Trump's New AG Pick, Ukraine Turning Point, West Coast Storm

0:00Good morning, A. Hello. Ready for the weekend? Yeah. I mean, I already got a list of chores ahead of me, so. It's not that I'm that ready for it. Honeydew. I make the list out for myself. Do you really? Yeah, yeah. Mrs. A. Mrs. A has her own list. Maybe you could trade lists. Oh, no, no. See, that's the thing. Because if she does them not the way I want them to be done, then I'll have to just do it. So I'm going to add. That's why I do the laundry. Oh, that's funny. My son-in-law does the laundry because he's so picky about it, which I find hilarious. Mrs. D has no idea how to clean clothes properly.

0:37Or maybe she pretends not to know. No, she's tried. She's in the other room, so I can't speak to that. Okay, I'll just speak to that. But if we want fresh-smelling, clean clothes, we have to do it. That's hilarious. is. President-elect Trump moved quickly to replace his nominee for attorney general after his controversial pick Matt Gaetz withdrew. His new pick, longtime ally Pam Bondi. What does a shakeup mean for the Justice Department? I am Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News.

1:13Russian President Vladimir Putin claims the right to strike NATO countries arming Ukraine. In the last three to four months, the Russian military has been advancing at the fastest pace it has since the early part of the war. How far might Putin go in his efforts to menace the West as he escalates his attacks on Ukraine? And a massive storm is flooding the West Coast. Could climate change be making these weather events worse? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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2:26But they can't do it alone. Help provide life-saving care around the world. Learn how to donate today at doctorswithoutborders.org slash NPR. This message comes from Mint Mobile. From the gas pump to the grocery store, inflation is everywhere. So Mint Mobile is offering premium wireless starting at just$15 a month. To get your new phone plan for just$15, go to mintmobile.com slash switch. President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick for attorney general is officially out of the running. Trump started the day yesterday with former Representative Matt Gaetz as his nominee to become the next attorney general.

3:02By the time the day was over, Gaetz was out and Trump had a new nominee, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is following all of this. So, Ryan, who is Pam Bondi? Well, to start with, she's a former attorney general for the state of Florida, the first woman to hold that position. She served in that job for about eight years. And her office during that time unsuccessfully challenged the Affordable Care Act, among other actions that she took. Before that, she worked for nearly two decades as a local prosecutor in Florida. In a statement in which Trump announced his decision, the president-elect said that as a prosecutor, Bondi was very tough on violent criminals.

3:39And as a state attorney general, he says that she worked to stop the flow of deadly drugs into Florida. Trump has known Bondi for years. He says she's smart, she's tough, and that she will focus the Justice Department on fighting crime. Now, Michelle mentioned that Bondi is replacing Matt Gaetz. Walk us through what happened with Gaetz's nomination. Well, look, Gaetz was a huge surprise when Trump picked him. And it was clear from the outset that he was going to face a difficult climb to confirmation. The reasons were pretty clear. He'd been the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation, one that ended without charges, it has to be said.

4:09But also the House Ethics Committee was investigating him over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gates has denied any wrongdoing, but all of that baggage was put front and center the minute that Trump picked him for attorney general. Gates said in a statement yesterday that it was clear to him that his confirmation was, as he put it, unfairly becoming a distraction to the Trump vans transition. He said there wasn't any time to waste on what he called a drawn-out fight over his confirmation. And so he withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general. You mentioned that Trump has known Bondi for years.

4:43What do we know about their history? They have known each other for years. In fact, they faced questions over a political donation that Trump made to support Bondi's re-election campaign when she was Florida attorney general and a decision that her office made not to pursue legal action against Trump University. They have denied there was anything improper with that. But Bondi has long been a supporter of Trump. She spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention when Trump was running for president then. She was an attorney on Trump's legal team during his first impeachment trial. She now leads the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute.

5:16That's a right-wing think tank that's led by some former Trump administration staffers. So Bondi is very much a Trump supporter and someone who's very much rooted in Trump world. All right. So assuming Bondi is confirmed, how important could she be to Trump's second term agenda? Well, look, this is a really big, really important job. It's an important job in every administration because the attorney general is in charge of the 100 ,000 plus people who work for the Justice Department. The job oversees the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration. The attorney general prosecutes federal crimes. They enforce civil rights laws.

5:49They play a big role in national security. They, at root, are responsible for upholding the rule of law. But Trump and his team, we know, view attorney general as one of the most important jobs in his incoming administration. In part, that's because Trump had a rocky relationship with the Justice Department in his first term. But it's also because Trump has claimed that the Justice Department was weaponized against him. And during the campaign, he repeatedly talked about seeking vengeance against his perceived political enemies, including folks at the Justice Department. And so a big question for Bondi, if she's confirmed, is whether she will use the powers of the Justice Department to pursue Trump's stated desire for retribution.

6:24That's NPR's justice correspondent, Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks. Thank you.

6:35Russian leader Vladimir Putin says his country has the right to retaliate against NATO countries that arm Ukraine. Yeah, Putin made this direct challenge to the West in televised remarks yesterday. There he is saying Russia will respond accordingly to any NATO country that allows its weapons to be used to strike Russian facilities. It's the latest instance of Putin taking an even more aggressive posture toward Ukraine and the West. To hear more about what this could mean, we're joined by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myrie. Greg, good morning. Hi, Michelle. So Russian missile strikes are a daily occurrence in Ukraine.

7:11But when yesterday was particularly significant, why was this different? Yeah, Michelle, shortly after the missile hit the central city of Dnipro on Thursday, the Ukrainians said this was a missile they hadn't seen before, one that releases multiple warheads as it approaches the target. Now, here in Washington, the National Security Council described this as an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile. It said the warheads carried conventional explosives, though they could deliver a nuclear weapon. And this was a very calculated move by Russia. The Pentagon said Russia did give the U.S.

7:47a heads up shortly before the missile was launched. What message is Putin trying to send here? That Russia is prepared to escalate and NATO could become a target. Putin linked the Russian missile strike directly to Ukrainian attacks earlier this week when Ukraine fired American and British missiles into Russia for the first time. Putin went on to say that Russia has the right to strike these NATO countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russia. So a very direct challenge to the U.S. and European allies that are arming Ukraine. We should also note that Putin this week lowered the threshold for Russia to use nuclear weapons, saying they could be employed when the country faces a critical threat, which is obviously a very subjective term.

8:33It does feel like every day this week has brought some kind of significant and even ominous development. Are we at a particularly dangerous moment? So that's what Michael Kaufman says. He's with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He recently returned from Ukraine, where he's been visiting regularly since Russia's 2022 invasion. He says the events this week come as Ukraine is still struggling to halt a Russian offensive in the eastern part of the country. In the last three to four months, the Russian military has been advancing at the fastest pace it has since the early part of the war.

9:08Without effectively stabilizing the front and exhausting the Russian offensive, momentum could accumulate behind the Russian war effort. So he noted the Russians are suffering massive casualties and can't sustain this pace indefinitely. But right now they do have the upper hand. OK, but how about the Ukrainians? How are they coping? Yeah, Kaufman says the war is taking a cumulative toll on soldiers and civilians. Here's how he put it. Everyone I spoke to still has a strong will to fight. But there's a general sense of pessimism, which is difficult to avoid looking at the situation Ukraine finds itself in.

9:44and the current trajectory of the war. And as Ukrainians look ahead, Michelle, they see additional challenges. President-elect Trump takes over in two months. He wants negotiations to end the war. But Kaufman said we shouldn't assume Putin will negotiate. He doesn't think Putin will negotiate seriously if he believes he's gaining ground. And also Ukrainian civilians are expecting another long, hard winner with their electricity grid under Russian attack. That is NPR's Greg Myrick. Great. Greg, thank you. Sure thing, Michelle.

10:23A powerful storm has been soaking northern California and Oregon this week, bringing high winds and flood risks that continue today. It's known as an atmospheric river. A big question is whether climate change is making these storms worse. Lauren Sommer from NPR's Climate Desk is here to explain. So Lauren, put this storm into perspective for us. I mean, what are the impacts the West Coast is seeing now? Yeah, it's a really intense storm and it's slow moving. So that means a lot of rain. You know, atmospheric rivers are basically these plumes of moisture that move across the Pacific Ocean. And if you look at a weather map, it actually kind of looks like a fire hose is pointed at the West Coast.

11:02It's pretty narrow, so it doesn't affect the whole coast. These storms are important. They're how California gets as much as half of its rainfall every year. So they carry a lot of moisture. And this one has been affected by another weather system nearby, which is a bomb cyclone. Bomb cyclone. Love the term. I don't know if I like what happens after a bomb cyclone. What is the actual term for a bomb cyclone, though? Yeah, okay. So technically, it's bombogenesis. That's better. That's a better name. It's basically when there's a rapid drop in air pressure in a short period of time. And that means the storm is intensifying, so higher winds and more rain.

11:38And some parts of the West Coast are expected to see up to 16 inches of rain when this storm is finally done. It's causing flood warnings on some rivers, although it is pretty early in the season. So rivers are low for the most part, and that means there's more room to absorb that water. All right, so climate change is influencing storms like hurricanes. Is it making atmospheric rivers like this one worse? Yeah. So atmospheric rivers are a regular thing on the West Coast, right? But the role climate change is playing is actually a really big question that scientists are trying to sort out. Because as the planet warms up, it does make rainfall more intense.

12:15There's more evaporation and warmer air can hold more moisture. So storms just, you know, have more to work with. That's very clear in the Midwest and the Northeast where rainstorms are already dropping more rain on average. But, you know, I talked to a scientist who has analyzed storms on the West Coast, Park Williams, who is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and he found so far storms are not dropping more rain than they used to in California. Not dropping more rain. Why is that? Yeah, he says while there is more water vapor that can fuel those storms, there's been this circulation pattern in the atmosphere that swept a lot of it to other places.

12:53So it hasn't resulted in heavier rainfall on the West Coast overall. But, you know, by the second half of this century, that will probably change if the planet heats up even more with climate change. It's important to be mindful that we expect precipitation events in the western U.S. to get more intense in the future. We should be planning for that. And so the fact that we haven't seen it yet doesn't mean that we shouldn't be preparing for it to occur. You know, even today's storms can already cause dangerous levels of flooding that happened in California in 2023. And so our infrastructure, you know, roads and storm drains and flood channels, it already gets overwhelmed in certain years.

13:34So there's a lot to address here, even when you take climate change out of the picture. All right. That's Lauren Sommer from NPR's Climate Desk. Lauren, thanks. Yeah, thank you.

13:53Before we go, we have an update on an international development. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. There's also an arrest warrant for Hamas Commander Mohammed Daif, although it's unclear if he is still alive as the war in Gaza continues. He's wanted for alleged war crimes, including attacks on civilians during Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7th. The International Criminal Court's charges against the Israeli officials include alleged war crimes related to Israel's military actions in Gaza. Prosecutors cite reports of indiscriminate attacks on civilians and withholding vital aid.

14:33Netanyahu dismissed the warrants as anti-Semitic, and President Biden also criticized the ICC's decision, calling it outrageous. Meanwhile, some U.S. senators threatened sanctions against the court. Now, it's unclear if the Democratic-led Senate will take up those sanctions in the couple of months it has left, but it is something to watch for when Republicans take control next year.

14:58And that's Up First for Friday, November 22nd. I'm Amy Martinez. And I'm Michelle Martin. And don't forget, Up First airs on the weekends, too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news. It will be here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Andrew Sussman, Neela Banerjee, Mohamed El-Bardisi, Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, and Milton Guevara. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez, and our technical director is Zach Holman. Join us again on Monday.

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