Israel Strikes Iran, Washington Post Won't Endorse a Candidate, World Series Start

0:00Real quick, before today's Up First, it's been a wild and exhausting election season. I'll say, and as we get even closer to November 5th, as you continue to follow events with this podcast, we want you to know there are other ways to keep up with developments throughout the week. First, you can find a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast with context and analysis on the big stories whenever they happen every weekday. Now, how might this work into your busy day-to-day? You get an alert, big breaking news, you don't have time to think about it, or you don't know what to think about it. But you can look for the NPR Politics podcast a few hours later.

0:40And then you can also listen to Consider This. It's the podcast where NPR covers one big story in depth every weekday evening. They're all over this election and the aftermath. So to recap now, you've got up first in the morning, consider this in the evening, and the NPR Politics Podcast, anytime big news happens. An around-the-clock election news survival kit from NPR Podcast. Okay, thank you for listening. Now let's get back to business. Israel strikes back, hitting military targets in Iran. We are prepared on offense and defense to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel. I'm Scott Simon.

1:24I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News.

1:31Israel's strikes are in retaliation for Iran's attack earlier this month. More on that in a moment. Also, a draft endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris is scrapped. The Washington Post will not endorse a presidential candidate. What's behind the decision? And in Los Angeles, a 10th inning grand slam and a win for the Dodgers. Exactly the kind of baseball you expect in Game 1 of the World Series, unless you're a Yankees fan. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

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3:33Learn more at Enbridge.com. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel's overnight attack comes after more than a year of war fueled by Iran and its proxies. Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond. The U.S. says it wants this to be the end of Israel and Iran's direct military confrontation. And for Daniel Estrin has more from Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. What exactly did Israel target? I spoke about this with an official who is briefed on the matter, an official who is not authorized to speak publicly about this, but who told me that there were three waves of Israeli strikes on Iran.

4:19The first wave of strikes was on Iran's air defenses. The second and third waves were on storage and production sites of ballistic missiles and drones. This official said that Israel's response was designed as a kind of a quid pro quo after Iran carried out its missile strikes on Israel on October 1st and also designed in a way that Iran would be able to contain any reaction. Israel says that its retaliation against Iran is now over. And Iran indeed is signaling that it's downplaying this. Iran's state news agency said Israeli airstrikes caused limited damage. damage. It says civilian flights are up and running again in the country.

5:02It also said two of its soldiers were killed. So we will have to see if this does draw an Iranian response. We know the U.S. had been sending air defenses and troops to the region in anticipation of the strikes. Was the U.S. involved in the Israeli attacks? The U.S. says it was not involved directly in Israel's attacks. But the U.S. had been very much involved behind the scenes, not only sending those air defenses and troops you mentioned, but in the last several weeks, the U.S. has been encouraging Israel very strongly not to hit nuclear facilities or oil facilities in Iran. And indeed, that's what happened.

5:40Israel did not attack nuclear or oil facilities, and the U.S. seems satisfied with Israel's response. A senior U.S. official told reporters that Israel focused solely on military targets and avoided populated areas. And the U.S.'s main message here is that this should be the end of direct military exchange between Israel and Iran. Israel seems to be suggesting that this could be just the beginning and not the end. The official I spoke with said Israel's attack was designed to send a warning to Iran that Israel's intelligence and its air force are far-reaching and would be able to act in the future.

6:18And Israel could even be trying to build a case for targeting Iran's nuclear facilities in the future. Of course, Daniel, Israel is still waging wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Do you foresee those conflicts reaching any kind of resolution soon? In Gaza, on the short term, maybe. There is a new U.S. diplomatic push for a hostage and ceasefire deal. There's a new Egyptian proposal on the table for a mini 10-day ceasefire. so we'll have to see how those efforts go. Long term though, Scott, it's very hard to see Israel ending in a major final way, ending its operations in Gaza when it doesn't have a clear plan in place for who takes over Gaza after the war ends and as Israel's assault in North Gaza is only intensifying.

