Up First from NPR - Minneapolis Shooting Latest, New Acting CDC Director, North Korean Leader to Beijing

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

The father of the eight-year-old boy who has killed in the shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis has spoken publicly about his son. A top advisor to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been selected to serve as acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, the leaders of North Korea, China and Russia will gather together for the first time at a Chinese military parade in Beijing next week.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 Daniel Burke, Diane Webber, Kate Bartlett, Lisa Thomson and Adam Bearne. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.And our special thanks to our colleagues at WWNO for hosting us this week, especially operations director Garrett Pittman and news director Ryan Vasquez.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The father of a boy who was killed in the Minneapolis shooting has spoken publicly for the first time. Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life. We're learning more about both children whose lives were taken. I'm Michelle Martin. That's Laila Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed an acting director to run the CDC following the purge and resignations of a number of top officials. You can be a great administrator, but you do need to at least have a knowledge of how you'd handle an outbreak or an emerging pathogen. How one expert who resigned from the CDC this week views the appointment.

And the leaders of North Korea, Russia, and China will gather for the first time in Beijing next week for a military parade to mark the end of World War II. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. On the TED Radio Hour podcast, tech CEO Victor Rip Ourbelly says that in the future, AI avatars will be teaching our kids. They will equalize the world of education. Everyone will get their own private tutor, no matter if you're rich or poor. Hey there, learner. I'm Professor Cadence Hartman. I promise I got some interesting stuff.

How AI is shaping education. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. There is so much happening in politics in any given week. You might need help putting it all in person. perspective. As your week draws to a close, join the NPR Politics Podcast team for our weekly roundup. Here, our best political reporters zoom into the biggest stories of the week, not just what they mean, but what they mean for you, all in under 30 minutes. Listen to the weekly roundup every Friday on the NPR Politics Podcast. We now know the names of the two children who were

shot and killed Wednesday at Annunciation Church and Catholic School. Ten-year-old Harper, Lillian, and eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel lost their lives in the pews of the church at a mass to celebrate the first week of school. In his first public statement, Fletcher's father, Jesse Merkel, asked that we remember his child for who he was, not how he died. Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking, and any sport that he was allowed to play. Joining us from Minneapolis is NPR's Jason DeRose. Good morning, Jason. Hello. So, Jason, Jesse Merkel, said this would be his only statement on his son's death. What did he want people to know about Fletcher?

Well, in addition to what Fletcher loved fishing and cooking and sports, his father wanted to make sure people understand the depth of the family's loss. We will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man. He was on the path to becoming. His son was just eight years old in third grade, and he had an entire life in front of him. And he said not only was Fletcher deprived of his life, but the shooter deprived the whole school, the whole community, the whole world of the person Fletcher could have become. You can hear the depths of the grief in his voice.

Now, in addition to what Jesse Merkel wanted people to know about his son, what does he want people to do in the aftermath of the shooting? Well, he really focused on not allowing his son's death to be the defining characteristic of his life. We ask not for your sympathy, but your empathy. As our family and the Annunciation community grieve and try to make sense of such a senseless act of violence. Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life. We love you, Fletcher. You will always be with us. And Merkel said he really hopes his family and the school and the church community will be able to eventually heal from the loss, not forget the loss, but heal from it. And what do we know about the 10-year-old girl who also was killed during that mass? What do we know about her? Well, her name, as you said, is Harper-Lillian Moiske, according to the county medical examiner here.

She was just starting fifth grade, and she had a lot of friends. Michael Burt's daughters is one of those friends. He says his daughter had so many fond memories of the two of them together. My daughter was telling me stories as we were going to bed last night of sleepovers they've had and goofiness of fifth grade girls, fourth grade girls last year just makeup gone wrong and staying up late and watching movies. Bert says he wants to help his daughter keep the memory of her friend alive. And Jason, what is the latest on what law enforcement has learned

about the shooter. Well, police say 23-year-old Robin Westman attended Enunciation Church where the killing took place and attended the Catholic school there as well when they were younger. The shooter's mother had been employed at the school until a few years ago. Authorities have not identified a specific grievance against the church or the school. They've reviewed surveillance video at the church and say it shows that the shooter did not enter the building. The sanctuary doors were locked during the mass, which they say is the normal practice there. Police say the shooter had no criminal history and no other incidents that would have put them in law enforcement's radar.

And they say there's no evidence that the shooter was radicalized, but did have a fascination with mass violence. That's NPR's Jason DeRose joining us from Minneapolis. Thank you for your reporting, Jason. You're welcome. A top advisor to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been selected to serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The announcement comes after Susan Menares was forced out of the job after less than a month. Her attorneys say it's because she, quote, refused to rubber stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, unquote.

