Israel Strikes Iran, National Guard Ruling, Padilla Handcuffed, Rescission Vote

0:02Israel struck nuclear and military sites in Iran killing the country's top generals. The Israeli prime minister says they're not done. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes. How is Iran striking back? I'm Michelle Martin with Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. A judge ordered President Trump to return control of the National Guard to California Governor Gavin Newsom. I hope it's the beginning of a new day in this country where we push back against overreach. The judge said the president exceeded his authority. Why did a higher court pause the order? Also, why did Homeland Security personnel handcuff a U.S.

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2:15Learn more at schwab.com. People in Iran's capital heard explosions overnight and soon learned that their country was under attack. The Israeli military affirms that it struck dozens of Iranian targets, including nuclear facilities. Iranian state media say that some of its top generals and nuclear scientists were killed. Iran promised a response. This is obviously a developing story. NPR's Hadil al-Shalchi is covering this from Tel Aviv. Good morning. Good morning. Who is saying what as you and I are talking now? Well, let's start with the Israeli military. It announced that it actually completed a large-scale airstrike campaign in western Iran.

2:52It includes also the capital, Tehran. But Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said there will be more attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel targeted Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility called Natanz. And Iran says that it did suffer damage. Both militaries also said that three top Iranian security chiefs were killed, including the Iranian military chief of staff, Mohammed Bagheri. That's a major blow to Iran's military chain of command, of course. Iran's supreme leader said Israel should expect a, quote, harsh punishment, and Israel said that Iran fired about 100 drones at Israel.

3:30Really striking results, particularly since there'd been many signs that this attack might be coming, and the Israelis still had this effect. What is it like in Israel this morning as people wait for a response? Well, we actually all broke up pretty early, around 3 a.m. local time, to sirens across the country. It wasn't because there were any strikes. The Israeli military said they were a preemptive warning to Israelis to get prepared for a, quote, major threat. The Ben-Gurion airport is closed, but all morning we could hear fighter jets overhead in the sky. This morning I went to the grocery store.

4:03It was full of people stocking up on water, other supplies just in case. Schools and public gatherings like the Tel Aviv Pride Parade today are also canceled. The timing of this is really notable. What else is happening at this moment when Israel chose to strike? I mean, this is all happening as the U.S. and Iran have been actually holding talks for weeks now. They're trying to strike a deal that would see Iran scale down on its nuclear program in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions. Those sanctions have crippled Iran's economy. So Netanyahu has been adamant the entire time that the only way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is by war.

4:40Now, see, Iran insists that it doesn't want to develop a nuclear weapon. But then last month, the UN's nuclear watchdog said that Iran actually had enough enriched uranium to theoretically develop a weapon. And then this week, the same watchdog, for the first time in 20 years, censored Iran over not complying with its inspections. But Iran is defiant. It also announced that it would start a third enrichment site in the country. How is the United States responding to this overnight news? So until just yesterday, President Trump signaled that a strike on Iran was possible but not imminent. And then today on social media, he warned Iran that it will, quote, only get worse and urged Tehran to make a deal, quote, before there is nothing left.

5:22After the attack earlier this morning, the State Department said it was informed by Israel that it would strike. It said Israel carried it out unilaterally and that the U.S. was not involved. Earlier this week, there was some foreshadowing. The U.S. administration ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff from the U.S. embassy in Iraq and then authorized their departure from other embassies in the Middle East. And then the U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was due to meet with the Iranian negotiating team in Oman on Sunday. But, of course, now Iran said it won't be going. NPR's Adil Al-Shalchi has the latest from Tel Aviv.

5:56Thanks very much for the update and your insights. Really appreciate it. You're very welcome.

6:08National Guard troops in California remain under President Trump's command for now. A judge ruled the president violated the law when he took command of the California Guard without clearance from Governor Gavin Newsom. The judge said the power must return to the state, but an appeals court quickly put that ruling on hold. CAP Radio's Laura Fitzgerald is covering this story from California. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so what happened here? Well, the central question here is who is in charge of 4 ,000 National Guard troops that have been in L.A. for almost a week? Normally, governors control their state National Guards, but in this case, Trump federalized them against Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes.

