UK Terror Plot Investigation, Trump's Fuel Efficiency Rollback, Cornell Rape Case

0:02British police released five people who had been detained near an airbase. The men are out on bail to the surprise of the United States. Secretary of State Rubio maintains a foreign actor was involved. What does the evidence show? I'm Leila Faudel, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:20The Trump administration is rolling back fuel efficiency standards for new cars. President Biden wanted cars to average 50 miles per gallon. President Trump says that's too expensive to achieve. What does it mean for the price we pay to drive? Also, prosecutors are reopening the sexual assault case involving Cornell University. A former student sued the university and seven male students. Police say her statement at the time was different, and Cornell is facing questions about how it handled the case. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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1:45The search for clues soon stretches across borders, with the FBI, CIA, and French intelligence working together to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The French Illusion is in stores now, also available as an audiobook. President Trump is questioning why five men, British officials initially described as terror suspects, have now been released on bail. Today, counterterrorism officials are still investigating the masked men who were arrested in the middle of the night with suspicious vehicles near a British airbase used by U.S. bombers striking Iran. But they're also looking at less serious crimes.

2:21What's going on here? NPR's Lauren Frayer is in London. Hi there, Lauren. Good morning. OK, so British officials and the Trump administration seem to describe this incident differently. What are they saying? Well, President Trump initially said about the suspects, quote, we had them under investigation and we know everything about them, suggesting some sort of transatlantic intelligence collaboration. Then in the Oval Office last night, he expressed surprise when asked by reporters about the suspect's release. Over there, I'm surprised if they released him, I wouldn't have done that. Look, they've been very good.

2:50They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them. Trump was also asked whether Iran is linked to these suspects. He said it might be, but he'd rather not say. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also asked about this. He told Fox News it, quote, clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor, but did not name a specific country. Iran, for its part, denies any involvement. The embassy here in London calls that malicious speculation. OK, that's what the U.S. is saying. That's what the Iranians are saying. What are the British saying? That the suspects are British nationals ranging in age from 23 to 25.

3:25Home addresses in London, a couple hours drive from where this incident took place. The head of British counterterrorism policing, Lawrence Taylor, announcing the suspect's release on bail last night, also noted what he called the geopolitical context. He said investigators are considering every possible angle, including that the men could be what he called proxies working, quote, knowingly or unknowingly on behalf of a foreign state. Often this threat becomes visible to us as criminal activity, often at a small scale and committed by individuals whose primary aim is not terrorism, but a quick financial gain.

4:04It can be harder to spot. So he said what looks like petty crime could actually be the work of a foreign state. He acknowledged this is confusing. He asked people not to speculate and give investigators time to figure this out. Incidentally, this is an area where residents say there's been thefts of diesel fuel and fertilizer, which is linked to Iran because the Iran wars pushed up prices. Yesterday, British diesel actually hit a record high of$10 a gallon. OK, so I think Lawrence Taylor there is essentially telling us, keep an open mind. Don't assume what has happened here until more is known.

4:38So what is being learned about the scene of the suspected crime? So this happened near Royal Air Force Base Fairford in the Cotswolds, a picturesque, wealthy farming area, incidentally, where J.D. Vance has vacationed. The base has hosted U.S. troops for decades. During the Iran war, it's attracted lots of plane spotters eager to catch a glimpse of these giant American B-1 bombers. It's also attracted anti-war protesters. So early Sunday, this all began. A farmer spotted suspicious vehicles driven by masked men. She said she called police. They intercepted them, arrested five suspects, then used a bomb disposal robot to probe the vehicles.

5:18Police have not announced that any explosives were found, though. The law says terror suspects can be held 14 days without charge. For lesser offenses, it's 24 hours. And it's during that time frame that these suspects were released. Oh, very interesting detail there at the end. Lauren, thanks so much. You're welcome. That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in London.

5:44The Trump administration is doing away with another Biden-era climate effort. Yeah, it's rolling back the fuel efficiency standards for new cars. Here to talk about it is NPR's cars and energy reporter, Willa Rubin. Willa, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so what is changing? So, Steve, we're talking about what are known as the CAFE standards. These are not the standards for your morning coffee. Thank goodness. They are the corporate average fuel economy standards, but different. Yeah. So these are government regulations that tell carmakers how fuel efficient their vehicles should be on average.

6:16So, you know, a car company might make electric vehicles, but they might also make big trucks, maybe some hybrids. The point of these standards is to set a target for how fuel efficient all those vehicles are taken together on average. Now, there have been CAFE standards for about 50 years, but different presidential administrations can give carmakers exact goals. And the latest here is that the Trump administration is lowering the goals that the Biden administration set, which were pretty high. OK, so how high were they and how low are they going? Well, the standard is that over the next five years, new car fleets have to average just under 35 miles to the gallon.

