is Hamas's final stronghold. Netanyahu was interviewed by ABC yesterday, and he reiterated that Israel was poised to

launch a military operation on Rafah. Let's listen. Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying, lose the war, keep Hamas there. And part of this may have already started. We're hearing reports of airstrikes this morning and some good news about hostages taken from Israel. What are you learning? So we know there's been an increase in airstrikes

generally in Rafah, but the Israeli military says what happened overnight was about hostages and that the airstrikes were a diversionary tactic. The military says that they rescued two of the 136 hostages who Israel believe are still in Gaza, and they say both are in good condition. A hospital official tells NPR that at least 50

Palestinians were killed last night. NPR producer Anas Baba was on the street in Rafah. Let's listen. It's a very intensive shilling going around me. Next to my house, there is Al-Huda. Al-Huda Mosque is one of the most known mosques in all of Al-Rafah, and he got bombed into pieces. Could you exactly tell me your name, please? I'm Zainat Al-Khawar. Could you tell me what's happened exactly? Every day we lose everything. We lose our family, we lose our health, we lose our mosques, we lose our children and our houses. You know, where's the humanity? Where is the humanity?

Where is the humanity, she keeps asking. Where is the world? Okay, so let's ask that question. Where does the world stand on this? I mean, pretty much everyone, the U.S., the U.N., the EU, the U.K. is warning Israel against moving into Rafah. And that's because Rafah is the last remaining relatively safe space for Palestinian refugees. Some 1.4 million Palestinians are now in Rafah. I spoke to Yusuf Hamash, who works for the Norwegian Refugee Council, and he describes a desperate atmosphere.

To the north, you have bombing and desperate atmosphere. To the north, you have bombing and hunger, and to the south, you have Egypt, which does not want to take refugees. So everyone feels like they've been painted into a corner that there is nowhere to run. And if bombing begins, he says, it feels like the only choice you're left to make is how you want to die. It's worth noting that in a phone call, President Biden cautioned Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that any military operation in Rafah should be accompanied by a credible plan to protect civilians. That's NPR's Ader Peralta reporting from Tel Aviv. Thank you, Ader. Thank you, Leila. Former President Trump has reignited questions about what he'd do to U.S. alliances as president.

At a campaign rally, the ex-president told a rambling tale of a supposed conversation with the leader of an unnamed nation in NATO, the North Atlantic Alliance. Trump pictured himself saying that if the NATO ally didn't pay enough, he would not protect them against Russia. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills. The ex-president, who was famous for failing to pay his own bills, appeared to misspeak about the nature of the NATO alliance, whose members do not owe bills. The nations do commit to spend a percentage of their budgets on defense. They are also committed to defend one another and came to the United States defense when it was attacked in 2001.

NPR's Stephen Fowler in Atlanta was at the rally and joins us now. Good morning. Good morning. So Donald Trump says he would encourage Russia to, quote, do whatever the hell they want to NATO countries in Europe that in his mind aren't spending enough on defense. Pretty controversial statement to make at a time Russia's actively at war in Ukraine and NATO allies feel threatened. What's his message with this statement? Well, Leila, Trump has been critical of NATO for a while. That's not a new

development. I mean, in fact, his presidency was marked by consistently questioning the value of international alliances broadly and NATO specifically. I mean, he repeatedly threatened in private to withdraw the U.S. from the alliance and publicly harangued other global powers like Germany and France to contribute more to defense spending. Over the last decade, NATO members have aimed to increase spending levels to 2% of their GDP, and as of last year, only 11 of 31 countries hit that target. That includes the U.S., which spends about 3.5%. As we heard, Trump falsely implies there are countries that haven't paid their bills or owe the U.S. or NATO directly. I mean, it's not like a country club where there are dues to be considered a member. It's a club of countries that have promised to defend and

protect each other from threats. So why more spending over the years? Russian aggression over the last decade, which is complicated by Trump's vocal support of Russia. What's the reaction been to his comments? Well, the White House issued a rare statement late Saturday calling the comments, quote, unhinged, said it was promoting deranged chaos, and stressed that the stance of President Joe Biden's administration is that NATO is the largest and most vital it's ever been. And of course, the campaign wants to make that front and center. NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg said Sunday that any suggestion NATO allies would not honor the commitment to defend one another, quote, undermines all of our security. Republicans in Congress largely shrugged it off as Trump being Trump.