6:49This happened a day after protests broke out in pockets of downtown L.A. in response to a series of ICE raids. City and state officials have insisted they didn't need the National Guard there. They said they already had enough resources, local law enforcement to maintain order. And Newsom said Trump calling in the National Guard would only make tensions worse. And so Newsom sued the Trump administration. And this is essentially a constitutional argument. Why did the judge side with Newsom? Well, yesterday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, he's a Clinton appointee, he gave a 36-page ruling that said Trump's actions were illegal.

7:26And it wasn't surprising, given the comments that he made during the hearing yesterday, he said that this country was founded in response to a monarchy. And he said that it would be a monarchy if the president didn't have to justify this action. He said the Trump administration didn't meet the threshold for federalizing the National Guard. And part of the statute Trump used to justify deploying the Guard requires a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the government. And the judge really took issue with this in his order yesterday, saying that the protests in Los Angeles were far from what would be considered a rebellion.

8:02And in the end, the judge ordered that the National Guard troops be returned to Newsom's control by noon today. And immediately after the ruling, Newsom claimed it a victory. I hope it's the beginning of a new day in this country where we push back against overreach. We both push back against these authoritarian tendencies of a president that has pushed the boundaries, pushed the limit, but no longer can push this state around. But that victory was short-lived. Why? Well, the Trump administration appealed Judge Breyer's order within minutes. And a few hours later, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay blocking that initial ruling.

8:42So that means the National Guard will stay in L.A. under Trump's authority. Trump officials have said the Guard is there to protect federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement and also to protect federal buildings. Officials also say they have the authority to temporarily detain people until law enforcement can make arrests. A White House spokesperson said in a statement to the Associated Press that Judge Breyer, quote, has no authority to usurp the president's authority as commander in chief. So what happens now? So the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hold a hearing on the issue on June 17th.

9:16That's next Tuesday. But there's still this question of the 700 Marines that Trump deployed to assist in L.A. They've been getting civil disobedience training at a naval facility in Orange Beach. And Newsom's lawyers during the hearing yesterday, they wanted Judge Breyer to address the Marines' involvement. But the judge said he wouldn't rule on that because the Marines, as far as we know, aren't in L.A. yet. when they are there, there's still an open question about what exactly they'll be doing on the ground. That's reporter Laura Fitzgerald. Thanks so much. Thank you, Steve.

9:54Exactly what happened at a Homeland Security press conference yesterday? Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was talking to reporters when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, entered the room saying he wanted to speak with her. In this audio, we can hear as security personnel blocked him. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary, because the fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that should rotate on your... On your... Hands off! Federal agents had the senator handcuffed on the ground after forcibly removing him from the room. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales is covering this.

10:33Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Let's learn the players here. Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, former governor of South Dakota. Senator Padilla is the other name. What should people know about him? Right. He was appointed to replace then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021. He won an election to the seat the following year. And he's the son of Mexican immigrants and also the first Latino senator to represent the state of California. So these protests have been very personal for him. And he says he wasn't able to get a meeting with Noam. So that's why he went to a press conference taking place in this federal building.

11:10And that's when this incident ensued. We should bear in mind there are different perspectives on all of this. Republicans are saying, why did you show up disrupting this press conference and so forth? But in any event, he ends up on the ground, face down, if I remember correctly. What are Democrats saying about this? They're calling it an assault. Some said this is a defining moment for the country, and it's part of a series of actions by the administration signaling a new era of authoritarian rule. And as we know already, President Trump's decision to send the National Guard and U.S. Marines into L.A.

11:44is set off a firestorm. And this is on top of months of bitter disagreements over the administration's aggressive immigration policies. So this just adds to an already volatile situation. Take a listen to Padilla after the incident. If this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmers, to cooks, to day laborers. And you can hear him getting emotional there again. So for hours yesterday, Democrats took to the Senate floor to denounce what happened. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was sickened by the footage and called for a full investigation.

12:28Now, I did notice that Secretary Noem said after the incident she did meet with Padilla for a little while. What else has Homeland Security said? Right. And initially the department accused Padilla of, quote, disrespectful political theater. They said he didn't comply with requests to back away. And she said that it was not clear who he was, that no one knew who he was. I mean, they were at least 10, 15 feet apart when he was announcing his name. So it's possible that she could not hear him. But clearly they met and not much was resolved. And of course, he did announce his name. Are other Republicans talking here?

