Up First from NPR - Red Lines in Gaza, a Senator on Trial, Geomagnetic Storm

Episode Date: May 11, 2024

The State Department releases a highly critical report on Israel's conduct in Gaza. The trial of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey begins next week. And a solar storm is creating beautiful auroras in the sky but may also disrupt the power grid.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm sorry I stepped on you, Scott. You were doing wonderful. No, no, no. It's fine. They like it when you step on me. They want you to kick me, in fact. The State Department says it's reasonable to assess that Israel has violated international humanitarian laws in the Gaza War. But it doesn't draw any final or sweeping conclusions about the conduct of the country's security forces. I'm Aisha Roscoe.

And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News. The first of its kind assessment is not expected to halt continued U.S. military support for Israel. We'll have more on that report and how presidents try to draw red lines about unacceptable wartime actions. Also, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey stands trial next week on corruption charges. And how the biggest solar storm in two decades is affecting life here on Earth. So please stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend. We'll be right back. The report on Israel's wartime conduct comes after pressure from some Democratic members of Congress. They question whether the U.S. should continue to supply weapons to the country given the high civilian casualty toll in Gaza. We're joined now by NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myrie.

Greg, thanks for being with us. Hi, Scott. The State Department report on Friday was related to a red line that President Biden has raised about Israel's conduct of the war. What did it say? So the report was critical of Israeli military actions that have led to the high Palestinian civilian death toll. And a key line in the report said, quote, it's reasonable to assess that Israel has violated international humanitarian law. Now, it didn't reach any sweeping final conclusions, but it does reflect President Biden's increasing frustration with the way Israel is operating in Gaza. And back in March, Scott, Biden was asked if a big Israeli offensive in Rafah, the city on the southern edge of Gaza, was crossing a red line. And he said it was.

And the U.S. did say just this week that it is withholding more than 3,000 bombs for Israel and warning that additional aid could be stopped as well. Israel did take over a border crossing in Rafah this week on the frontier with Egypt. This is seen as a limited action so far, but it could just be the first stage of a broader offensive in Rafah. The U.S. and Israel have had disagreements over some past Israeli military operations. How did other U.S. presidents respond when they felt Israel had crossed the line? Yeah, we have had multiple cases over the years. President Reagan withheld U.S. military support on a few occasions, though briefly, in the 1980s, and this was related

to Israeli military actions. President George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees over Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the early 1990s. The settlements have continued to grow over the years, despite opposition from successive U.S. administrations. So in these cases, we see that U.S. pressure didn't really seem to have much impact. But over the past couple decades, we've seen U.S. presidents tell Israel when they thought it was time to wind up military operations in Gaza, usually after a couple weeks of fighting, and the Israelis did respond and pull back. We'll have to see this time. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying he's going to resist pressure from anywhere and everywhere, and that includes the

White House. Greg, what's happened in the past when the U.S. sets a red line, not for an ally, but a rival? Yeah, the results, I would say, have been mixed at best. There was an incident back in 2012. President Obama warned the Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, not to use chemical weapons against his own people in the Syrian civil war, but he did. That really put Obama on the spot. What was he going to do about this red line that he had laid out? His administration did consider airstrikes, but decided against it, and he then faced a lot of criticism for not acting. This is often cited as an example of the risk of setting a red line and not following through. It's a little bit like

telling your kid kid you better behave or else, and there needs to be an or else. What about cases where a red line is set, either formally or informally, and it has been successful in preventing something? Yeah, there are examples. Red lines can be an effective form of deterrence. NATO is marking its 75th anniversary this year. It famously has Article 5, which says an attack against one NATO member is an attack against all. And this has protected NATO countries quite well for generations. Another current example, the U.S. has warned China not to invade Taiwan. This has also held up for 75 years, though it's obviously a central part of the current national

security debate. Can the U.S. warnings keep China from acting against Taiwan? And what should the U.S. do if China does act? And here's Greg Myrie. Thanks so much. Sure thing, Scott. Senator Bob Menendez is headed to trial next week. It's the second time he's faced federal corruption charges. The first trial, seven years ago, ended in a hung jury. This time he's accused of accepting bribes in return for taking actions to benefit Egypt and Qatar. Nancy Solomon of member station WNYC has been following the case. Thanks so much for being with us. Hi. How do federal prosecutors plan to lay out their case? Well, you know,

the indictment details what's really a sprawling conspiracy that claims Senator Menendez and his wife Nadine took bribes from three New Jersey businessmen. It alleged that Menendez, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, convinced the U.S. government to sell Egypt weapons despite concerns about human rights violations. And to raise money for bribes, Menendez helped an Egyptian-born businessman at the center of this scheme to get a monopoly to certify all halal meat exports to Egypt. And there's an obstruction of justice charge for allegedly interfering with the prosecution of two businessmen who are also charged in the scheme. Prosecutors say the bribes involve gold bars and a Mercedes convertible. Yeah. The FBI raided the Menendez home in June of 2022, and they also

searched a bank safety deposit box. They found 22 gold bars and stacks of cash hidden around the house, including in the pocket of a bomber jacket that had the senator's name embroidered on it. And they also found a trove of texts and emails on their computers and phones. At one point, it appears that Nadine Medendez was mad that she hadn't been paid for one of these favors and asked the senator what she should do. He told her, you should not text or email. I spoke with Jessica Roth, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Cardozo School of Law. She says the texts, particularly the ones the couple tried to delete, are going to be hard to explain away. And the fact that many of them were encrypted suggests

