Latest in U.S. Politics; Escalation in Conflict Between Hezbollah and Israel

0:01Disturbing news about a Republican gubernatorial candidate who allegedly described himself as a black Nazi. And what effect is that having in the 2024 elections? I'm Scott Simon. I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News. Shocking reporting on North Carolina's Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who Donald Trump referred to as Martin Luther King on steroids. How does he feel about him now? Plus, exploding pagers and an airstrike that targeted and killed Hezbollah operatives. We'll look at the latest escalations in that ongoing fight between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israeli forces, and if they point toward a widening conflict in the region.

0:44So stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.

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1:35So be invested in yourself. Be invested in your business. Be invested in better with Betterment at Betterment.com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over$1.75 million to support NPR programming. Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club. You can learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase. This message comes from NPR sponsor Walmart. Did you know that Walmart is one of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2025? It's no surprise. Walmart is investing$1 billion in training and development to help associates build lasting careers with or without a degree.

2:22In fact, 75 % of Walmart management started in hourly rolls. With benefits like health care, paid parental leave, and tuition support, Walmart isn't just a place to work. It's a place to grow. Learn more at walmart.com slash spark. CNN reported this week that North Carolina's Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who's running to be governor of that state, left some troubling and offensive comments on a pornographic site several years ago. Robinson denies the allegations, but former President Trump, who publicly cozied up to him during his presidential campaign, is already distancing himself from Robinson.

3:05That's just one of the political stories in a very eventful week. NPR's Ron Elving joins us now. Ron, thanks for being with us. Good to be with you, Scott. CNN reports. Republican candidate Mark Robinson left a number of disturbing and shocking comments on a porn site many years ago. NPR has not confirmed them. Mr. Robinson has denied the words are his. What kind of problem might this be for former President Trump? Mark Robinson has been a problem for North Carolina Republicans since he was elected lieutenant governor four years ago with Trump's endorsement. Now, as the nominee for governor with Trump's support, he's been running well behind the Democratic nominee, Josh Stein, even before these reports.

3:49Robinson has denied the comments, but without addressing the array of evidence tying him to them. And just before the deadline for removing his name from the ballot this week, a lot of Republicans were trying to get him to drop out. Now, the Trump campaign says this is all about Robinson, but this is an African-American who Trump has said was a far better speaker than Martin Luther King, calling him Martin Luther King on steroids. Some were suggesting he would help Trump get some black votes in North Carolina this fall, even while firing up the base. But if that was once a prospect, Republicans now fear he will hurt their turnout.

4:26And that's the key. Let me ask you about yesterday's decision by the Georgia Board of Elections. A majority of members ordered that the state must count its ballots by hand come November. What effect could that have? If this decision stands, it means hand counting five million pieces of paper. It means we aren't going to have Georgia's results for days, if not weeks. A flashback to Florida in the 2000 election, a nightmare of epic proportions perhaps, and it means more doubt, not less, about the accuracy of the count. It's been condemned by officials in both parties, but it's been praised by the Trump campaign.

5:08Ron, the Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate by half a percentage point this week. Former President Trump accused the Board of Governors of doing this as a favor to the Democrats. How do you read their decision? The Federal Reserve Board of Governors determines borrowing costs for financial institutions and individuals. For more than two years, it's been raising those costs to throttle down the economy, to fight inflation. That's made it harder to start or expand a business, to buy homes or build new housing. And it's worked. The economy has slowed enough to reduce those price pressures without a recession, a soft landing at least so far.

5:49So, consumers and investors are eager for the Fed to ease up again, and now it's done so, and economic activity should follow. Now, that may not serve Trump's interest at the moment, so he says it's political. We should note that the members of the Fed board are appointed for long terms, so they don't represent just one president. They tend to represent both parties, as the current board does, and in fact, the current board chairman, Jerome Powell, who announced this rate cut this week was appointed by none other than Donald Trump. And of course, the week can't end without me asking you a question that's based on polls.

6:25Number of polls, Ron, have come out showing that the debate between Vice President Harris and Donald Trump did not give Vice President Harris as much of a bounce in the election as had been predicted. Are you surprised? This is an enormously consequential election, and most voters seem to be deeply dug in on one side or the other. It's going to take a lot to produce a measurable movement in the head-to-head polls nationwide or in the swing states. It was notable that the post-debate polls so consistently hauled the debate for Harris. Now, that helps establish her candidacy up against a former president.

7:08It gets her over an enormous legitimacy hurdle. In the long run, it may prove to have been pivotal. But in the short run, and in such a polarized environment, we shouldn't expect anything to produce a dramatic shift. And Piers Ron Elvin, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you, Scott.

7:35Israel's fighting with Lebanon took an unexpected turn this week when Israel weaponized pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters as well as civilians. Dozens were killed and thousands were wounded in those explosions. And then yesterday, an airstrike in a suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed two top Hezbollah military commanders. That strike killed dozens of civilians, including women and children. We have NPR's Jaina Raff in Beirut and Ruth Sherlock in Tel Aviv now. Thank you both for being with us. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. Jane, let's begin with you, if we can. Israel has not publicly taken responsibility for that wave of attacks that used Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies.

