ICE Shooting In Texas, UNGA: Ukraine Warning, Government Shutdown Standoff

0:01A shooting at an immigration facility is one of at least three in Texas so far this year. The suspected gunman is dead. What is the FBI saying about the motive for an attack that killed a detainee? I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. Ukraine's president says Russia's war is a global threat. We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history, because this time it includes artificial intelligence. Will Volodymyr Zelensky get the support he wants from President Trump? And the White House is raising the stakes on a government shutdown. A new memo orders agencies to prepare mass layoffs if funding runs out.

0:45And health care costs are a big part of the fight. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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1:37That's why AT &T has connectivity you can depend on, or they'll proactively make it right. That's the AT &T guarantee. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com slash guarantee to learn more. AT &T. Connecting changes everything. At least one immigration detainee is dead and two are in critical condition after shooting at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office yesterday. This is at least the third instance of gun violence at immigration facilities in Texas this year. Different incidents, different backstories, but ICE is in the news as the Trump administration tries for a mass deportation.

2:14With us now is Tolawani Osibamuwo of member station KERA in Dallas. So we mentioned some details about the shooting, but how far have authorities gotten in their investigation so far? Yeah, well, yesterday was a pretty chaotic and tragic day in one of the busiest immigration facilities in North Texas. And we still have a lot of questions today. Aside from the victims, the suspect is also dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dallas police said the person shot at the ICE office from a nearby building. The FBI says they're investigating the shooting as a, quote, act of targeted violence. Joe Rothrock with the Dallas FBI office says local and federal authorities will be participating in the investigation.

2:55There will be no resource not utilized to bring all those individuals who are responsible to bring them to justice and to hold them accountable. FBI Director Kosh Patel called this a despicable, politically motivated attack on law enforcement. Authorities haven't indicated any specific motive, but they did release a picture of five unspent bullet casings found at the scene, and one had the words anti-ice. Okay, now we've also seen a name and a picture floating around about the shooter. Anything confirmed on that? Tell us what we do know about that shooter. Well, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons identified the shooter to CBS News as Joshua John.

3:34NPR found that John most recently lived in Fairview, which is a suburb about 30 miles north of Dallas, and police had swarmed his home there yesterday afternoon. And one of his neighbors, Sherry Davis, said it was a very small, tight-knit community, but she didn't know much about John. I would have never imagined that such a thing, you know, someone that felt so disenfranchised would live so close to me. Collin County court records don't show that John has a history of any violent crimes. However, he was arrested and pleaded guilty to marijuana charges in 2016. Authorities haven't released the identities of the victims.

4:12One of them who's in the hospital is a Mexican national. That's according to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Okay, now as we mentioned earlier, I mean, this is just the most recent attack on an immigration facility in Texas. What can you tell us about the other incidents that have led up to this moment? Well, on July 4th, a gunman shot at a local police officer during a protest outside an ice facility in Alvarado. That's about 30 miles south of Fort Worth. 17 people have been arrested. And then three days after that shooting, a man opened fire at a Customs and Border Protection facility in McAllen, a border city along the Rio Grande.

4:48He was killed by law enforcement. And then in late August, the Dallas ICE office that was the site of yesterday's shooting got a bomb threat where a man at the entrance of the building claimed to have an explosive in his bag. Immigration and immigrants have been at the center of the political divide, often portrayed in a negative light. And yesterday, some immigrants became victims of this political rhetoric. Tolawani Osibamowo is a reporter with KERA in Dallas. Thank you very much. Thanks.

5:25Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia's war on Ukraine is fueling an arms race that is threatening humanity and that the war will spread if Russia is not forced into a durable peace deal. Zelensky said that at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday. He spoke during a week when President Trump again shifted his stance on the war, asserting this time that Ukraine could win and that the United States would keep supplying weapons. But how do all those words sound when they're heard in the country that's under attack? Joining us now to discuss all of this is NPR's correspondent Joanna Kakissis, who is in Kyiv.

5:58Joanna, so Ukrainians, how are they reacting to President Trump's seemingly sudden about face on Ukraine? Well, Ukrainians have been telling me that they are grateful Trump seems to be acknowledging Russia is the aggressor in this war and that he is talking about Ukraine's territorial integrity. because earlier this year the Ukrainians heard Trump saying that their country does not have the cards to win and seem to be pushing Ukraine into giving up its territory in exchange for a peace deal with Russia. Now, that said, Trump has also not offered Ukraine things like concrete security guarantees or additional U.S.

6:33sanctions on Russia. I spoke with Oleksandr Kryev. He's the director of the North America program at the Ukrainian PRISM Foreign Policy Council here in Kyiv. And he said that it sounds like Trump is also saying something that he said before. He's not speaking about America doing more or himself doing something additional. So he's just stating the fact that somebody should do something about it, but definitely not me. So Krayev said that the Trump administration could be distancing itself from the peace process and shifting the burden onto the European Union. But is that even possible? I mean, at this stage for the U.S.