that there was some sense of culpability on the part of the participants that they were trying to keep these messages hidden. Menendez has said he's innocent. What do we know about his defense strategy? Yeah, it's looking like we might get a he said, she said defense. He and his wife have split the trial. So Senator Menendez will be tried first, and then Nadine will have her own separate trial. Based on some court filings, the expectation is that he's going to throw her under the bus and say it was all her doing, and he didn't understand what she was up to. And then when Nadine goes on trial, she will say it was all him. But by that time, her husband's trial will be over and that verdict already in. One of the interesting things about this whole story is that Nadine and Bob Menendez started dating in 2018, right after his first corruption trial. That's the one that accused him of accepting bribes from a Florida eye doctor and ended in a hung jury. And very soon after, she introduced him to the Egyptian-born businessman, the one who got the monopoly on halal exports. And what you really see from all the texts quoted

in the indictment is Nadine really pushing for these deals and fighting to get paid. And when you read all the texts between her and Senator Menendez, it's hard to imagine how either of them didn't understand what was going on. But we haven't heard their side of the story yet. Nancy Solomon of Member Station WNYC, thank you for speaking with us. Thanks. The strongest solar storm in over 20 years is underway. If you're lucky, you've already seen it creating beautiful light shows in the sky. But the sunstorms can also disrupt electrical power on Earth. We're joined now by astrophysicist Regina Barber, host of NPR Science Podcast Shortwave.

Regina, thanks for being with us. Thank you. I'm excited. Well, I guess I am too, although I haven't seen it yet. What have I missed? Yeah, me neither. I was a little too south, but there's the solar storm, and it arrived last night, and it gave a lot of people a pretty good show. I've been seeing images popping up on social media of

people in Europe and London, Spain, even images from like Florida, even as south as Alabama that saw these northern lights. My sister was sending me images from Washington State and they're gorgeous. I'm really sad that I missed it. What's going on on the surface of the sun? So basically this is happening because the sun's magnetic field, it has a magnetic field like earth, but it goes through these like 11 year cycles and it's approaching its solar maximum like right now. It'll approach the maximum in 2025. And what NOAA saw, which is the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, they saw that there were these massive sunspots. There was a group of them, like a cluster of them, and they were 17 times the diameter of Earth. And these sunspots, they're these cooler parts on the sun

surface. They're related to its magnetic field getting tangled up. But what happens with the sun's magnetic field, that tangling can unwind and eject stuff, sun's stuff towards us. Those are called coronal mass ejections. And they kind of look like these huge loops. And here's heliophysicist India Jackson. Those loops are full of plasma that can rain down back on to the sun

and are typically associated with magnetic field lines. And then those field lines, they get twisted up and knotted up and then they break, they pop, and then it spits out all of those high energy particles that hurtle towards us. And we have to prepare for those things to come. And she says sometimes these ejections are accompanied by like bright flares of light on the sun's surface. And that's what NOAA saw on Wednesday in addition to those sunspots. And that kicked off this severe geomagnetic storm.

And as of now, NOAA thinks there are like several of these coronal mass ejections that came towards Earth. Regina, that doesn't sound very comforting. There could be some side effects, right? Yeah, so basically these chunks of sun coming at us can disrupt the Earth's magnetic field and it can cause some problems. And it creates electricity along very long power lines.

It can cause this extra electricity to happen in power grids, and that can kind of mess them up. So here's Jackson again. Now, when it comes to the power grids, the primary concern is the geomagnetically induced currents that can cause overload circuits and that can lead to blackouts. That sounds serious, is it? Yeah, well, I mean, this storm was severe. It was G4, and then it actually peaked at a G5 last night. G5 is the highest on NOAA's scale. It's come back down to a G4. The last time this happened was in 2003, and it did disrupt power grids in Sweden and transformers in South Africa, but I haven't heard of anything yet being disrupted now. Also, NOAA does issue these

alerts so that it can like warn satellite controllers and like power grid operators. So they are prepared. For now, it like seems like the most intense part has passed though. So basically you can just kind of enjoy the Northern Lights. It won't be as intense as it was last night. But if, let's say, you know, there is a power outage, you'll be able to see the Northern Lights if you're pretty far up north. Well, I think I'll look forward to that. Regina Barber with NPR Science Podcast Shortwave, thanks so much. Thank you. And that's up first for Saturday, May 11th, 2024. I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon. Danny Hensel produced today's podcast with help from Andrew Craig and Gabe O'Connor. Michael Radcliffe directed. Podcasts been edited by Andrew Sussman, Rebecca Ramirez,

Kelsey Snell, and Matthew Sherman. Our technical director is Hannah Glovna, with engineering support from Misha Hynes, David Greenberg, and Carly Strange. E.B. Stone is our senior supervising editor, Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer, and Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday Story podcast, former Morning Edition host Rachel Martin joins me to talk about her new podcast, Wildcard, part interview, part existentialist game show. What's an existentialist game show? I'd like, is this a game show or is it not a game show? It's a lot of fun. You're a contestant. All right. Let me try something on you. Ready? Try, try. Sorry, sorry.

What is the greatest weekend morning news show on Earth? Weekend Edition. Oh, my gosh. That's correct. Whatever that is. And if you don't know your NPR station, you can listen to us live. You can find it at stations.npr.org. Thank you.