8:20It is claiming yesterday's airstrikes in Beirut. Tell us what happened. Yeah, it was Friday rush hour, and the streets were full of people coming from work and children returning from school when the airstrike collapsed a building in a residential neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs. Lebanese health officials say at least 31 people were killed, including three children and seven women. Hezbollah announced the death of 16 fighters included in that total. I and producer Jawad Rizanala arrived as emergency vehicles were still trying to get through. Security forces, Hezbollah security, were trying to hold people back.

9:04The target was a Hezbollah commander in charge of the group's special forces, but the blast collapsed parts of nearby apartment buildings. It was extremely tense. Earlier this week, as you mentioned, an Israeli attack blew up pagers and radios, killing more than 30 fighters and civilians. And those attacks wounded a staggering 3 ,000 people. Last night, neighborhood residents gathered on the sidewalks, waiting for news of missing relatives in the airstrikes. We spoke with a blacksmith who was searching for his brother-in-law's family, including a four-year-old girl and a teenager. And Scott, when we went back this morning, he told us they were no longer missing.

9:46The entire family was dead. He was waiting for their bodies to be recovered. Ruth, what has Israel said about the men that had targeted in yesterday's attack? Well, Ibrahim Akil, the commander, the top commander, was wanted for a long time by both Israel and the United States. You know, Scott, last year the State Department even posted a$7 million reward for information that would lead to Akil being located or arrested. And this is because the U.S. says he was involved in a major terror attack in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy and then at the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon.

10:24Now, the Israeli military yesterday said Akil was the mastermind in a Hezbollah plan to take control of parts of northern Israel. The military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said Hezbollah had been planning an operation similar to the deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7th last year. But he didn't provide any evidence for this claim. Israel said the strike on Beirut also killed several other Hezbollah operatives. And Hezbollah has confirmed that they've said more than a dozen of their members were killed. Jane, these attacks appear to have caught Hezbollah by surprise. What do they say about any possible response?

11:03Yeah, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah described it as probably the biggest security breach in the group's history. It's clearly cut into their communications ability and it's raised questions of infiltration. Yesterday's airstrike was the deadliest Israeli attack in Beirut in almost 20 years since 2006, that war between Israel and Hezbollah, and it follows Israel's killing of Nasrallah's deputy, Fuad Shukur, in an attack in Beirut in July. Hezbollah responded to that attack in the summer by launching hundreds of missiles at Israel. This week, after the Pager attacks, Nasrallah vowed revenge in ways Israel wouldn't expect.

11:43He hasn't yet spoken about yesterday's strike. Ruth Sherlock, you were in northern Israel yesterday where many of these rockets from Lebanon have been landing. What was it like there? Yeah, well, we went to Nahariya, which is the closest city to the northern border with Lebanon. And Scott, the atmosphere was really tense. Just as we were doing interviews there, people received all these alerts on their phones of multiple incoming rocket attacks that were landing just northeast of the city. There were about 140 rockets that landed yesterday. And up here, up there, Scott, you know, the siren that warns of these types of attacks tends to go off just a few seconds before the rocket actually impacts.

12:22In fact, one resident told me sometimes the rockets hit before the siren warns. So you feel really exposed just standing or walking on the street. One woman I spoke with who'd been displaced from a village right on the border with Lebanon told me even here in Naharia, every time she leaves the hotel where she stays, she plans the route to basically move from bomb shelter to bomb shelter. She talked about what it's like to live in this situation. We don't know what is going to happen. We are waiting that something will happen so we can end it. OK, we want to go back to our homes. It's really this sense of like fearful waiting.

12:58She doesn't exactly want an escalation in the war, but if that escalation brings a resolution, then she thinks it's necessary. She wouldn't give us her name because the situation is so fluid and delicate that she's worried about her safety. And then giving us her name feeds into that. And civilians on both sides of the border here, Scott, you know, have been displaced in this more than 60 ,000 people have on the Israeli side. And the death tolls from the rocket attacks here are lower than the deaths on the Lebanese side. It's still terrifying for civilians. And Jane, of course, a lot of concern about the chances for a full-scale war in the region.

13:39Does that seem more likely now? Well, until this week, despite the rhetoric, Israel, Iran and Lebanon were believed to be trying to limit the chances of all-out war. But these attacks seem to have changed that equation. They're impossible for Hezbollah not to respond to. Hassan Nasrallah, their leader, has made clear that the only thing that will stop fighting at the border is an end to the war in Gaza. And with Israeli officials saying the war is now in a new phase, that seems unlikely. And there's Jaina Raff in Beirut, Ruth Sherlock in Tel Aviv. Thank you both very much for joining us. Thank you, Scott.

14:21And that's up first for Saturday, September 21st. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon, Michael Radcliffe, and Gabe O 'Connor and Martin Patience. Produced today's podcast, Andrew Craig directed. Our editors were Dee Parvaz, Matthew Sherman, Vincent Nee, and James Heider. Anna Glovna is our technical director with engineering support from Nisha Hines, Zach Coleman, and Arthur Laurent. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Sarah Oliver is our executive producer. And Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the podcast, water supplies are low in Central Asia. Take a look at how this is playing out in the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where the UN's environmental program says one of the, quote, most staggering disasters of the 20th century is still unfolding.

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