Biden Death Row Clemency, Long COVID Research, Lebanon Antiquities Damaged

0:00Good morning, it's Asma Khaled. Before we dive into today's show, I want to give you a quick look that unlocks sponsor-free listening to every episode of Up First, along with perks for more than 25 NPR podcasts. If you're already a Plus supporter, thank you all very much. If you're not, please consider joining NPR in our mission to create a more informed public. You can sign up for NPR Plus today at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. Now, on to the news. President Biden is using his presidential authority to commute the sentences of dozens of men on federal death row. With just a few weeks left in office, what's behind the president's decision?

1:07I'm Asma Khalid and this is Up First from NPR News.

1:14For those living with long COVID, it can come with extreme fatigue, brain fog and heart problems. Millions of Americans can't keep waiting and keeping their lives on pause or even dying with this condition. Will new investment in research bring patients suffering with these symptoms any closer to reliable treatments? And a number of cultural heritage sites in Lebanon were damaged during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Will they be rebuilt? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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2:31Malnutrition threatens the lives of children. Communities depend on life-saving humanitarian aid. Doctors Without Borders is meeting this moment of overwhelming need with action. But they can't do it alone. Help provide life-saving care around the world. Learn how to donate today at doctorswithoutborders.org slash NPR. This message comes from Bluehost. Bluehost can make building a great website easy and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Customize and launch your site in minutes with AI. Then optimize with built-in search engine tools. Get your great site at bluehost.com. Today, President Biden is using his clemency powers to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.

3:18The 37 individuals who are all men will now serve life in prison without parole. It's one of the most significant moves against capital punishment in recent presidential history. And here to talk through the news is NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram. Good morning, Deepa. Hey, good morning. So what has President Biden said about this decision? Well, the president put out a statement this morning and he laid out a couple of points. He was clear in saying that he condemns the people convicted of murder who are on federal death row and he grieves with the victims who have suffered because of them.

3:52But he says his decision to commute the sentences for the 37 men was guided by his conscience, his experience as a public defender, his time as a senator, vice president and president. And Biden said, quote, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. And just a couple of things to keep in mind here, Asma. Biden commuted the sentences of these 37 men to life in prison. So that's different than granting a pardon, right? These men will still be guilty for the crimes they committed. They will not be eligible for any kind of parole. And the other thing to remember is that Biden's actions here only apply to those facing the federal death penalty.

4:31There are still people on death row in different states, though. And of course, three of the 40 men on federal death row, Biden did not commute their sentences. So tell us more about those three men. Who are they? Yeah, so these are very specific, pretty high-profile cases that involved terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder. So that includes Robert Bowers, who was convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Dylan Roof, convicted for the 2015 mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Zokhar Sarnev, who was convicted of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon.

5:07Those three men will remain on federal death row. Deepa, I think this is all really interesting because I recall covering President Biden's campaign. And back during that 2020 presidential election cycle, he said that he opposed the death penalty, but he has not taken a whole lot of action as president on this issue until now. How much pressure was he facing to do this? Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of calls for Biden to use his clemency powers for those on death row, from criminal justice advocates to people like Pope Francis. And it really bubbled up more after he pardoned his own son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of tax and gun charges.

5:44And after that happened, Biden used his clemency powers to pardon 39 people who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes. He commuted the sentences of about 1 ,500 people who had been on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. But advocates considered those actions to be pretty small overall. And they were really waiting on Biden and calling on him to take this big step on the death penalty here. And I will say the reaction to this new announcement has been pretty positive so far. Advocates like Bryan Stevenson, who is known for his advocacy for fighting for innocent folks on death row, praised Biden for his decision.

6:17And he said it sends a message that the death penalty isn't the answer to concerns about public safety. Just briefly here, how much of Biden's decision was also impacted by how the incoming Trump administration might handle federal executions? Yeah, I mean, Biden took pretty sweeping action here on the death penalty compared to previous Democratic presidents. And he did kind of hint at the incoming Trump administration for why he made this decision. Back in 2021, Biden put a moratorium on federal executions, but that could have been undone by Trump. And Biden said he didn't want to stand back and let a new administration resume executions that he halted.

6:54That's NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivram. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.

7:06The National Institutes of Health recently announced it's investing$300 million to research treatments for long COVID. In total, the agency has directed$1.8 billion towards studying the virus and its after effects, which is associated with extreme fatigue, brain fog and heart problems. But many patients are frustrated that researchers haven't come up with a reliable treatment yet. For more on this, I'm joined now by health reporter Sarah Bowden. Good morning, Sarah. Hey, good morning. So Sarah,$300 million, it sounds like a substantial amount of money. Why are patient groups still not pleased with this?

7:46Yeah, so the NIH has funded hundreds of different kinds of studies on lung COVID, but just eight of those studies have been clinical trials looking at possible treatments and patient advocacy groups say this pace is just way too slow. And also they feel that there's been too much focus in trying to understand why people get sick with long COVID, but not enough attention on trying to relieve their suffering, helping them feel better. And somebody who I've talked to a lot about this is someone named Megan Stone, who is the executive director of the long COVID campaign. There really is a burden to make up this last time now.

