Iran Loses Regional Ally, U.S. Colleges Prepare For Trump, Drone Sightings

0:01The fall of Syria's ruler is a blow against Iran. Iranian money and troops propped up the old Syrian leaders, so how much does his government's collapse set back an adversary of Israel and the United States? I'm A. Martinez, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. Some American colleges have a warning for their international students. They're suggesting students who leave for the holidays should try to return before Inauguration Day to avoid any trouble at the border. How real is that concern? Also, who's flying drones over New Jersey? Could it be a Springsteen fan? Someone who's afraid of the drivers?

0:38And is it a coincidence that the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds was set there? We won't just drone on about the state where I used to live, but stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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1:38Shop plans today at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for a 3-month 5GB plan required. New customer offer for first 3 months only. Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from Warby Parker. What makes a great pair of glasses? At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life. Find your pair at WarbyParker.com or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country. The fall of Syria's longtime president prompted celebrations by many of its people. It's safe to say the same event led to dismay in the capital of Iran.

2:19Yeah, that's because the longtime enemy of Israel in the U.S. relied on Syria as one of its allies in a bid for power across the Middle East. Iranian troops and money propped up the ruler Bashar al-Assad during years of civil war. Now, if you look at a map, you can actually see why. Syria offered a connection to Iran's proxies in nearby Lebanon. Now, the government's collapse amounts to Iran's latest disaster. NPR International Affairs correspondent Jackie Northam covers Iran. Hey there, Jackie. Good morning, Steve. How did the Iranians use the old Syrian government? Well, the most important way that it used it is Syria allowed Iran to set up a critical land bridge to Lebanon, so a corridor to Lebanon, so it could funnel weapons to Hezbollah for many years.

3:04You know, this was crucial to get fighters, weapons going both ways, actually. But now that the anti-government rebels control Syria, that strategic route to Lebanon is really most likely off limits to Iran. And that's a huge blow for the regime's long-term goals in the region. What were or are the regime's long-term goals exactly? Well, there are two key ones. They want to see the destruction or the collapse of Israel as a Jewish state. Iran also wants to counter any power or influence that the U.S. has in the Middle East, you know, at the same time projecting the regime's own power in the region using its military and proxies, you know, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and certainly the Houthis in Yemen.

3:48Oh, which underlines how disastrous the last few months have been for Iran, because Hezbollah has been decimated by Israel's military. This is just a moment when you would think Iran would want to be resupplying Hezbollah. I guess that's not going to happen. Oh, absolutely, yeah. You know, and this is just really going to make it much, much harder to get, you know, missiles and drones and the like to Hezbollah in Lebanon if this corridor is out of reach now. But, you know, Steve, this isn't the only setback that Iran has faced recently. I spoke with Afshan Ostevar, and he's a specialist on Iran and its proxies at the Naval Postgraduate School.

4:22And, you know, he said losing Syria as an ally really marks a profound turnaround for Iran. You know, if you consider just a year ago, it was one of the most powerful states in the Middle East. Here he is. It controlled politics on the ground in Iraq, in much of Syria, in much of Lebanon. It was losing ground in Gaza, but only just. And its allies in Yemen controlled much of Yemen. But in the last two months, three months, all of that has been reversed. So, Steve, you know, not only has Israel degraded Hezbollah, as you mentioned, but Hamas in Gaza. It assassinated senior Iranian officials and pounded Iran's air defenses.

5:00and now it's lost a powerful ally in Syria. Okay, so might Iran change its strategy of seeking domination through the region? That's highly unlikely. And, you know, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned earlier this week not to underestimate the regime. One of the concerns is if Tehran feels cornered, it may try to use its nuclear program as leverage. But, you know, the other thing that's worth noting in the wake of the shakeup in Syria is that Iran's hardline regime may also be worried about a threat of upheaval from its own population. You know, the economy is terrible. Any kind of dissent is crushed.

5:37And Tehran's watching what's happening in Syria. I wonder if the same thing could happen in Iran. NPR's Jackie Northam, thanks for the insights. Thanks very much, Steve.

5:53Some American colleges are preparing for President-elect Trump's second term. And here's one of the ways they're doing that. Several universities, including USC, Penn, and Cornell, are giving advice to international students. If they're going home for the holidays, the university suggests returning before Inauguration Day, January 20, to avoid any trouble at the border. Kirk Carapesa is covering this. He follows higher education from member station GBH in Boston. Kirk, good morning. Hey, good morning, Steve. What exactly are colleges saying? Well, most colleges aren't saying much, but there are some.

6:27The ones you mentioned and a handful of schools here in New England, UMass Amherst, MIT, and Wesleyan have all reached out to international students, urging them to return to the U.S. before January 20th. Harvard also contacted its international students this week. The college suggested those traveling overseas for the holidays, quote, budget time ahead of Martin Luther King Day, which coincidentally is also Inauguration Day. Okay. So I guess we can imagine why they would make this suggestion, but let's try to get the facts out. What is driving this? Well, I think many administrators are revisiting Trump's track record.

