Up First from NPR - National Guard Portland, Gaza Talks In Egypt, SCOTUS Term Begins

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

A federal judge issues a late night order to stop President Trump’s latest attempt to deploy the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, warning the administration against efforts to get around court orders and the rule of law. In Egypt, Hamas and Israeli officials begin high-stakes talks that could end the war in Gaza and free dozens of hostages. And as the Supreme Court opens a new term, justices will take on major cases testing presidential power, birthright citizenship, and voting rights.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 Alina Hartounian, Kate Bartlett, Krishnadev Calamur, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher ThomasWe get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A federal judge blocked President Trump from deploying any National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. The judge stopped the administration from sidestepping an earlier decision by bringing troops from other states. I'm Michelle Martin. I'm here with Steve Inskeep, and this is up first from NPR News. A USP's proposal led to new talks this week aiming to end the war in Gaza. We will know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics. You heard Marco Rubio referred to technical talks. Hamas is expected to demand larger concessions

from Israel. Also, the Supreme Court opens a new term. The conservative majority delivered many temporary victories to President Trump, and now justices consider whether to make those rulings permanent. Stay with us. We've got 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. Support for this podcast comes from Dignity Memorial. For many families, remembering loved ones means honoring the details that made them unique. Dignity Memorial is dedicated to professionalism and compassion in every detail of a life celebration. Find a provider near you at DignityMemorial.com. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending any National Guard troops to Oregon. This second ruling from the same judge responds to an administration effort to send troops in from out of state. The drama is just one of the administration's efforts over the weekend to deploy. Troops into American cities. And Paris, Joe Hernandez is here to tell us more about this. Good morning, Joe. Good morning.

So first, could you just bring us up to date on this legal back and forth over sending National Guard to Portland? Yeah, so the Trump administration first tried to federalize the Oregon National Guard, which a judge temporarily blocked over the weekend. So the administration then tried to send the California National Guard to Oregon instead, which California's governor then criticized. The administration also called on the Texas National Guard to go to Portland and Chicago. But in a hearing late on Sunday, that same judge temporarily blocked the federalized guard troops coming from any state and going to Oregon. So Oregon governor Tina Kotech said the Trump administration, their plans to send in the California Guard, appeared to be an effort to circumvent that judge's first ruling. And California governor, Gavin Newsom, called Trump's sending the California Guard, quote,

a breathtaking abuse of the law and power. So this is all happening because the Trump administration says, the federal government needs to step in and help, quote, war-ravaged Portland. All right. So the administration is calling Portland war-ravaged. What do we know about what the situation is in the neighborhoods in the city in Portland? Well, both the Oregon governor and the mayor of Portland have said that its business as usual in the city. Now, there have been protests outside of ice facilities there recently, like in many places across the country. And an Oregon public broadcasting reporter was outside one ice facility

over the weekend and saw federal officers firing tear gas at protesters without. any signs of clear provocation. The federal judge who ruled on the case said those protests that have been occurring there over the summer have generally been small and capable of being handled by the local police in Portland. And then there's Chicago. President Trump has been threatening to send the National Guard there for weeks. What's happening with that situation? Right. And this one has been a long time coming. The administration federalized at least 300 members of the Illinois National Guard who would likely be sent to Chicago. Then late, Sunday, it also mobilized 400 members of the Texas National Guard. And that late Sunday revelation

led to an outcry from Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who said he was not told of those plans, and he called the troop movements, quote, Trump's invasion. A Pentagon memo reviewed by NPR says the Guard will be used there to protect federal law enforcement officials and federal property. Again, Trump has criticized what he's characterized as high crime rates and lawlessness in Chicago, and again, the Democratic leaders there say that's just not the case. Okay, so we've talked about Portland and we've talked about Chicago, but those are not the only cities the president has talked about centering federal forces to. What are some of the other areas that he's mentioned? New Orleans, Baltimore is one. And another area he's mentioned is Memphis, Tennessee.

Now, this place is unlike most of the others because that plan actually has the support of Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee. And there's actually a federal law enforcement crackdown underway in Memphis now, which officials say will include the National Guard. Trump clearly sees this as a strategy that he can use in cities across the country. That is. NPR's Joe Hernandez. Joe, thank you. You're welcome. These are dramatic days for the Middle East. Negotiators begin talks today in Egypt to try to finally end the war in Gaza.

The United States presented a peace plan. and Israel agreed. The talks are to make sure Hamas and Israel get on board with the details on the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. President Trump is asking everyone to, quote, move fast. NPR's Daniels, Daniels. Daniels, Daniels. Okay, they're told to move fast, but how quickly can we expect these negotiations to go? It could take longer than what Trump has been suggesting. The sides have to agree on a lot, including which Palestinian prisoners Israel will release. And Hamas is also saying that some of the dead hostages, in Gaza are buried under rubble and that it's going to take them time to exhum their bodies. Hamas is going to be coming to this negotiating table this week saying, Israel, you want

the hostages? We need more guarantees to make that happen. And they're likely to demand Israel withdraw its troops even farther than the line Israel already agreed to. They'll probably insist Israel halt all its fire while they're locating the hostages. So we expect Hamas to seek

maximal concessions. Israel to seek minimal concessions. Israel to seek minimal concession. and it's going to be up to the U.S. and the mediating countries to bridge all of it. Okay, so granting that this may not end this week. We seem to be getting closer to some kind of conclusion. What has pushed the warring parties to this point? Israel's strike targeting Hamas mediators in Qatar last month really was the pivotal moment.

