Israeli Embassy Employees Killed, Israel's Occupation Plans, Trump Bill Latest

0:02Two Israeli embassy employees were shot to death in Washington D.C. last night outside of a Jewish museum. Local and federal authorities are investigating. The killings come as Israel faces pressure over a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I'm Michelle Martin with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. Aid is starting to trickle into Gaza after Israel lifted a nearly three-month blockade on food and other essentials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also says he intends for Israel to take full control of the enclave. And House Republicans are racing to pass President Trump's domestic agenda before Memorial Day.

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2:17GoodRx is not insurance, but if you have insurance or Medicare, GoodRx may beat your copay. Save time and money on prescriptions at goodrx.com slash upfirst. Two staff members with the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside an event in downtown D.C. last night. The shooter police say chanted free Palestine after being detained. President Trump has condemned the shooting, calling it an act of anti-Semitism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his heart ached for the victims. NPR's Becky Sullivan joins us now. Becky, what do we know about what happened? Yeah, so this took place right around 9 p.m.

2:54last night here in D.C. It was just outside an event for young Jewish foreign policy professionals. The event was put on by an advocacy organization called the American Jewish Committee. It was held at a local Jewish museum in downtown D.C., just under a mile from the Capitol. Outside this event, a man was observed pacing back and forth, police said. And then a group of four people left this foreign policy professional networking event, and the man opened fire, killed two of them. And so here's the D.C. police chief, Pamela Smith, speaking to reporters about this late last night. After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security.

3:28The suspect chanted, free, free Palestine. And there's a video of him circulating on social media of this exact moment that the police chief described. There's a keffiyeh with him, which is the recognizable scarf of the Palestinian movement. You can clearly hear him say those words, free, free Palestine, before he is quickly detained by security. I mean, taken on his side. Police say they have tentatively identified this man as Elias Rodriguez, the 30-year-old from Chicago, they say, this early stage. Apparently no prior encounters with law enforcement and still obviously a lot to learn about when and why he came to D.C., whether these victims were targeted specifically.

4:03The FBI says they are investigating this as a possible hate crime, a possible act of terrorism. Okay. What do we know about the victims? Well, we know that they were a young couple, a man and a woman. Israel's foreign ministry has named them as Yaron Lashinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgram. Milgram worked in public diplomacy at the embassy. Lashinsky was a researcher who focused on issues related to the Middle East and North Africa. And in fact, on his LinkedIn, he wrote about the importance of, quote, interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding when it comes to these issues. Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Yehiel Leiter, told reporters a little bit about the pair.

4:35It's a young couple about to be engaged. The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's cultural center. Obviously, just an incredibly tragic situation. Yeah, sure sounds that way. What's the reaction been from officials from everywhere? Yeah, I mean, there has been an outpouring of statements of condemnation from politicians, diplomats in the U.S. and Israel and beyond. I mean, this is an incident that involves diplomatic staff on foreign soil. It's a really big deal.

5:14You mentioned a Yahoo statement earlier. He blamed this attack on rising anti-Semitism and what he called incitement against Israel. He also said he had ordered an increase to security at Israeli diplomatic missions around the world here in the U.S. The condemnation came from both sides of the aisle. President Trump, as you mentioned, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a brazen act of cowardly anti-Semitic violence. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said anti-Semitism is a threat to all we hold deers of society must be confronted and rooted out everywhere. So a lot of unity there in this response.

5:45That's NPR's Becky Sullivan. Becky, thanks for getting us up to date here. You're so welcome. Moving to Gaza now, a trickle of aid has entered the enclave this morning. Israel has begun letting in aid trucks this week after its nearly three-month-long total blockade of everything from food to medicine. The United Nations says a handful of bakeries are now operational in South and Central Gaza. And last night in his first press conference with Israeli journalist in five months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plan to expand the war. NPR's Hadil Al-Shalchi is with us now with the latest from Tel Aviv.

6:17Good morning, Hadil. Good morning. So Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took questions from reporters last night. What did he say about Israel's stepped-up military campaign now in Gaza? Right. So Netanyahu went through his order for the Israeli military to mobilize this expansion of the war. He reiterated that the plan is to push all Palestinians who are in northern Gaza right now into an area in the south. And then in fact, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the entire northern part of Gaza yesterday. That's at least 100 ,000 Palestinians right now, according to Gaza first responders.

6:53And we need to know like the south is almost entirely destroyed because of the two years of war. It has very little resources, let alone space to live in. But Netanyahu also said that he is willing to end the war with certain conditions. The hostages come home, Hamas lays down its arms, and... We implement the Trump plan, he said. That's Trump's proposal to displace Palestinians out of Gaza fully. Netanyahu called it a brilliant and revolutionary plan. Yesterday, NPR sat down with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and he staunchly defended Israel's sovereign right to conduct the war. In a statement, Hamas condemned Netanyahu's pledge to Trump's plan, saying it undermined Washington's role as a, quote, mediator.