8:21Millions of Americans can't keep waiting and keeping their lives on pause or even dying with this condition. We really do need to see progress. Also, I'll note, Asma, that an estimated 17 million adults in the U.S. have long COVID, and that means many of them are unable to work or care for their families. And that is why some consider the COVID pandemic a mass disabling event. So, Sarah, what does the NIH say about these criticisms? Well, the agency agrees that there's a real urgency to find treatments, but they told me that scientists need a solid understanding of the underlying biology of long COVID, which is a complicated disease that can damage nearly every organ system.

9:01And researchers have learned a lot. For example, one NIH-funded study found that people are less likely to get long COVID if they've been vaccinated. And I talked to one NIH-funded researcher, Dr. Leora Horowitz, she's at NYU, and she told me that you have to remember we're only five years into this pandemic. And there is real concern that jumping into clinical trials too soon might not be safe. It could waste money. It could waste time. But it is also true that so far, we still don't have any FDA-approved drugs or devices or any therapy specifically for long COVID. So how are patients coping in the meantime?

9:41Well, for a lot of people, their only option is to go on long-term disability while they keep trying different drugs and therapies to manage their symptoms. And patients tell me they're exhausted, they're frustrated, and doctors feel this way too. For example, Dr. Michael Brode at UT Health Austin, he says there's a lot of guesswork in treating long COVID because there's just not enough research. I'm in this terrible position of I don't want to hype up a treatment that is still experimental, but I also don't want to hide it. Brode also told me he prescribes medications that are not approved by the FDA for long COVID, but they are approved for other illnesses.

10:20This is called off-label prescribing. And often insurance companies don't cover these prescriptions, and that leaves very sick people having to decide whether to pay out-of-pocket for treatment. Thanks so much, Sarah, for your reporting. Thank you. That's health and science journalist Sarah Bowden. She's a member of NPR's KFF Health News Collaboration.

10:49Lebanon is a small country chock full of antiquities. Greco-Roman ruins, crusader castles, Ottoman architecture. And some of it was damaged in the war there this fall between Israel and Hezbollah militants. Christmas Day marks one month since a ceasefire took effect in Lebanon. In addition to the more than 4 ,000 people who were killed there, according to Lebanon's health ministry, officials are still assessing damage to cultural heritage sites. NPR international correspondent Lauren Frayer recently visited several of those sites, and she joins us now. Good morning, Lauren. Good morning, Asma.

11:26So tell us about what you saw at the places you visited. Yeah, I went into areas of southern Lebanon that saw the fiercest fighting of the war. In some cases, Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants were fighting inside crusader castles. I saw Byzantine fortifications of a walled old city destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, churches and mosques that had been hit. These are some of the iconic sites you see on postcards of Lebanon. But Israel accuses Hezbollah of hiding weapons and fighters in some of them. In mid-November, the United Nations added 34 sites in Lebanon to its list of protected cultural properties, hoping to prevent damage to them.

12:03Did those protections hold? No. I mean, at least not for all of them. I went to a 3 ,000-year-old castle in a place called Tidnin near the boundaries of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. One of its Crusader-era walls had crumbled. I climbed to the roof. It was littered with debris from Israeli airstrikes on homes nearby. And I was with a municipal official named Ali Fawaz. He was seeing the damage for the first time, and he was emotional. He said he felt very sad. Very sad. It's a very important place. It's our history. So you feel from inside something who cut it from you. This castle's been the pride of his community literally for centuries, and to him this damage is priceless.

12:44You know, Lauren, in war, cultural sites are meant to be protected by all parties in a conflict. So what is the extent of the damage here you're seeing? Lebanon's six UNESCO World Heritage Sites are marked with this blue and white symbol that signifies UN protection. It's even painted on the roof of the ticket office so that it's visible by warplanes. I visited three of the six UNESCO heritage sites. The monuments themselves are still standing, but, for example, an Israeli airstrike left a crater in the tourist parking lot right next to some Greco-Roman temples in Baalbek. Archaeologists have yet to x-ray the columns for hairline fractures from the force of explosions all around them.

13:24There's also damage to historic stone houses, ancient markets. Joanne Farshuk Bojali is a specialist in heritage architecture who's been going around to properties on Lebanon's National Register of Historic Places to literally see if they're still there. If you start removing all these houses, within a few years, there will be no memories left and the history will become a myth. But when you keep monuments standing, then you can actually keep the history alive. You know, she sees this damage as an Israeli attempt to erase Lebanon's claim to its history and its own land. Israel, of course, denies that.

14:00Just like in Gaza, it says its intention has not been to lay waste to residential areas, only that it's responding to militant attacks that come from these same areas. Lauren, what are the prospects of rebuilding? I mean, the World Bank estimates that in Lebanon, the cost of damage and economic losses from the war to be about eight and a half billion dollars. So rebuilding will be a huge years long project. This is a country that the economy has already been in shambles before this war. And that rebuilding can't begin in a lot of these areas until Israeli troops withdraw. And that hasn't finished yet.

14:36There are areas still where civilians cannot get home in Lebanon and where they can't reach antiquities either. That is NPR's international correspondent, Lauren Freyer. Thanks so much. Thanks, Asma. Happy holidays. You too.

14:54And that's up first for Monday, December 23rd. I'm Asma Khalid. For your next listen, consider, Consider this from NPR. It's been a year of high-stakes elections around the globe. About half the world's population lives in countries where elections have taken place, from India and Venezuela to the U.S. and South Africa. So what did we learn about the state of democracy? Listen to Consider This from NPR. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Carrie Feibel, Denise Rios, Lisa Thompson, and Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Ana Perez. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

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