It angered President Trump. Qatar, of course, is his close ally. And he got Arab countries on board with his peace plan. So this united front that they presented put Israel and Hamas in a corner. Trump brought Israel on board, and Hamas calculated its standing. It knows it's losing militarily in Gaza. It's losing more territory with Israeli troops advancing in Gaza City. It needs relations with Arab countries if it wants any kind of future role in Palestinian life.

And Trump is now showing a real desire to end the war. We know he wants a Nobel Peace Prize. and that's going to be announced this Friday, who gets that prize. But Hamas saw the opportunity now to negotiate something with Trump, with the others, maybe to negotiate something in its favor. And I think that's why Hamas has finally agreed to do things that they had been giving a flat no to before. They've agreed to release all the hostages up front. They're even beginning to signal flexibility about giving up their weapons.

Are people on the ground hopeful? They are, which is really an amazing thing to say. In Gaza, scores of people have been killed in Israeli strikes just in recent days. And still, there are voices of hope. Our reporter in Gaza, NPR's Anas Baba, met a 31-year-old man, Muhammad Nassar, who had fled an Israeli air strike the very night before Hamas announced it was willing to release the 48 hostages. And here's what he said.

Well, my far, Hamas, and there's been Hamas, and whofgued, al-Handulah, He said if he felt unbelievable joy and that it gave us a glimmer of hope, Hamas' response, that maybe the war would finally come to an end. And in Israel, we are hearing similar voices from families of hostages. They're actually camped outside Prime Minister Netanyahu's home. They want to keep the pressure on him. They're full of nerves, but they finally are allowing themselves to hope.

NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much, sir. You're welcome. In this country, the Supreme Court opens a new term today. The cases are hugely consequential and focused in large part on how much power the Constitution gives to the president. NPR legal affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg, has covered the Supreme Court for decades and it's here once again. Hi there, Nina. Hi there, Steve.

What are you expecting? Well, we have a ton of issues. On the court's docket, there's a case that could end what's left of the Landmark Voting Rights Act, a case that could do away with one of the few remaining laws that limits campaign fundraising, there's a serious challenge to the Trump tariffs, and there are all the cases that involve quite literally the structure of the federal government. There are social issues, too, for instance, whether states can bar transgender female students from playing on women's sports teams in schools. It's a lot.

There have been constant news stories involving the Supreme Court all through the second Trump administration, almost daily it sometimes seems. But give us the overall view. How active has the court's six to three conservative majority been? In just eight months, the court has broken all records for granting the president's wishes on its emergency docket. By the end of last week, the court had 20 times granted Trump's request to block lower court orders opposed by the administration. In contrast, the court ruled against the administration in these emergency cases just three times. Okay, although I guess we should note the court will say these rulings are temporary. A final and fuller argument is still to come. Correct. That's because the court did not hear arguments in these cases, nor was there full briefing. Instead, as befitting the, quote, emergency title, the court simply made a temporary decision. But in most cases, it gave no explanation at all for the ruling.

And some of these cases will now come back for full briefing and arguments, and an actual real decision will happen in these cases, and it could be different from the emergency order. At the same time, though, in many of the cases where the court intervened quickly, the temporary intervention was a death knell for the case. Think the education department. It's already decimated. The Trump takeover of private social security records, that's complete. Tens of thousands of expert federal workers have been dismissed from the National Weather Service, from FEMA, and from the National Institutes of Health, just to name a few of the affected agencies. And yet, is it correct that some of these cases nevertheless come back for the full arguments for a final decision in the coming months? Absolutely.

Coming soon is likely to be the unanswered question from last term. Did President Trump exceed his authority when he issued an executive order to? to undo the constitutional provision that guarantees automatic citizenship for every child born in the United States. Now, with that said, do you feel there's a case that looms above all others? You know, it's hard to say which cases are the most important, but this term, there are a bunch of them that strike at the heart of how the government is structured. And first and foremost is the status of independent regulatory agencies, which typically have a majority of commissioners from the President's Party, and a minority from the other party. And although Trump didn't try to get rid of these agencies

or their commissioners in his first term, he's been doing that almost since day one of his second term, and the Supreme Court has allowed him to do that, at least so far, to fire people, while at the same time strongly suggesting that the Federal Reserve Board governors are different somehow. Ah, and you remind me this is one of Trump's few losses in the temporary rulings or emergency rulings,

and that is that a Fed governor gets to keep her job for now. Yes. Nina, thanks so much. Thank you, Steve. That's NPR's Nina Totenberg. We're also following the government shutdown in its sixth day. Democrats and Republicans are dug in. Democrats, you will recall, want to extend health care tax credits

that expire at the end of this year, while Republicans say they can talk about that later. Speaker Mike Johnson says he will not bring the House back into session at all until Democrats give ground. President Trump said the firing of federal employees is taking place right now, although his administration does not provide in any details of that. If you want to hear more coverage of the shutdown, tune into Morning Edition, the radio show that Michelle and Leila and A. Martinez and I host. It's on your local station or at the NPRF.

And that's up first for this Monday, October. Super 6th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. Do you love starting your day with Up First? Yes. You are part of the reason it exists. So support this show and the journalist in your community at donate.npr.org slash Up First. Today's Up First was edited by Alina Hartunian, Kate Bartlett, Christian Def Kalimer,

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