Trump Fires Kristi Noem, Middle East War Latest, Venezuela-US Diplomacy

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0:19Rachel Martin:President Trump tries new leadership at the Department of Homeland Security. Kristi Noem oversaw an operation that killed two Americans in Minnesota. She lost her job when lawmakers questioned her spending on ads that promoted her. I'm Michelle Martin. That's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:38Noam Chomsky:The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is widening. Israel ordered residents to flee the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israelis described the area as a stronghold of Hezbollah. Her correspondent saw roads choked with people fleeing before bombs fell on their neighborhoods.

0:51Rachel Martin:And two months after U.S. forces seized Venezuela's president, the two countries are cutting deals. What does Washington want from Caracas? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:36Rachel Martin:President Trump has fired his Homeland Security Secretary.

2:40Noam Chomsky:Christine Oen became the public face of the administration's mass deportations project. Now she is a casualty in the first cabinet shakeup of Trump's second term. The president announced her firing in a truth social post on Thursday and said Mark Wayne Mullen, a senator from Oklahoma, would replace her.

2:55Rachel Martin:Let's talk this through with NPR immigration policy correspondent Jimena Bastille. Jimena, good morning. Good morning. How'd this come about?

3:02Ayesha Rascoe:Well, we didn't know Trump would fire her, but during two congressional hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week, I did notice that both Republicans and Democrats had questions about her leadership, including how efficiently the agency distributed disaster relief funds and what she had been spending her agency's money on. One of the most notable moments came during questions from GOP Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. He asked Noam about a multi-million dollar immigration-related ad campaign that she ran last year. The contract for the ads went to a firm that was created just days before.

3:39Ayesha Rascoe:And according to reporting from investigative news outlet ProPublica, one of the beneficiaries was connected with the husband of former DHS spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin. Now, NPR has not independently confirmed that reporting, but Kennedy did ask Noam if President Trump had asked her to run these ads. And Noam said and basically confirmed that Trump was OK with it.

4:00Rachel Martin:Kennedy's questioning was interesting because he asserted that this contract was for hundreds of millions of dollars and that they basically promoted Noam rather than administration policy, that they were promotional ads for her and done by a company with political connections to her. Although it strikes me that that was her most prominent job, was being the face of immigration enforcement. Right.

4:21Ayesha Rascoe:She was featured in many promotional social media videos, including standing in places like El Salvador's notorious prison, Secau, and on the front lines of many individual immigration arrests themselves. And she always defended the actions of the agency, but that backfired after events in Minnesota. If you remember, two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration officers there back in January. And after the death of one of them, Alex Preddy, Noam was quick to label him a domestic terrorist.

4:50Noam Chomsky:This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.

5:01Ayesha Rascoe:Now, that language, although used before, drew immediate bipartisan scrutiny in this case.

5:06Rachel Martin:Okay, so she's out. We haven't even gone through all the different controversies involving her, and she is to be replaced by Mark Wayne Mullen, United States Senator from Oklahoma. When would he start?

5:17Ayesha Rascoe:Trump says that Mullen takes over by the end of March, although, of course, he does need to get confirmed by the Senate to officially take on the post. Here's Mullen speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill after the announcement.

5:29Noam Chomsky:I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at a not a complete surprise, but it came at a little bit of surprise for us. And so the president, as you guys know, we're great friends and we get along great. I look forward to working with him and his cabinet. Of course, we still got to go do this little thing called confirmation.

5:45Ayesha Rascoe:One of his first tasks will be to address the lack of trust in immigration enforcement, which was a big theme this week during those hearings.

5:51Rachel Martin:Where does the agency stand overall?

5:53Ayesha Rascoe:The agency is now in its third week without funding, which means hundreds of thousands of employees are furloughed or working without pay. Now, zooming out, Trump won his election in part due to promises to clamp down on border security. But in the wake of Minnesota, nearly two-thirds of Americans say immigration and customs enforcement has gone too far. That's according to a poll from NPR, PBS News, and Marist last month. Still, immigration enforcement continues to be a top issue for the president and for Democrats as we enter the midterm cycle.

6:25Rachel Martin:And Piers Amanda Bastillo, thanks as always.