7:40And I'd like to mention the UN's human rights chief said that Israel's plan to force people to move under airstrikes, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods, the denial of humanitarian assistance. He said that all of this appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza, and that is against international law. And he said it is, quote, tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Hadil, what have we heard from Palestinians inside Gaza? Well, under this major international pressure, Israel finally said it would allow a, quote, minimal amount of aid into Gaza. According to the UN, about 200 trucks entered carrying some critical supplies.

8:18That's compared to 600 trucks which were crossing daily during the January ceasefire. So the UN is really calling this week's development a, quote, drop in the ocean. NPR's Enes Baba met a woman at the malnutrition department of a hospital in Gaza City. Ilham Abdulhafid was carrying her one-year-old daughter. She can't find milk to feed her baby anymore, so she's been giving her water instead.

8:44My daughter is very thin, the mother says. She was in hospital because of malnutrition hooked up to needles and IVs. I'd cry every day, my heart breaking for her, she said. So, Hadeel, if we could turn to the fatal shooting last night in D.C., what's the reaction that you're hearing in Israel? There's been a string of condemnation from here. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the foreign minister are calling or called the shooting despicable and anti-Semitic. The foreign ministry posted a statement saying, quote, may their memory be a blessing. And Netanyahu has said that he's instructed to increase security at Israeli missions around the world.

9:20That is NPR's Hadil Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv. Hadil, thank you. You're welcome.

9:32After a long session on Capitol Hill, House Republicans might be closing in on passing a massive bill at the heart of President Trump's domestic agenda. Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson talking to reporters yesterday. I think that all of our colleagues here will really like this final product. We're excited. I believe we are going to land this airplane. The bill would, among other things, extend President Trump's 2017 tax cuts before they expire at the end of the year. NPR's congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales, has been following all this. Claudia, so despite, I mean, these long negotiations, it's not clear if the Republicans are going to land this plane, as the speaker says.

10:07Where do things stand? Where's the plane? Well, they're still trying to land right now. They're on the House floor at this very moment debating the bill, but they do appear to be closing in on potential passage of this massive tax and spending bill. It's quite the turnaround from just a few hours ago. They overcame a series of hurdles overnight from GOP holdouts to opposition from Democrats, pushing this plan out of a House Rules Committee that lasted more than 20 hours and a key procedural vote. President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson may have pulled off another one of these one-two punches we've seen a number of times this year to get GOP holdouts back in line.

10:45These fiscal conservatives, they're members of the House Freedom Caucus, may now be on board after an hours-long White House meeting yesterday. So, OK, House Republican leaders released an updated version of this plan. That's the plan that President Trump calls his, quote, big, beautiful bill. What's different now? Right. After this White House meeting, as Johnson previewed to us, there was going to be some changes to the bill. We should note the big bill kept a lot of its big provisions. So that includes extending the Trump tax plan, major policy changes in immigration and energy campaign promises like no tax on tips.

11:20It also has a major win for GOP supporters raising the cap on state and local tax deductions for individuals and couples. But there were tweaks to the bill to win over these holdouts, ultimately, that included moving up new work requirements from Medicaid to next year and phasing out some energy tax credits. These holdouts did successfully stall momentum on the plan over concerns it could add trillions to the U.S. deficit. But these changes, along with incoming plans for new presidential executive orders, appears to have flipped momentum back in the conference's favor. We also saw Democrats work to delay the plan as well.

11:59Right. Unlike the House Freedom Caucus members, however, Democrats don't have much influence here. However, they slowed the process down as much as possible, helping drag out that House rules hearing and leading fiery arguments on the floor, railing against plans for cuts to Medicaid that could jeopardize coverage for many Americans. Now, House Speaker Johnson had said he wanted the House to send this bill to the Senate by Memorial Day. So what's next for that to happen? Right. This is a major step. It looks like they're on track, but there's still a very long way to go. As Senate Republicans have raised plenty of their own concerns about the bill already.

12:36So now Senate Majority Leader John Thune coming with passage of this bill will face a tough task, which would be threading the needle between this plan and concerns from his conference, from his own fiscal hawks in the chamber, as well as moderate's concerns about those potential Medicaid cuts. So they've already made clear they plan to make a lot of changes to this House bill. So maybe the landing gear isn't down yet on the plane. They've got to switch it out. NPR's Claudia Grisales, thanks a lot. Thank you.

13:13And finally, the Justice Department says it wants to withdraw an oversight agreement negotiated with the Minneapolis Police Department. City leaders and the Justice Department signed the federal consent decree after a white police officer killed George Floyd, who was black, five years ago. They made the agreement just before President Biden left office. Now, the Trump Justice Department says it's factually unjustified. More on that story on Morning Edition, the radio show, and on our website, npr.org.

13:46And that's Up First for Thursday, May 22nd. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Amy Martinez. How about listening to Consider This from NPR? Up First covers three or more big stories in the day. Consider This gives you one story in-depth in less than 15 minutes. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kevin Drew, Carrie Kahn, Kelsey Snell, Ali Schweitzer, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Budge, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zach Coleman in Washington, D.C., and Josh Savage-O at NPR in St. Paul, Minnesota. And our technical director is Carly Strange.

14:21We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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