7:06On the Lebanon front, the U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire there in the coming weeks, not in the coming months. And remember, in Israel, these wars have been costly for Israel. Just in the last few days, a dozen Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon and in Gaza. Two Israeli civilians were killed recently from rocket fire from Lebanon. So that is also a factor, certainly, in how Israel calculates how long it can go on fighting. And here's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks so much. You're welcome, Scott.

7:41The motto of the Washington Post is democracy dies in darkness. And yet in the final days of a presidential race that's too close to call, the Post is not endorsing either candidate. And peer media correspondent David Folkenflick broke this story and joins us. David, thanks for being with us. Pleasure. The Post is known for its political coverage. It's the paper that broke the Watergate story and many more without fear or favor. We've seen the movies. Why is it stepping away from making an endorsement in this presidential race? So let's go first to the stated reason posted yesterday just before noon from the publisher and chief executive Will Lewis.

8:20He says that the Post wants to return to its roots independent of partisan interests. It sort of has for decades style itself as an independent newspaper under owner Jeff Bezos. He said they are going to for the future not endorse in presidential races and seek to attain that. Now, this was a paper that has been editorially largely supportive, not uniformly, but largely supportive of the Biden-Harris administration. There had been a draft of an endorsement in the works endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency. And, you know, this is a newspaper that has been in the vanguard of reporting on former President Donald Trump's alleged wrongdoing and potential illegalities in office and has denounced him editorially for that on its editorial pages all throughout.

9:04That proposed endorsement, which had been embraced by the editorial page editor, doesn't come as a surprise. But right now, if you're looking at it on its own terms, the explanation, you look at a time when the media is under attack. Trust is at record lows, particularly among conservatives, especially among Trump supporters. This is on its surface an effort by the owner Jeff Bezos to try to remediate and address that. What's the reaction been like at The Post? Well, because of the Post's record in its reporting and because of its strong opinions talking about Trump being unfit for office in its separately run editorial side, particularly as a result of the January 2021 efforts to deny President Biden's certification of his win, there's been furor.

9:44There's been tumult inside the Post and to some degree outside of it as well. Resignation of Robert Kagan, a longtime columnist editor at large. He's been warning for years of Trump as an authoritarian in the making. Robert Kagan is no liberal either. He is absolutely not a liberal by any stretch or means. Ten opinion writers at The Post denounced The Post's decision in a posting they did on its own website. You saw Woodward and Bernstein come up. You saw Marty Baron, the lionized former executive editor of The Post, call it cowardice and spineless. And you saw over 1 ,600 cancellations of digital subscriptions there three hours after the story broke.

10:20And that's happening against a backdrop in which Trump has been attempting to directly and expressly intimidate the press, saying that if he wins office once more, that he will wreak vengeance against it. And if you think about Jeff Bezos, yes, he's the owner of The Post, but of course, the founder of Amazon. He has a ton of business interests worth billions involving the federal government. Amazon's shipping its cloud computing contracts and his space company, Blue Origin, has a multibillion dollar deal with the federal government to take people into the heavens. This follows a similar decision by the publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

10:54Is it a similar story and reasoning by the owner there? Yeah, and interestingly, there is no formal publisher there. It's all being decided by owner Patrick Soon-Shang. There had also been an editorial in support of Kamala Harris being drafted, and he decided to kill it. That led to the resignation of the editorial center and two other editorial writers there. Patrick Soon-Shang, again, a civic leader, stepped forward to buy the Times to try to sustain it. And at the same time, he's a billionaire, physician inventor with major interest before federal regulators. Should Trump wins again, he is threatening this vengeance that I mentioned.

11:27And so here's the question. Are these figures trying to, at a time of low trust in the media, redefine their papers as more independent and away from partisan interests just days before an election that their own editorial pages say may define the future of the American democratic experiment for decades to come? Or is this a moment where people are buckling in the face of potential pressure because, of course, this race is so close they don't know who's going to win? And Piers David Fokenflick, thanks so much. Great reporting. You bet.

12:04Traffic in Los Angeles yesterday was a nightmare. And for the New York Yankees, so was Game 1 of the World Series. Isn't traffic always a nightmare in Los Angeles? Anyway, an extra inning, a grand slam, and a win for the hometown Dodgers. ESPN's Michelle Steele joins us. Michelle, thanks for being with us. I don't know how any Dodgers fans went to sleep after that game, Scott. Oh, I mean, my gosh. Six to three, 10th inning, walk-off, grand slam by Freddie Freeman. What an ending. It was just horrific, wasn't it? I mean, that's what this time of year is all about. Oh, absolutely. Can I just set the scene here?

12:43Sure. For what happened? I'm ready to relive it all. Go ahead. Dodgers fans will be with me on this one. Yankees lead 3-2, men on first and second base. The Yankees intentionally walk Mookie Betts to get to Freddie Freeman. Now, you might be asking yourself, why would you do that? Well, Freeman is basically playing on one leg. He's got a sprained right ankle. He's not going to hit with any power. No way. No way. No, not that guy. and the rest is history. Freeman hits his first home run since September 16. Bases loaded. First walk-off grand slam in World Series history, channeling Kirk Gibson in his walk-off home run in 1988 in the World Series.

13:27And there's a reason, Scott Simon, that this is called the Fall Classic. Can't wait for Game 2. Yeah. So many stars between these two teams. Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton. I could go on. We'd run out of money then, though. You can't go on after those contracts. Oh, mercy, yes. But that's part of what makes it—and, of course, Shohei Ohtani, his first year with the Dodgers, his first year in the playoffs after missing all of them in all six seasons with the LA Angels. I mean there's no predicting but what an opportunity to see what you know a man who's already acclaimed as one of the greats of all time and maybe the greatest playing in these kinds of circumstances yeah you know you went through all of those stars and these games are absolutely loaded on both sides here but I want to make a special mention for Shohei Otani because the whole world watches this guy I mean there are some reports saying that more people were watching him in Japan in the NLCS than they were even in the United States.

14:34He's an absolute superstar. And is the pressure reaching him? I don't think so. I mean, he's playing great. He's a lot happier. He looks a lot happier as a Dodger playing in the World Series than he did as an angel going home to Japan every year for the last six years after the final game of the regular season. You know, Scott, there was a video that circulated of him last year after an Angels loss where the guy looked to be almost on the verge of tears. People around him saw how unsatisfied he was because he came to this country to compete for championships. He said after the game last night, he's just grateful to be in this position.

15:11And you know what? If you watch him, he's showing swagger. He's showing fire. It's great to see. Don't look for him to pitch in this series. Dave Roberts has slammed the brakes on that idea, but the rest of his game is on full display. Oh, boy, and I've got to ask about Fernando Valenzuela. The Dodger great passed away Tuesday at the age of 63. Fans might remember Fernando mania, the magical 1981 season that ended with a World Series title. Dodgers remembered him last night. Oh, yeah. They played a video tribute before the game. And as you can imagine, plenty of people in the stands with number 34 jerseys.

15:52He's heavy on the mind this week for that franchise. The last time the Dodgers played the Yankees, right? Valenzuela was in the rotation. He started and won game three for them. Oral Hirschheiser and Steve Yeager walked out in number 34 jerseys when they came out to throw the first pitch. You know, it's really sad, of course. I meant so much to that franchise past the week before the World Series, but what an appropriate time to honor someone who meant so much to this team, Scott. Yeah. Michelle Steele of ESPN. Take care. Talk to you soon. Thank you. Sure.

16:28And that's up first for Saturday, October 26, 2024. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Andrew Craig produced today's podcast with help from Fernando Naro. Our director is Michael Radcliffe. Our editors are Hannah Block, Emily Kopp, Will Jarvis, Ed McNulty, and Melissa Gray, who are all wise and all smooth like butter. Hannah Glovna is our technical director with engineering support from Stacey Abbott, Andy Huther, and Arthur Halliday-Lorent. They put up with so much from us, and we appreciate it. Yeah, they put up with us. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer.

17:10With help this week from Julia Redpath, Louise Clemens is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday story, A Forgotten War. That's how an exhausted doctor described the conflict in Sudan and the resulting humanitarian crisis. We'll hear about the country's civil war and how Sudan got to this point. For more news, interviews, sports, music, you can tune in to Weekend Edition on your radio. Also, go to stations.npr.org to find your local NPR station.

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