Up First from NPR - South Korea Martial Law, Transgender Rights Case, French Government Collapse

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

South Korea's president shocked the nation when he tried to declare martial law and now he faces impeachment charges. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a Tennessee law that bans gender affirming hormone treatments for minors. The French government is on the brink of collapse as the Prime Minister faces a vote of no-confidence. Join the new NPR Plus Bundle to support our work and get perks like sponsor-free listening and bonus episodes across more than 25 NPR podcasts. 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 Miguel Macias, Krishnadev Calamur, Nick Spicer, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Klein. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Wait, you want me to say morning? I'm not saying morning. He doesn't like to say good morning because no morning is good to A. Martinez. Hey everybody, it's A. Martinez here with Leila Fadl. Now if you missed Giving Tuesday, it's not... You gotta start again. I start laughing. Hey everybody! Hello everyone, it's A. Martinez here with Leila Fadl. Now if you missed Giving Tuesday, it's not too late to show your love for public media and up first. The easiest way to support the independent news coverage you rely on is to join NPR Plus. Now if you missed Giving Tuesday, it's not too late to show your love for public media and Up First. The easiest way to support the independent news coverage you rely on is to join NPR+. When you sign up for a simple recurring donation, you support NPR's mission of creating a more

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He failed and now he faces impeachment. I'm Leila Fadl, that's Amy Martinez and this is Up First from NPR News. Transgender rights comes before the Supreme Court today. The justices hear a challenge to a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming hormone treatment for minors. We regulate a number of different types of medical procedures. What are the arguments before the court?

And the French government may collapse in the hours ahead. The country's prime minister of just three months faces a no-confidence vote. Why are the far left and the far right joining forces to oust this conservative figure? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. Lately on the NPR Politics Podcast, we're talking about a big question. How much can one guy change? They want change. What will change look like for energy?

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You might have heard this song on TikTok blow up this summer. I'm looking for a man in finance. Trust fund. On It's Been a Minute, we're asking the big questions about dating. Like, is it okay to date with money in mind? And what are we really looking for from a man in finance? To find out, listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR. Tis the season for rich meals, twinkly lights, and New Year's resolutions. At LifeKit, NPR's self-help podcast, we're here to help you make those resolutions less of a December and January thing and more like a year-long affair. We've got shows that'll help you draw up plans to meet your goals, whatever they are.

Get the tools you need all year round with the Life Kit Podcast from NPR. In South Korea, opposition politicians have submitted a motion to impeach the president. This is after the president's failed attempt to put the country under martial law. It's the first such attempt since South Korea went from military rule to democracy in 1987, and it caught its citizens and main ally, the U.S., by surprise. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul. Anthony, this happened really fast within the course of a day or so. How did it all start?

It began when President Yoon Song-yeol declared martial law late Tuesday evening and he explained to the public that opposition politicians who control parliament are paralyzing the government. They're subverting democracy and they're aligned with North Korea. But lawmakers in parliament unanimously voted to demand Yoon to cancel martial law, which he then did, as he's required to do by the constitution. Yoon's top aides have offered to resign en masse, so is his defense secretary. And opposition lawmakers plan to put the impeachment motion to a vote in parliament as early as Friday or Saturday. So very fast moving. So what was President Yun trying to accomplish with all this?

Well, Yun was elected president by a razor thin margin in 2022. And since then, he's struggled to get his policies and his budgets through parliament. Opposition politicians have impeached his appointees. They've hounded his wife over several scandals. But does that justify martial law? Well, I talked about this with Benjamin Engel, who's a political scientist and a visiting professor at Dungook University just outside Seoul. And here's how he says he talked about it with his colleagues. I have also been calling it a coup or a self-coup and I don't think there's really any other way to see it with the Declaration of Martial Law. We

got that decree that basically outlawed democracy. So a self-coup basically means that Yoon was democratically elected president but in order to hang on to and increase his power he tried to roll back civil liberties. Okay so why didn't this work out like he wanted it to? Well the declaration of martial law said that parliament was suspended, protests were banned, media was subject to censorship, and anyone who resisted could be arrested. But neither police nor military effectively enforced it. So the attempt to impose martial law was basically defeated within a matter of hours.

And you know, people here have just expressed such disbelief that such a thing could happen in South Korea in 2024 because martial law was declared several times before 1987 when South Korea was under military rule. Today, South Koreans are far more skeptical of any attempt to deprive them of their rights in the name of a communist threat, and they're not afraid to protest in the streets and demonstrations are planned or ongoing in Seoul and other cities. I saw that the US embassy in Seoul warned US citizens to be careful and avoid big crowds. What else are they saying about this?

Well the US embassy said on X that Yoon's announcement to end martial law is a crucial step and that implies that imposing it in the first place was not a good idea. But they didn't say that. And given the importance of South Korea as an ally, such comments will probably stay behind closed doors. South Korea hosts 28,000 US troops. They're building factories in the US to make high-tech goods. And they're supposed to be part of a US-led coalition of like-minded democracies.

So the logic here may be that publicly criticizing South Korea might give like-minded dictatorship something to celebrate. All right, that's NPR's Anthony Kuhn in Seoul. Anthony, thanks. You're welcome, A. During this year's election, gender-affirming care for transgender minors was a big issue among voters. Today, that battle over access to this form of healthcare goes before the Supreme Court. Joining us to discuss is NPR Legal Affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg.