An excuse we hear often from his Republican colleagues. So he's made a lot of people upset. Who is he appealing to here with these comments? Republican voters? Well, yes and no. I mean, remember, Trump isn't a fan of NATO. And if he's elected again, there's no telling what he would advocate for. But some of Trump's defenders do point out the veiled threat from his anecdote was ultimately

successful because other European countries and NATO did start stepping up to the plate and beefing up their spending. There are GOP primary voters that want America's global footprint to retreat a little bit and focus more domestically, but this meandering message about NATO and funding and foreign policy is typical Trump. I mean, think stories where people say, sir. It was part of a nearly two-hour riff in front of his biggest supporters, but it didn't really make that much of an impact to the crowd. That's NPR's Stephen Fowler in Atlanta. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you. Now let's check a claim that's made in the immigration debate. Republicans who blocked a bipartisan immigration plan in Congress have been insisting it's not really needed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is among those making that assertion. The Republican leader has been saying that the president can close the border without the help of Congress. I told President Biden this myself on multiple occasions, most recently a couple of weeks ago on the phone. I read him the law that says that he has all this authority, but he refuses to act. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid has been looking into this, and she joins us now. Good morning, Asma. Good morning, Leila. Okay, so let's start with a basic question. Can President Biden really shut down the border as the speaker insists?

I posed this question to a number of immigration experts, and the answer I came away with is that it is way too simple to think that any president can just wave a magic wand and suddenly seal off the country's borders. Theresa Cardinal Brown works on immigration issues at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She served in the Bush and Obama administrations, and she thought this was a wild idea. Nobody has ever shut down the border. It has never happened. We did not shut down the border after 9-11. And legally, we are responsible for somebody the minute they step foot on U.S. soil, and each day walk up to the fence, they're on U.S. soil. And she's talking there about asylum law, and this is different than, you know, say a national security measure, because I've heard some Republicans try to equate an asylum ban at the southern border to the so-called Muslim travel ban that former President Trump put in place.

But what's going on at the southern border is different. It is an asylum issue. And, you know, the bipartisan bill that fell apart in Congress the other week would have given the president a new authority to declare an immigration emergency once a certain number of migrants had entered the country, but that was new. Now, didn't former President Trump kind of shut down the border during COVID? I guess under Title 42, if you're referring to that, that was a COVID era measure that barred migrants from coming in because of public health concerns. The Biden administration did keep that Trump rule around for a long time, but a court struck that down. Donald Trump also tried a transit ban. It prevented many migrants from getting asylum if they had passed through a number of countries on their way to the U.S. border. But that was also struck down by the courts. President Biden has also tried a version of that. And, you know, without getting, I think,

too far into the nitty gritty details, it is also being challenged in court. And I think that is one of the fundamental challenges of making immigration law via executive actions is it can get held up in the courts. So the president, though, is under a lot of political pressure to do something. Help doesn't seem to be coming from Congress. So can he take any unilateral steps? Well, I will say the White House says that it has not ruled out other possible changes. But I think there is a distinction, Lila, between what the president can do and what he, you know, will do politically. Because if he takes too tough of an approach, it could turn off some Democrats in an election year. Republicans will say that

he ought to build more of a border wall or reinstate the Trump-era policy known as Remain in Mexico that requires migrants to stay in Mexico until their court hearing date. But the key here is the U.S. government can't do that unilaterally. It needs Mexico's cooperation. Doris Meisner with the Migration Policy Institute worked on immigration in the Bill Clinton years. And she says the White House could try to evaluate the most recent asylum cases first, and they could also work more aggressively with countries to the south, including Mexico, to slow down the number of people showing up at the U.S. border. It's just not clear what the White House is considering next. But what is clear is that currently only 29 percent of Americans approve of how Biden is handling immigration. That's according to our latest NPR PBS NewsHour

Mayorist poll. And that means it'll be an issue that's top of mind for many voters heading into a presidential election. NPR's Asma Khalid. Thank you, Asma. You're welcome. The Kansas City Chiefs have done it again, winning the Super Bowl title for the second consecutive year. The Kansas City Chiefs fell behind, then pulled ahead, then fell behind, then won in overtime against the San Francisco 49ers. The final score was 25-22, and last night's game was not the only thing on fire. Usher rewound his greatest hits in Las Vegas with guest stars including Alicia Keys and Ludacris.