Several other top leaders at CDC then resigned in protest. For more on the shakeup. NPR health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin is here to explain. Good morning, Selena. Morning, Lila. So what have you found out about the soon-to-be acting director of CDC? His name is Jim O'Neill that was first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by NPR. He's currently serving as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s deputy at HHS. He previously served various roles at HHS under President George W. Bush. But since then, he's mostly run investment funds for billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. He has expressed very strong libertarian views,

including, for instance, that FDA should just put medicine out on the market and let consumers assume the risks. And he's also said he thinks people should be able to be compensated for donating human organs to help incentivize more supply. Here he is in an online video making that point in a speech in 2009. Eleven people every day die while waiting for a kidney, that could save their life. And there are plenty of healthy spare kidneys walking around unused. It's notable that he is not a physician or a scientist. Susan Menares, who was Senate confirmed as CDC director, has a doctorate in microbiology. And most CDC directors through the decades have had medical degrees. Okay, so he really has no medical background. She does. And the three

CDC officials who resigned in protest over the director's removal were all medical doctors. Were you able to talk to them about why they left? Yeah, you know, I spoke to one of the people who resigned yesterday. Her name is Deb Howry. She was CDC's chief medical officer. She said that it became clear very quickly after Minores was sworn in and started working at CDC that she wasn't going to be able to implement her policy ideas on vaccines. And Howary felt she couldn't be part of the agency if Kennedy was going to let anti-science activists run the show. She was in touch with two center directors who felt that. the same. So on Wednesday, when news reports started coming out, that Minaras was being fired. We said, okay, this is our time. And we decided to do it together because when a single senior leader leaves, you know, it gets a little blip. But for us, we care about the agency and the people. And this is the way we could make that strong statement. And what was her reaction to the naming of Jim O'Neill as the next acting director? Well, Howard told me he has

been to CDC. He came with Secretary Kennedy to Atlanta after the shooting that happened there earlier this month. She has concerns about the fact that he's not a physician or scientist. You can be a great administrator, but you do need to at least have a knowledge of how you'd handle an outbreak or an emerging pathogen. It's unclear how long O'Neill will be serving in the acting role, but the next director will have to go through the Senate confirmation process, which often takes months. Okay, let's talk about that. I mean, what is the role of Congress here? Could lawmakers step in? Well, several Democratic lawmakers have called for Kennedy to be fired over all of this. They're, of course, in the minority in both houses of Congress.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy is a key figure. He is a physician from Louisiana who chairs the Health Committee and strongly supports vaccines. He voted to confirm Kennedy after promises he would maintain federal vaccine policies, which is not what Kennedy has done. Cassidy said this week that his committee will conduct oversight of these CDC resignations, although he's yet to confirm that there'll be a hearing about it. That's NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thank you, Selena. You're welcome.

China will stage an elaborate military parade next Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Topping the guest list will be the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader. Kim Jong-un. While dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the event, President Trump is not one of them. To help us preview, the big event. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul. Good morning, Anthony. Morning leader. Okay, so this is the first time ever the leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea will meet. What can we expect from the meeting? Yeah, it's not only the first meeting of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un. It's a meeting of the three nations leaders that we didn't even see during the Cold War. So I think we can expect some pretty striking images

of these three men atop the roster of in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. In terms of concrete cooperation, there's been some. Russia and China have, for example, helped North Korea defeat international sanctions. China and North Korea have helped Russia to differing degrees in its war in Ukraine, but they don't have three-way military drills, they don't have any three-way offices or institutions. It's a loose coalition in this parade will tighten this. somewhat. Also, all three of these nations fought fascist powers in World War II. Russia now claims it's once again fighting fascists in Ukraine, and North Korea agrees with them, so they're at least trying to link the past and present in some sort of narrative. Okay, so President Trump won't be

in attendance. Who will be? There'll be heads of state and government from 26 nations. Many are aligned with North Korea and China and Russia, such as Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, and Myanmar. The Serbian president and the Slovak Prime Minister are the only Western leaders there. Also, South Korea's president will be notably absent, but I guess if Kim wants to reach out to South Korea, their parliamentary speaker will be there for him to speak to. Now, this is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's first big multilateral event. How will he approach it? Well, historically, North Korea's main ally has been China, but Kim Jong-un has recently drawn closer to Vladimir Putin, signing a mutual defense treaty last year with Russia, sending some 12,000 troops to help them fight

Ukraine. But with peace talks now beginning, Kim may be starting to look past Ukraine. I spoke about this with Asia Society senior fellow John DeLurie, and here's what he said. We can certainly read this as Kim Jong-un realizing, okay, I can't put all my eggs in the Russian basket. And again, need to kind of improve the ties with China, but also looking beyond China at Donald Trump and see what may be in play with the Americans. Remember that Trump met with Kim three times in 2018 to 2019. He says he'd like to meet with Kim again this year. And if that happens, Kim will be in a stronger position with Moscow and Beijing's backing. Okay. What message is China looking to send at this event? Well, they're positioning themselves as leader of a multipolar alternative to the U.S.

led order. They'll be rolling a lot of military hardware through Tiananmen Square. And they'll be highlighting their contribution as being on the right side and the winning side of World War II, where they suffered 35 million people killed and wounded. And that's a message they can send both domestically and internationally. That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn. Thank you for your reporting, Anthony. You're welcome. And that's up first for Friday, August 29th. I'm Lela Faldon. And I'm Michelle Martin. If you've been traveling lately, you've probably seen some people going straight to the front of the line at airport security.

I had, like, angry clouds darkening over my head. I was just sort of, like, starting to fume. This Sunday on Up First, we'll take a closer look at how the private sector has muscled in on what used to be the government's job. Listen to the Sunday's story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Daniel Burke, Diane Weber, Kate Bartlett, Lisa Thompson, and Adam Bearn. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher

Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shalert. And our special thanks to our colleagues at WWNO for hosting us this week, especially Operations Director Garrett Pittman and News Director Ryan Vosquez. We hope you'll join us again on Monday.