Missed Paychecks, NBA Gambling Scandal, Russia Reacts

0:01More than a million federal workers are missing a paycheck during this government shutdown. The White House says it's playing a game of twister with the budget to keep some workers paid while others go without. I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:20An NBA gambling scandal is shaking the sports world with an active player and head coach among those arrested. The case sounds like a movie script, one that involves millions of dollars, the mafia, and high-tech equipment to rig poker games. And Russia responds after the U.S. placed sanctions on two of the country's largest oil companies. President Putin says they won't have any impact and shrugged off the canceled meeting with President Trump. So what does this mean for the war in Ukraine? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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1:32Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education, and human help when you need it. Learn more at schwab.com. This message comes from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Remember seeing plentiful bees buzzing around gardens and fields? Chasing monarch butterflies through the park? Building snowmen after the first snowstorm? These are the moments of wonder NRDC is fighting to preserve for future generations. Donate to support them at nrdc.org slash first, and your gift will be matched five times. It's day 24 of the government shutdown, and across the country, close to a million and a half federal workers are going without pay.

2:14On Thursday, the Senate voted on Democratic and Republican bills to pay federal employees. Republicans would have paid the people still working. Democrats would have paid everybody, including those on furlough. Both bills failed. NPR's Andrea Hsu joins us now to talk about it. So, Andrea, tell us about who exactly is not getting paid. Yeah, so these are civilian employees of the government all over the country. And roughly 700 ,000 of them are furloughed, meaning they're not working and not getting paid. And close to that many are working but also not getting paid. This includes air traffic controllers, also people working at the Social Security Administration like Tiara Carter.

2:54She answers the 1-800 line there from her base in Tampa, Florida. And she's also a union rep for the American Federation of Government Employees. And she says the shutdown has been a real financial hit. You know, she's had to take out loans and seek out a hardship withdrawal from her 401k. I kind of feel like I'm in a pool and I'm trying to swim to the top. But every time I get to the middle, I'm getting knocked back down. It's got to feel rough. What kind of resources are available to federal workers like her who find themselves suddenly struggling to try and get by? Well, here in the D.C. area where there's a high concentration of federal workers, food banks have been distributing boxes of provisions to government employees.

3:34Those events have drawn hundreds of people with lines stretching around the block. And A, a lot of federal workers do their banking at credit unions. And now these credit unions all over the country are offering short-term interest-free loans to help with things like house payments or car payments until their next paychecks arrive. And credit unions say they've been hearing from more federal workers every day. Now, here's the thing, though. I mean, as bad as things are for federal employees, I mean, there are a lot of people listening right now, Andrea, who might not be noticing that there's anything astray and anything amiss, right?

4:06Because there are parts of the government that are still functioning. So when exactly might there be an impact of the shutdown that people will feel? Well, it really depends on how long the shutdown goes on. If it drags on and on, experts say the general public will feel the economic effects in their communities. I spoke with Shia Khabis about this. He's with the Bipartisan Policy Center that's a think tank here in Washington. Not everybody feels it yet, but it's actually affecting the broader economy. And the longer it goes on, the more people will feel the ripple effects. Grocery stores that are located near federal buildings are seeing less foot traffic.

4:43Daycares are seeing fewer kids because their parents are now furloughed. Things like that are already happening. OK. There are, though, some federal workers that are getting paid. Who are they and where is that money coming from? Yeah, well, in any shutdown, there are people who continue working and getting paid because their salaries don't come from the funding that Congress has to approve every year. So most everyone at the VA falls into this category. But this time, the Trump administration has also moved money around to ensure that some others are also getting paid. White House Budget Director Russ Vogt called this budgetary twister.

5:16So, for example, last week, members of the military did get their paychecks on schedule. That money came from unused research and development funds from the Defense Department. And this week, law enforcement officers doing immigration enforcement got what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called a super check that included pay all the way back to October 1st. And their paychecks are coming from money approved for Homeland Security as part of last summer's tax and spending bill. But some of their colleagues, those serving and support roles, are still not getting paid. So in the shutdown A, increasingly there are haves and have-nots within the federal workforce.