Taylor Swift made it home from Tokyo to cheer on Travis Kelsey, who was on the winning team. And Beyonce announced her latest album is coming next month. Wow. Joining us to talk about all of it is NPR's Stephen Thompson. Hi, Stephen. Hey, Lola. So let's begin with the halftime extravaganza. Usher's much-hyped and anticipated performance in celebration of R&B. He even had glitzy dance routines on roller skates. How do you think it went? Well, in a way, the halftime show felt like a microcosm of the game itself.

Chaotic early on, a few mishaps here and there, but by the end, you had something really exciting. The show had some audio issues, the camera work didn't always do it justice. But Usher is a great dancer and a hugely charismatic live performer. I don't love it when halftime shows pack in too many songs, and Usher's set had pieces of more than a dozen of them. But by the time he got to bangers like, yeah, and turned down for what, I was completely won over. So the other pop culture storyline leading up to the game was the big would she or wouldn't she.

And she did. After a show Saturday night in Japan, Taylor Swift made it back in time for the game and the NFL tweeted all about it. Did she steal the show? Well, in the run up to that game, you had all these people doing the math trying to figure out how Taylor Swift would get to Vegas. The whole vibe felt a lot like, you know how Norad will track Santa Claus on Christmas Eve? But she made it, and so we got lots of shots of her in a luxury box with Ice Spice and Lana Del Rey. They all seemed to be having a blast, and Taylor Swift herself got a nice moment celebrating with Kelsey on camera after the game. But anyone expecting, like, a marriage proposal or something, this was not the time for something like that.

Football is a team sport. So when they handed Kelsey a microphone, he focused on firing up the fans and singing Viva Las Vegas for what felt like an hour. Okay. Maybe you should leave the singing to Taylor Swift. Yeah, exactly. Queen B, Beyonce, also made news during a Verizon ad, right? Yes. Finally, a pop star stole the spotlight and it was not Taylor

Swift. So Verizon ran these ads about Beyonce breaking the internet and they ended with a line about dropping new music. And around the time those ads aired, Beyonce announced that she's putting out a new album. It's billed as Act Two, which refers to the Renaissance project she launched in 2022. She also released two songs last night, and both of those show off kind of a softer, more rootsy side. One is called 16 Carriages, and the other is called Texas Hold'em. Let's hear a little bit of that song. This ain't Texas. Ain't no Hold'em. So lay your cards down, down, down, down. I love that. Okay, so I obviously fell asleep because I host Morning Edition. I missed a lot of the ads. Any highlights? Any favorites?

Well, so many Super Bowl commercials are just a parade of famous faces, big stars, lots of spectacle. That can make it hard to stand out. There was a pair of anti-Tesla ads that urged viewers to boycott the car company over its self-driving technology. Those stood out just because they were so tonally different. And then going back to that sea of celebrities, Duncan went all in with a very silly ad starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and Matt Damon. I'll have to go watch that one. And Hollywood Studios rolled out major movie trailers during the Super Bowl.

Which one stood out? Well, we got our first look at a trailer for the first part of the movie adaptation of Wicked, which isn't out for nine and a half months. We're also getting a Twister sequel called Twisters. That's out in July. Thank goodness we have fewer than four weeks left to wait until the arrival of Kung Fu Panda 4. Kung Fu Panda 4 is my Super Bowl right now. NPR's Stephen Thompson, you can hear a full rundown of what happened last night beyond the game on the latest episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Layla.

And that's Up First for Monday, February 12th. I'm Layla Fawzid. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Krishnadev Kalamar, Andrew Sussman, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Ben Abrams, and Lily Quiroz. We get engineering support from Phil Edfors, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us tomorrow. And thanks for listening to Up First.

You can find more in-depth coverage of the stories we talked about today and lots more on NPR's Morning Edition, the radio show that Michelle Martin, A. Martinez, Steve, and I also host. Find Morning Edition on your local NPR station at stations.npr.org.