13:03I was with a group of reporters last night who spoke to Senate Majority Leader John Thune just outside the Senate chamber. And he said he was waiting to hear from all the relevant parties before saying any more about the incident other than saying it would be treated as if any other incident involved any other senator. But his counterpart at the other side of the Capitol wasn't waiting. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Padilla acted, quote, wildly inappropriate and he should be censured. It's a reminder of a very politically charged moment over the president's immigration tactics and the fallout that continues.

13:40And Piers Claudia Grisales, thanks so much. Thank you.

13:50Some other news now. The House voted to claw back money that Congress had previously allocated for PBS, NPR, and the public media system for the next two years. The Senate still has to approve the measure. This is the closest public media has come to losing its federal funding. All right. Well, listen, NPR covers all stories as fairly as we can, and that includes this story that involves NPR itself and its hundreds of local stations. NPR media correspondent David Fulkenflick is on the line, and we will note that no NPR corporate leader or news executive has had a hand in the coverage you're about to hear.

14:25David, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay. So this is called rescission. This is a process where the president asks Congress to cut money it had previously appropriated, and Congress can agree by a simple majority vote. So what is in the bill that got through one of two houses yesterday? So the larger part was that more than$8 billion was pulled back from foreign aid that had already been approved. But in this case, what we're looking at is$1.1 billion, small change in the grand scheme of things. But that was to fund public broadcasting, all of it, mostly local public television and radio stations for the next two years.

15:01This was something built on, in some ways, years of resentment, but also hearings earlier this year. There are two objections about how much money is spent, but also what kind of news coverage and programming is put on the air. Let's hear from Ohio Republican Jim Jordan. He summed it up this way. This bill is real simple. Don't spend money on stupid things and don't subsidize biased media. Now, here's the funny thing you will hear from some public media officials, particularly NPR's representatives. The law passed by Congress at the outset decades ago explicitly protects public media against pressure from all federal officials over its content.

15:35Presumably that includes Congress. This, of course, is a small cut towards reducing the deficit, but also clearly based on the fight over whether or not there's bias in its news coverage. All right. This has been a generations-old fight. Republicans have always pushed back against public media, even though we know from experience that a great number of them listen. But they've ultimately supported it. What's changed here? I think that you've seen the culture wars. I used to cover Congress a generation ago. It used to be Congress led by people like then House Speaker Newt Gingrich wanted this as an issue.

16:04And now you're seeing the balance of power within the Republican conference and the House of Representatives anyway want this as a win. There are a few Republicans who hold off on that. There's Mark Amaday. He's a Republican from Nevada. He voted against this. He said, quote, I agree we must make meaningful cuts to shrink our federal deficit. However, I'd be doing a disservice to thousands of rural constituents in my district if I did not fight to keep their access to the rest of the world and news on the air. Rural constituents because NPR covers the entire country. How important, though, is the public money to NPR and PBS?

16:37There are other sources of funding. You know, on its face, it would seem to be not as important to NPR, a modest amount of money, but it could be huge for public radio and television stations. Our chief executive, Catherine Marr, warned about stations going dark and Americans being sort of in news deserts. And it would undermine the system. It could really hit the networks much harder than the amount of money they directly get from the feds would suggest. Now this goes to the Senate. What can we expect there? Well, I think you have to look at, in particular, moderates from purple states, especially those perhaps up for reelection next year.

17:10Think of Tom Tillis in North Carolina, Susan Collins, who's already expressed some concerns over the foreign aid measure part of the bill. Both of them are in states led by Democratic governors and their Republicans up for reelection next year. But so far, other than Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, you're seeing few Republicans come out of the woodworks to explicitly assert that she's there for public media. It may be another razor thin vote in a closely divided institution. NPR's David Falkenflick, thanks. You bet.

17:39And that's up first for this Friday, June 13th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. The U.S. faces a housing crisis and growing threats from climate change. One European city is tackling both problems at once, and leaders of American cities are paying attention. These climate researchers, they kept repeating one word over and over. Vienna, Vienna, Vienna. Lessons from Vienna. Listen to the Sunday story this weekend right here in the Up First podcast. Vienna waits for you. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Alex Leff, G.D. Dubon, Jason Breslow, Emily Kopp, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley.

18:15It was produced by Ziad Butch, Katie Klein, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us again.

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