5:53And in some cases, they're working right alongside each other. That's NPR's Andrea Hsu. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

6:06The NBA says it's cooperating with the FBI's investigation into illegal gambling. Yeah, federal authorities arrested more than 30 people yesterday. They include an active pro player, Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat, and an active coach, Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trailblazers. So how widespread is this? NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is with us. Becky, this would be a big deal if it was just one player, but this is way more than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's not just one player. It's not just one team. According to the indictment, the scandal involved leagues from multiple teams.

6:41You had players or coaches with the Charlotte Hornets, the Toronto Raptors, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Orlando Magic, and the Portland Trailblazers all allegedly sharing non-public information with gamblers or friends who then told gamblers. And I think the access that crime rings and organized gamblers apparently have to NBA players and coaches should be a serious concern for the league because it's clear that even those who are making millions of dollars are at risk for getting swept up in this stuff. I mean, Billups made more than$100 million over the course of his Hall of Fame NBA career.

7:07He makes millions per year as a coach. Rozier was on a contract to make$26 million this year alone. Yeah. How did all this even come to light? Well, the way that these modern online gambling companies work is that there are these monitoring services that track bets across platforms looking for unusual patterns. And so if you take the Terry Rozier game, for example, this was a game back in 2023. He told a friend that he was going to withdraw early from the game with an injury. That wasn't public information at the time. The friend allegedly sold that information to a gambler and then organized bettors placed collectively around a quarter million dollars on various prop bets, basically saying, guessing that Rozier would have a worse game than usual.

7:44And so obviously when you have a quarter mil all flooding in on sort of a relatively random players' unders, that rings alarm bells. The NBA was notified. The league actually investigated at the time and cleared Rozier of wrongdoing, although the indictment alleges that Rozier knew what was happening and had conspirators come to his home afterward to count their earnings. Rozier's lawyer, I should say, denies this and plans to fight these charges. Now, Chauncey Billups was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2024. He's the highest profile person named so far. So what are the charges against him?

8:15Well, he faces a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to money launder. Both of those are related actually to an indictment about underground poker games. In that indictment, prosecutors allege that organized crime groups basically run these games and use Billups. They say that they used Billups as a celebrity to sort of lure in victims. And then the organizers used all this high-tech equipment like rigged shuffling machines and x-ray poker tables and special glasses to cheat and win. But the other indictment that's about sports gambling, Billups is not named there, but there is an unnamed co-conspirator described in a way that matches Billups exactly.

8:48The years he played in the league, when he became a coach, that person shared confidential info about how the Trailblazers were planning to sit their stars in a game against the Chicago Bulls with a defendant who then shared that info with gamblers who then wagered more than$100 ,000 on the game successfully. Phillips, you know, his lawyer said in a statement to me, they deny the allegations, both related to the poker and providing insider information and said, quote, we look forward to our day in court. How's the league been reacting to this? I mean, I think people are stunned by what's happening.

9:16You know, people lamenting that just this mix of sort of social media, everybody's easy to contact, plus widespread legalization of gambling results in this constant contact with gamblers. Here's how Bruce Brown, a guard at the Denver Nuggets, put it to reporters yesterday. There's been games where I've been called every name in the book just because I didn't hit a three or two. I mean, that's just the state of the game we're in. It's when sports betting got legal. So, I mean, just kind of deal with it. Not think about it. Don't check your DMs after games. Also, every team has their general counsel come talk to players before the season began to tell them what to do, what not to do, what's legal, what's not.

9:49And obviously, no betting on games, no sharing that kind of confidential information with gamblers. For many teams, that talk happens this week, so it's obviously jarring for this news to happen now. Becky, I know this is very fresh right now, but will this prompt any change with the NBA? Yeah, I mean, it is too soon to tell. But certainly if this isn't a huge red flag, I don't know what is. You had active players, active coaches involved. And frankly, I think that's a disaster for trust in the game. And it's not just the NBA that is dealing with this stuff, by the way. The NCAA banned a handful of D1 college basketball players last month because they had gambled directly on their own games or worked with gamblers to do so.