7:04You know, in his first term, new foreign student enrollment dropped by 12 percentage points. You'll remember there was the travel ban targeting several majority Muslim countries, heightened visa scrutiny. And then in 2020, the mandate for all international students to attend classes in person, even during the pandemic. Now, this time around, Trump is promising even stricter policies. At a rally in New Jersey this summer, he warned foreign students involved in campus protests. If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you.

7:44You'll be out of that school. OK, so he said that, but there's an if at the beginning of that. Is it entirely clear what specifically the new president will do regarding international students? No, there are no concrete proposals at this point from Trump or his transition team. But, you know, these colleges are trying to make sure their students don't get stuck out of the country when the new semester begins. What do you hear when you reach out to administrators as well as students? They're really anxious. You know, behind closed doors, they tell me they're worried. Ted Mitchell is president of the American Council on Education, and he calls the potential decline of international students a tragedy because he says these students create a global atmosphere that's critical to American campuses.

8:28It's kind of a brain sweep in which American institutions help bring the best and the brightest from other countries to our shores. And I think that the rhetoric of the campaign suggested that immigrants were the opposite of that. And Steve, you know, some faculty members I talked to, they tell me their students are genuinely afraid. Here's Professor Gerardo Blanco. Blanco runs Boston College's Center for International Higher Education. and he says there's a real disconnect on campus between students and administrators. Having talked with colleagues, they feel like there is no evidence of a change in policy and this is not a time to panic.

9:09But Blanco says many students are already very concerned and these colleges are taking precautions to protect them and ease their anxiety. Yeah, although fair point. Policy hasn't changed yet. We don't really know what's going to happen. Kirk, thanks so much. Thank you, Steve. Kurt Carapesa covers higher education for GBH in Boston.

9:34What in the world is going on in the skies over New Jersey? New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen once described North Jersey sky with the line, the sun's just a red ball rising over them refinery towers. But now we need to add a few drones to the lyrics and to that picture because people have been reporting flying objects. Federal authorities say the drones are not a security threat, which still leaves the question of what they are. For more on what we do know about the aircraft, we're joined by WNYC reporter Julie Hayward, who has been covering this story. So is the federal government planning to investigate these alleged drone sightings?

10:13Yes. So the FBI and other federal agencies have confirmed that there's an active ongoing investigation into what exactly is going on with these drones that people are seeing in the sky. It is happening. The latest information we have is that the federal government's actually sending specialized radar technology to local police departments in New Jersey to help with them sort of monitoring what's going on with these drones. So things are happening. The issue is that some local lawmakers and people who live in the Northeast don't necessarily think things are happening as quickly as they should be.

10:54Okay, but at least they're on the case. Have they said anything about whether they're a threat at all? So we've heard now repeatedly both from federal officials as well as some state officials, for example, the New Jersey governor has said this as well, that the drones seemingly pose no public safety risk and that folks should remain calm. However, you'll often hear a little bit of a divide between local lawmakers. There are some state senators, some reps, some mayors even, who have gone on the record and expressed a lot more concern over how safe people actually are. Yeah, especially if we don't know really anything about what we're seeing.

11:37So you reported that New Jersey residents have been spotting these objects for weeks now. But we've also seen some accounts from folks in Pennsylvania saying that they've seen them now, too. I mean, what are locals saying about what they're actually seeing in the skies? I mean, what does it look like? Yeah, so right now the count is Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and Connecticut, as well as New Jersey. So they're starting to pop up in other places other than New Jersey at this point. Folks just seem to be posting what they're seeing online. This is getting a lot of traction on social media.

12:12There are now Facebook groups. There are folks commenting, coming up with theories for what's going on with these drones. It's getting a lot of attention online. Aliens? Any talk of aliens? Definitely aliens. There are some people concerned that this is a national security threat, spies from foreign nations. You name it, someone has said it. I mean, if it's been going on since last month, why are most Americans just hearing about this now? That's a great question. So this has been going on for weeks. I'm talking like since mid-November, people in New Jersey originally were the ones to say that they were spotting drones in the air and nobody was really sure why.

12:52Part of why it's gaining so much traction now is that it's spreading outside of New Jersey. We're now having sightings in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, elsewhere. And then on top of that, it's all the attention it's getting on social media as well. And then you also add to that the fact that you now have lawmakers who are talking about it. There was a hearing in Congress about it earlier this month. So people are now paying more attention, which is then sparking more interest and is, you know, fanning the flames more, so to speak. If the FBI just sends Mulder and Scully out to investigate, they'll get to the bottom of this.

13:24Julia Hayward is a reporter for WNYC. Julia, thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

13:32And that's Up First for this Friday, December 13th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm A. Martinez. Don't forget, Up First airs on the weekend, too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have all the news. It'll be right here in this feed or wherever you go get those podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Didi Skanky, Stephen Drummond, Ali Schweitzer, H.J. Mai, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Nia Damas, and Ben Abrams. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us Monday.

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