7:07to distance itself from a peace process? Well, Zelensky has said repeatedly that the U.S. is key to securing a durable peace deal. He upped the ante at the UN by saying that the war is fueling a global arms race with, quote, weapons evolving faster than our ability to defend ourselves. I also spoke with Oleksandr Medesko. He's a lawmaker from Zelensky's party and head of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. And he said Trump has already made big promises, like saying he will put maximum pressure on Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. He promised also severe consequences for Russia if Russia rejects this.

7:43So it's too late for Trump. It is his war. So he just needs to be consistent and to deliver on his promises if he wants to remain a credible politician. And I also spoke with yet another member of parliament, Ivana Klimpush-Tinsada, and she said that it would be close to impossible for Ukraine to reclaim occupied land entirely through military means. And without U.S. engagement, it will be very, very difficult because I don't think that Russia is capable of changing its behavior if it doesn't feel the pressure, if it doesn't feel the economic pain, industrial pain, military pain of its own actions.

8:24So what she's saying is Russia won't negotiate unless the U.S. forces it to. Yeah, and there's that. So how has Russia responded to President Trump's apparent shift? Well, the Kremlin has dismissed Trump's suggestion that Ukraine could win this war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also took issue with Trump calling Russia paper tiger, that it looks strong but is actually weak. Peskov said, actually, Russia's a bear, and there's nothing paper about a bear. So it's a cryptic message, but a sign that Russia won't end its war on Ukraine anytime soon. NPR's Joanna Kakissis is in Kiev. Joanna, thanks.

8:58You're welcome.

9:07Government shutdown is looking more and more likely, and this time it could be far more severe than in the past. A memo from the White House instructs federal agencies to prepare mass firing plans if funding lapses at the end of the month. This plan goes beyond the usual temporary furloughs during a shutdown. It would permanently cut jobs in programs that are established by law but the president doesn't like. As so often happens, Republicans and Democrats do not agree on a funding measure for the fiscal year that is about to start. Republicans want a short-term extension, while Democrats have insisted that extension should include some protections for people who have health insurance premiums to pay.

9:46NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin covers all things health insurance. All right, so let's start with deadlines here. The shutdown could start next week, but there are other key dates at play. Yeah, so in just over a month on November 1st, open enrollment begins on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. You might know them as Obamacare, healthcare.gov, that's all the same thing. And this is where people shop for insurance if they don't get through their job. So, you know, a lot of freelancers, small business employees. At the end of the year, something called the enhanced premium tax credits expire. Those have kept premiums affordable for people who get their insurance this way.

10:24And if Congress doesn't act to extend those tax credits in the next week or two, people are going to get sticker shock when open enrollment starts and they see that monthly amount they paid for health insurance is going to go way up next year. Where did these tax credits come from? So when the ACA was passed way back in 2010, Congress created kind of a sliding scale to help give people a break on their premiums. But the way it was originally set up didn't work very well. Premiums were still really high for a lot of people, so enrollment was sluggish. And in 2021, Congress stepped in. They sweetened the pot with a lot more federal funding, which made premiums more affordable for people at all income levels.

11:05Sabrina Corlett of the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reform told me that worked. Enrollment more than doubled. It's now 24 million people. And the uninsured rate for the entire country sank to the lowest it's ever been. incredibly successful effort to get more people into coverage and reduce the uninsured rate. All right. So what happens, though, if the enhanced credits expire? In short, people's costs will go up and enrollment will drop. Ultimately, millions of people could become uninsured. Yesterday, I spoke with Emily Pizacreda. She is a senior producer with the health care podcast An Arm and a Leg, which partners with KFF Health News and NPR member station KUOW, they just did an episode about her quest to find ACA insurance, something she really needs since she has type 1 diabetes.

11:57She tells me that she relies on insurance for insulin, which she needs to survive, and all sorts of diabetes supplies, and those really add up. She found a plan that works for her. It's$500 a month, but it could get much more expensive next year if those enhanced credits expire. $500 a month is not little, and to imagine it going up to almost$900 a month seems really scary. I talked to somebody who lives in West Virginia who's putting money aside that would go to retirement because of these changes, and another person in Florida told me he's considering finding a new job with benefits if his premium becomes unaffordable.

12:34So what are the politics on all this? Where does that stand right now? There are Republican lawmakers who would like to extend these tax credits. Corlett at Georgetown told me based on who's enrolled, many Republican voters will likely be hard hit by the higher premiums. Other Republican lawmakers think the subsidies are too expensive and argue they might be willing to extend them, but they want to change the program in various ways and not sort that out now with the shutdown looming. Either way, it's really hard to see this getting resolved before a shutdown next week, since there are currently no active talks between the two parties.

13:07That's NPR health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks a lot. You're welcome.

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