10:24So Major League Baseball is investigating a pair of pitchers with the Cleveland Guardians, who were the subject of suspicious betting activity this summer. And all of this, of course, is why these leagues used to be vocally against legalizing sports gambling. But that ship has now sailed and there is a lot of money to be made by embracing it. That's NPR's Becky Sullivan. Becky, thanks. You're welcome.

10:51We have the view from Moscow of President Trump's shifting efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine. In recent days, President Trump said he would hold another summit meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Then he said he wouldn't. He has said Ukraine will have to surrender territory to the Russian invaders, yet also imposed new sanctions on Russia. NPR's Moscow correspondent Charles Maines is watching all of this from the Russian capital. Charles, so let's start with these sanctions. They seem to be a bit of a shift in Trump's approach to Russia. Tell us more about them. Yeah, sure. These sanctions target two of Russia's top oil companies, Rosnaft and Lukoil, which jointly make up nearly half of Russian oil exports.

11:28And they're significant because they mark the first time Trump has followed through on threats to make Russia pay a price for its war in Ukraine. So why now? Well, it's no secret Trump wants to see this war end. Part of his larger mission, I think, to cast himself as a global peacemaker. You know, and Trump has expressed real frustration with Putin's foot dragging on a peace deal, most recently with this summit meeting agreed to and then tabled in a matter of days. Now, the reason is negotiations to set up the meeting showed zero flexibility from the Russian side, flexibility that Trump thought he had from Putin, including to Trump's latest proposal, which was to freeze the conflict along current battle lines.

12:06Now, was this a case of missed signals, of being played? We just don't know. But Trump said with Putin, he found it was often nice talk, but the actual deal-making went nowhere, and so sanctions. And Charles, what about Russian reaction to all this? Because I can't imagine they're pleased. They are not. I think, though, this took Moscow a bit by surprise. You know, one moment they're up, next they're down. The summit idea itself came out of a phone call that Putin initiated with Trump, just as Trump was set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the possibility of giving U.S.

12:37long-range weapons, these tomahawk missiles you may have heard about. Trump then decides not to give the tomahawks and says he'll meet with Putin instead, which was seen as a real coup here in Moscow until it wasn't. Suddenly it's no meeting, now sanctions. Putin addressed the issue last night with reporters saying this undermined recent progress in restoring relations with the U.S. that he hoped the meeting with Trump wasn't canceled but postponed, but he also gave no ground.

13:07So here he says no self-respecting country or no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure. All right. Now, Charles, is there any way to think that these sanctions might work and might change Vladimir Putin's calculus when it comes to negotiating an end of the war? For now, the answer would seem to be no. Putin acknowledged these sanctions were harmful, but insisted they were not fatal to the Russian economy. And it's true. You know, oil revenues make up a significant portion of the federal budget, but there are others. And certainly Russia has a lot of practice with sanctions evasion, including in the energy sector.

13:40But this could make things really uncomfortable for Russia, particularly if China and India scale back oil imports out of fear of secondary sanctions, for example. But then again, you know, there are risks for Trump here, too. His predecessor, Joe Biden, didn't impose sanctions on Russian oil for a reason. He was afraid of how they might affect global markets and, of course, how they might affect American consumers. NPR's Moscow correspondent, Charles Maines. Charles, thank you. Thank you.

14:09And that's up first for Friday, October 24th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. New Zealand is undergoing an experiment to try to save its endangered wildlife by killing all animals that are not native. How far should people go to reverse the damage people caused? Though it is a bit gross, it's actually quite an ethical thing because it's easier if you kill off something that's causing a problem and then letting them kill off everything else. Listen to the Sunday story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Emily Kopp, Russell Lewis, Kate Bartlett, Mohamed Elbardisi, and Martha Ann Overland.

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