So Nina, what's at the center of this case? Well, fully half the country, 25 states, have enacted laws that ban or limit gender-affirming care for minors. In today's case, three Tennessee families are challenging the state bans on puberty blockers, hormones, and other treatments for kids whose gender doesn't align with their sex at birth. The trans kids and their parents contend that the law unconstitutionally discriminates based on sex because the banned medications

are perfectly legal when used to treat other conditions in minors, conditions that range from chronic diseases like endometriosis to early or late onset puberty. The ACLU's Chase Strangio is going to be making that argument in the Supreme Court today. He's the first openly trans lawyer to argue before the justices. This is the government of Tennessee displacing the decision-making of loving parents with the recommendations of doctors. And at the end of the day, this law is tailored to one and only one interest, which is to enforce Tennessee's preference that adolescents conform to their birth sex.

Jack Johnson, who introduced the law that's at issue today, counters that the state is charged with regulating medical care in the state. We regulate a number of different types of medical procedures, and we felt like this was the best public policy to prevent kids from suffering from irreversible consequences, things that cannot be undone. But Nina, where is the medical profession on all this? You know, in this country, all the major medical organizations that deal with this are on the side of providing treatments

for kids, but with lots of guardrails. But the critics of these treatments say that the science is very unsettled in its long-term implications. And here, for instance, is what Senator Johnson said. You've got countries in Western Europe that were far ahead of us in terms of these surgeries and these types of medications. They are pulling back because they've had a longer runway, and they're seeing that the

adverse effects of some of these medications far outweigh any benefit that they have. Is what Johnson is saying there true? Well, partially. Some Western European and Scandinavian countries have been at this longer and have cut back on providing this care. But I'm unaware of any country banning gender dysphoria treatments for kids who are already under this sort of care. And I should note also that in Europe, a lot of these treatments are restricted

to research environments. But remember that these are countries that have national healthcare systems, so they can track how this works out for people at every stage of their lives. And the definition of a research environment may be broader than it is in this country. So it sounds like a lot of this is still in dispute, right?

You betcha. Just to give you an example from my own reporting, one of the parents I interviewed said that in Tennessee, the law bars doctors from even having discussions with kids and their parents about this. And he said, that was the case at Vanderbilt University, which has been a center for treating gender dysphoria. Now, when I asked Senator Johnson about this, he said that certainly wasn't the intent

of this bill. And when I called Vanderbilt, it took the institution three days to reply. And what did they say? No comment. That's NPR's Nina Totenberg. Thank you so much, Nina. You're welcome. The French government could fall later today. That's if no confidence motions brought by the far left and the far right get the votes needed

to pass in the lower house of parliament. The two extremes hold the largest voting blocks in the country's fragmented legislature. The prime minister, who has been in power less than three months, could become one of the shortest lived in French history. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley joins us now for more on what this means. Eleanor, what's going on in France? Well, a prime minister, Michel Barnier, could be ousted, which means his government would fall. Could happen as soon as later today, if the parliament approves the no-confidence motions

brought by the far left and far right. At issue is the 2025 budget, which attempts to address France's spiraling deficit. Barnier pushed it through parliament this week using an emergency clause. He didn't hold a vote because he doesn't have the votes, but he met with party heads to take into account their input. He said he made as many concessions as he could. He told the French on TV last night that it was the best deal possible.

Okay. Now how are the different coalitions responding? Well the far left, France Unbowed party has been saying for weeks it would punish him if he used this clause to pass the bill. This leftist coalition hates the budget. They want to lower the minimum retirement age back down to 62. They also seem to want to blow up the system, say analysts, and they've even called for President Macron, who they accuse of acting like a monarch, to resign so new presidential elections can be held to end this crisis. But Barnier thought he could succeed because Marine LePen, head of the far-right National Rally Party, has been acting stateswoman-like and said

she would stand by the government until she changed her mind over the weekend. So now the extremes who can't stand each other are joining forces to bring down a more centrist prime minister. Okay, so then how did the French parliament end up with two extremes in control? Well, you many blame President Emmanuel Macron. You might remember that over the summer, he called surprise snap parliamentary elections when the far right did so well in EU parliament elections.

He said he wanted French voters to clarify things. It was a big gamble. He didn't have to do it. And he lost his relative majority and a leftist coalition got the most votes in those elections, but no group has a majority. The parliament is basically split between three mutually detesting blocks, the far left center and far right. And what interior Mr. Bruno Rettagio said in parliament yesterday sums up what many people feel. Let's listen.

He said some on the extremes are playing out the destiny of France and the French people with a game of Russian roulette. Alright, so what are the consequences possibly? Well, if the Prime Minister and his government falls, President Macron will have to name someone else. And it took him three months to find the conciliatory Barnier, who by the way was the Brexit negotiator between Britain and the European Union. So Macron thought he would be able to make deals between French parliamentarians.

Macron cannot try to change the makeup of the parliament because he has to wait a year before calling another election. It plunges France, the Eurozone's second largest economy, into uncertainty and turmoil at crucial time with a war raging in Ukraine and President-elect Donald Trump about to take power. And one more thing really quick, what has Macron said? Well, speaking from Saudi Arabia, he says he has confidence that parliament will fulfill their responsibility to the nation and he said he certainly won't resign.

All right, that's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley. Eleanor, thanks. You're welcome. And that's a first for Wednesday, December 4th, I'm Amay Martinez. And I'm Leila Faldel. For your next listen, consider, consider this from NPR. President-elect Trump hasn't yet announced plans to wall himself off from his businesses while in office.

And those businesses could benefit from his actions as president. Will Trump's next term make him richer? Listen to Consider This from NPR. Today's episode of Up Burst was edited by Miguel Macias, Christian Dev Kalamor, Nick Spicer, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, and Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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