6:27Ayesha Rascoe:Thank you.

6:34Rachel Martin:Israeli forces struck a suburb of Lebanon's capital overnight.

6:38Noam Chomsky:Beirut is a city of millions of people now, shaking from bombs and filled with evacuees. Israel ordered residents to flee a southern suburb that it describes as a stronghold of Hezbollah. That group had responded to the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran.

6:52Rachel Martin:NPR's Adil Al-Shalchi is in Beirut with a report. Hi there, Adil. Good morning. What's it like where you've been in the last 24 hours?

6:59Ayesha Rascoe:Well, it was quiet early this morning, but the Israeli military just announced that it is still striking the Tahir neighborhood. It's really actually not that far from downtown Beirut, close to where I am, just about four miles away. And the Lebanese government says that the death toll has now gone up to 100 people since the war with Iran began. Now, Steve, I was out reporting last night, right before the strikes yesterday, and roads, which are normally not busy at that time of night, were gridlocked. Israel had issued an evacuation order for the entire southern suburb. And families were fleeing in trucks.

7:33Ayesha Rascoe:You know, the back of them were stuffed with blankets, kitchen products. You know, they stuffed their kids back there too. And then Beirut itself is just crowded with the displays. You know, those with money are able to afford hotels or rent apartments. I found it hard to find a hotel room myself before coming here because they're so full. But then those who can't afford hotels are sleeping in their cars. And on the streets, the sidewalks are packed here with displaced families, mothers and children huddled under blankets to stay warm, men sitting around little fires to keep warm, also smoking cigarettes.

8:05Ayesha Rascoe:And Lebanese officials say over 95 ,000 people are now displaced. And some of those people from the south have had to evacuate their homes multiple times.

8:13Rachel Martin:Wow. I want to understand how we got here. So the U.S. and Israel struck Iran last weekend. Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is allied with Iran. They fired upon Israel. The Israelis fired back. And then how did we get from that initial exchange of fire to this mass evacuation?

8:29Ayesha Rascoe:So you have to remember that Israel's actually been striking in southern Lebanon and what it's calling Hezbollah installations for the past 15 months already, even though there was a ceasefire brokered last year. But then it just ramped it up after, like you said, Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel earlier this week. Now, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group first said this was in solidarity with Iran. And then it backtracked it and said the rockets were because of ongoing Israeli attacks. But this is still the first time Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in those 15 months.

9:01Ayesha Rascoe:And so now we're seeing the Lebanese government is really trying to distance itself from Hezbollah and from Iran. Earlier in the day, I sat with Lebanon's Justice Minister, Adam Nassar. He instructed the Lebanese security authorities to issue arrest warrants for the Hezbollah members who launched those rockets into Israel this week, which is kind of unprecedented. Nassar wants to dismantle Hezbollah's military wing. There is a move now in Lebanon to do that. Hezbollah's military wing operates mainly out of southern Lebanon. But look, Hezbollah still enjoys popularity in Lebanon. But I'm hearing more and more people here say that they've dragged them into an unnecessary war.

9:39Ayesha Rascoe:And so Nassar says there are huge challenges.

9:41Rachel Martin:How does this fit into other developments in the war?

9:43Ayesha Rascoe:Well, earlier this morning in Tehran, there was heavy bombardment in the city center near the supreme leader's old home fighter jets flew overhead there were huge explosions and then in the gulf qatar's defense ministry said it thwarted a drone attack at the biggest u.s military facility in the middle east and in bahrain the government said two hotels and a residential building were targeted by iranian strikes in israel it was quieter than previous nights with no incoming missile attacks and the military's chief of staff there said last night that the u.s and israel are working in what he called a, quote, historic cooperation.

10:17Rachel Martin:And Pierre Cedil Al-Shelchi in Beirut, thanks so much. You're very welcome.

10:29Rachel Martin:This network sends correspondents to get a first-hand view of events. And today we have a report from Inside Venezuela. Two months ago, U.S.

10:37Noam Chomsky:forces swooped into Caracas and seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Since then, the relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela seems to be on a very fast mend. The two countries have made oil deals, they're now talking critical minerals, and have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations.