Trump's Speeches, Israel and UNRWA, KY Police Killing Retrial

0:00Hello there. It's Michelle Martin. Real quick before the show, it has been a wild, exciting, exhausting election season. And in the homestretch, as you continue to follow things here on Up First, we want you to know there are two other ways to make sure you don't miss a development throughout the day. First, every weekday, you can find a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast with context and analysis on the big stories whenever they happen. So you get an alert, big breaking news, you don't know what to think, look for the NPR Politics Podcast a few hours later. And second, Consider This is the podcast where NPR covers one big story in depth every weekday evening.

0:38They will be all over this election and its aftermath too. So you've got Up First in the Morning, Consider This in the Evening, and the NPR Politics podcast anytime big things happen. An around-the-clock election news survival kit from NPR Podcast. Okay, thank you for listening. Here's the show. Former President Donald Trump has sounded tired and erratic and is using even more profanity than usual in recent weeks. He's messed up names, forgotten the word friar and called his opponent Kamala Harris stupid. Could this be his farewell tour? I'm Michelle Martin and this is Up First from NPR News. A white police detective is facing a retrial over the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor, who was a black medical worker.

1:23Could he be convicted this time? And Israel's parliament has banned the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians. Today we are taking action that will limit UNWA capabilities to continue to function in Israel. What could this mean for the millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation who depend on U.N. aid? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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2:53See Mint Mobile for details. Election day is just one week away, and there's been a noticeable change with former President Donald Trump. Amid the whirlwind of campaigning, Trump is visibly tired. His speeches have become more erratic and even profane. NPR Stephen Fowler has been tracking Trump's rally rhetoric, and he's with us now to talk about what could be Trump's farewell tour from campaigning. Good morning, Stephen. Good morning. Stephen, I just wanted to start by saying that not everybody watches a full Trump speech, let alone several. So what is a typical rally like? Yeah, so Michelle, Donald Trump's held about 100 rallies, significant speeches, and press conferences this year alone.

3:31I've watched more than half of them start to finish and been to nearly a dozen in person, including last night. They last about 80 to 90 minutes and follow this formula of remarks made from a teleprompter and off-the-cuff ad-libs. Many things have stayed the same. He started this year in the Republican primaries with dire remarks about his vision of a future of America. hardline views on immigration and attacking his enemies. After President Biden dropped out this summer, Trump failed to pivot his focus fully to Vice President Kamala Harris and contrast his record against having her as an opponent.

4:05But things have been different in the last few weeks. Trump sounded a lot more tired. There's been more gaffes and more rambling. And he's been very vulgar and profane with the anecdotes he uses and the attacks on Harris and Democrats. See, but I have to say that for more than a decade now, Trump has earned a reputation for pushing the envelope with what has been considered acceptable for politicians to say, at least in public. We hear that that's what a lot of his supporters say that they like about him. But is there something different about this last month? A lot of Trump's core message about why he's running hasn't really changed since he first came down that golden escalator in 2015.

4:43Here's a snippet from that speech. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. And here's Trump last week in Tempe, Arizona. We're a dumping ground. We're like a garbage can for the world. That's what's happened. That's what's happened to us. You can hear the difference a decade makes, though. I mean, he's visibly and audibly tired. He's got lower energy and has been chronically late to his rally appearances. At times though, Michelle, he sounded pretty melancholy about what is likely a farewell tour into campaigning, because either he will win and can't run again, or lose and he said he won't run again.

5:25So there's a week to go until Election Day. Is this change in behavior affecting his schedule or his closing message, from what you can tell? Last night, Trump held a rally here in Atlanta. It was at Georgia Tech's basketball arena that seats about 8 ,500 people. Even with him showing up about an hour late, almost all of the upper section was empty and the crowd was noticeably thinning out as his remarks went on. He's had a ton of events in the seven battleground states likely to decide this election that have been in smaller and smaller venues, but those have been interspersed on the schedule with events in places like New York and California.

6:01This week, he's going to New Mexico and Virginia, those are not battleground states, where he's likely to get a bigger, friendlier crowd that hasn't seen him as much. So the message it sends about his message is more about connecting with the base and adoring supporters. And that way, it's typical Trump. But, Michelle, this is not the same man who shocked people in 2016, tried to overturn his defeat in 2020, and still managed to crush opponents in this year's Republican primaries. That is NPR Stephen Fowler in Atlanta. Stephen, thank you. Thank you.

6:43Israel's parliament has voted to ban the UN's main aid agency for Palestinians from operating in Israel. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is the main group providing food and shelter to Palestinians who are facing hunger and displacement in the war in Gaza. Israel says it has ties to Hamas, the militant group that Israel is battling in Gaza. And Piyas Daniel Estrin is in Tel Aviv, and he's with us now to tell us more about this. Good morning, Daniel. Good morning, Michelle. Just remind us, what exactly does this UN agency do? The agency is known by its acronym UNRWA, U-N-R-W-A. It provides food, health care, and education to millions of Palestinian refugees.

7:20And in Gaza, UNRWA is the main address for aid. It has been that way for decades, and especially now during the Gaza War. NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, visited an UNRWA medical clinic this morning. He said he saw hundreds of people in line needing care, and one man in line told him, without UNRWA's services, our life would be worthless. UNRWA also distributes flour to families, and Anas Baba met one man coming to an UNRWA warehouse for flour. His name is Mahmoud Shafi.

7:53He said this Israeli ban on UNRWA is an additional war along with the Gaza war. And he said Israel's aim is no longer targeting Hamas. He said it's killing children, women and men. He said they are facing a genocide. And just this morning, Michelle, Gaza health officials are reporting one of the single deadliest Israeli strikes in weeks. They're saying scores of people, mostly women and children, were killed when Israel struck a five-story building. So why is Israel banning UNRWA now? Well, Israel says that some Palestinian staffers of UNRWA took part in the October 7th attack. UNRWA fired and suspended them or others were killed in the war.

8:31Israel has also said that during the war, it has found a Hamas command center directly underneath Unruh's Gaza headquarters. Those and a lot of other grievances throughout the years. This is Israel's ambassador to the United Nations speaking to reporters. His name is Danny Danone. Unruh was infiltrated by Hamas many years ago. We have run the Security Council. That is why today we are taking action that will limit Unruh's capabilities to continue to function in Israel. Now, Israel says it wants to continue to work with other UN agencies instead of UNRWA. And that really points to Israel's biggest problem with this agency.

9:09It serves the families of Palestinian refugees who were uprooted from their homes when Israel's founding war took place 76 years ago. And Israel says this agency just perpetuates Palestinians' demand for the right to return to their lands, which became Israel. But I should mention that this ban on UNRWA in the Israeli parliament won a vast majority of lawmakers, including most of the centrist opposition. So how are the UN and the U.S. responding to Israel's ban? The U.N. says this can have devastating consequences for refugees. And the State Department is saying that UNRWA plays an irreplaceable role in Gaza and it's calling on Israel not to move forward with implementing this legislation.

9:47The U.S. actually warned Israel in a letter that if it does move forward with this legislation, it could have implications under U.S. law. The U.S. is basically suggesting that it could withhold some weapons and military aid to Israel. We're going to have to see what happens with the U.S. elections. Who is elected president could determine whether Israel moves forward. That is NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thank you. You're welcome.

10:17Closing arguments are expected today in the second trial of former Louisville police detective Brett Hankinson. He is charged with two felonies in the death of Breonna Taylor for depriving her of her civil rights and those of her neighbor during a botched police raid at her apartment in 2020. His first trial last November ended in a mistrial after the jury could not reach a verdict. This shooting, along with the police killing of George Floyd, triggered a national outcry over police violence, particularly against Black people. Giselle Roden with Louisville Public Media has been following the trial, and she's with us now.

10:49Good morning, Giselle. Good morning, Michelle. Hankinson testified in his own defense yesterday. What did he say? Well, Michelle, we heard what happened on March 13, 2020, from his perspective. He said that he was called by fellow officers to help execute a search warrant at Taylor's apartment. Hankison was there when police broke down the front door, and we know that Taylor's boyfriend fired a single shot at officers because he thought they were intruders. His shot hit an officer in the leg, and then police returned fire, shooting a total of 32 times and killing Taylor. While all this is happening, Hankison testified that he thought he saw a man with a rifle in the apartment shooting at officers.

11:27So what did he do then? So he testified that he went to the other side of the apartment to find a better shot. That rifle he said he thought he saw, police investigators would later say they never found a long gun in the home. Higgison cried on the stand when he said he thought his fellow officers were getting killed. Higgison said he fired 10 shots through a covered sliding glass door and a bedroom window from outside the apartment, but none of those struck Taylor. Some of his bullets, however, entered a neighboring apartment. Higgison said he decided to shoot through the building to protect his fellow officers, even though he couldn't see exactly what he was shooting at.

12:03So as we mentioned, this is the second time the U.S. Justice Department has tried Hankinson for violating Taylor's civil rights. What makes this trial different from the last one? Well, last time, the prosecution had several other Louisville Metro Police officers testify to how dangerous Hankinson's actions were the night of the raid. But in this trial, those same officers testified again, but added not only did Hankinson's actions endanger the people in the surrounding area, but they said he also put his fellow officers at risk. And prosecutors said Hankison went against police protocol since he couldn't identify what he was shooting at.

12:37And several of the officers testified that they were shocked and even confused when one of their fellow officers shot through the apartment allegedly without using target identification. In that other apartment was a pregnant woman, her boyfriend, and her five-year-old son. Also different in this case, Hankison's defense attorneys added a new witness. They called James Borden. It's a police shootings expert. He analyzed what Hankison did the night of the raid. Borden said yesterday that Hankison's actions were reasonable, considering that an officer had been shot and someone had a weapon in the apartment.

13:08So what is next in this case? Well, Hankison will be back on the stand later today. Then there may be additional rebuttal testimony, and after that, closing arguments will begin, and the jury will begin deliberating. In Hankison's federal trial last year, it took the jury three days to deliberate, and the judge declared a mistrial because jurors couldn't reach unanimous decision. If Hankinson's convicted this time, he could face a maximum life sentence in prison, and he would be the second officer convicted in this police raid. Like last time, most of Breonna Taylor's family has been in court every day for testimony.

13:41That is Giselle Rodin with Louisville Public Media. Giselle, thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

13:49And that's up first for Tuesday, October 29th. I'm Michelle Martin. For your next listen, tune in to Consider This from NPR. In the final week of the campaign, Donald Trump's closing argument to the American people leans into the extreme and divisive rhetoric he's been known for. Listen to Consider This from NPR. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratt, Ryland Barton, Russell Lewis, Olivia Hampton, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ana Perez, Nia Dumas, Chris Thomas, and Chad Campbell. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez and Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.

14:24We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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