6:56Under Biden, that number was just over 50. And on average, fuel efficiency across the fleet now only has to go up by up to 1 % a year. That's down from about 2 % under Biden. I got to tell you, 50 miles to the gallon actually sounds kind of cool. So why does the Trump administration back off of that? Well, Steve, they say they're doing this to save car buyers money. They say that fuel efficiency technology is expensive. And in their announcement, the administration said that these new standards will trim about$1 ,300 off the sticker price of new cars. In statements to NPR, automakers praised the move.

7:31They say that the new standards are more in line with market realities, meaning, you know, EV sales are still a minority of new car sales in the U.S. But critics say just looking at the sticker price ignores some of the longer-term expenses that come with being a car owner. So I spoke with Sue Helper. She's an economist at Case Western Reserve University. She studies the auto industry. And she says better fuel efficiency is good for drivers. She says it saves them money at the pump. It saves them some maintenance expenses and that it's an advantage when companies have to continuously work towards this common goal.

8:07By getting rid of this regulation, you get rid of this pressure or this incentive or this coordination among companies to work on this problem that consumers face. And right now, of course, consumers are facing high costs for gasoline. The national average for a gallon is about$4.50, according to AAA. And those aren't the only costs associated with lower fuel efficiency. What do you mean? Well, so there's pollution. There is the resulting cost to people's health. There's the environment, more global warming. That list goes on. There's also potentially a cost to the automakers. You know, these standards don't encourage them to continue innovating in electric vehicles, in more fuel-efficient cars.

8:49And that risks them getting left behind globally. because, of course, American carmakers do not sell exclusively in the U.S. That's absolutely true. And, of course, China has been producing millions of electric vehicles that are cheap. Exactly. And just to give you a sense of how big the electric car market is getting globally, last year, 30 percent of cars in Europe were electric. More than half of vehicles sold in China were electric, according to the International Energy Agency. Of course, there's also the risk that the standards could change again, that all this could get challenged in court.

9:19there will be a new administration in about two years. For carmakers, they're also grappling with uncertainty about tariffs. Carmakers, they plan their fleets, their factories, their production years in advance. For the auto industry, the signals, shall we say, are a bit mixed. And Pierce Willa Rubin, thanks so much. Thank you.

9:44Let's warn you right at the start that our next story describes sexual violence. New York prosecutors are reopening a criminal investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving students at Cornell University. A former Cornell student says she was drugged and gang raped at the school in 2024. And no criminal charges were filed at the time. Two weeks ago, she filed a lawsuit with new allegations against Cornell and seven male students. The brutal details of the case have drawn condemnation around the world and shaken the small college community in upstate New York. NPR's Brian Mann is in Ithaca this morning near the Cornell campus.

10:24Brian, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Why would it take so long for prosecutors to reopen a case from 2024? Well, the DA here, Matthew Van Houten, says the woman in this case gave a statement two years ago to Cornell campus police where she described a drug and alcohol-fueled party at the Chi-Fi fraternity house. Van Houten says, according to her statement, then she took part voluntarily. But in the civil lawsuit filed this month, she recounts a horrific ordeal where she was pressured to drink and take drugs until she was incapacitated, then violently raped by these seven men over a period of hours.

10:59The prosecutor says after learning of those details, he now expects to present this case to a grand jury. OK, so she's given a different description, and this gives prosecutors more to go on, is what you're saying. What are women in the Cornell community saying about all this? I'm hearing anger, Steve, that this case wasn't investigated more thoroughly at the time, and also frustration that more hasn't been done to change campus culture here. Kat Martin graduated last year. She says she, too, was sexually assaulted at Cornell. It was normalized to experience violence. It was normalized to worry about being drugged.

11:33And I also spoke with Olympia Hall. She's a current Cornell student. She's co-president of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Safety Club on campus. She says Cornell has tried to improve campus safety, but she says she still sometimes feel vulnerable. And she told me fraternities on campus hold a lot of sway over students' social life. That is a cultural aspect that creates a lot of power dynamics that are uncomfortable and lead young men to potentially not think about their actions. And Steve, NPR attempted to reach out to these young men who were named in this lawsuit for their comment without success.

12:13Brian, I saw something on social media about the men allegedly involved being told to write essays as punishment. Could that possibly be true? Well, the lawsuit says some of the men who allegedly raped the woman were allowed to write essays in order to lessen or mitigate any disciplinary action by Cornell. In a statement, Cornell says there were consequential punishments for the men involved, but the university declined our request for an interview to clarify what that means. It's also unclear whether any of these men are still students at the university. Cornell's handling of this case, Steve, is also drawing scrutiny because the rape allegations were only investigated back in 2024 by campus police.

12:55Local police issued a statement yesterday saying they were never notified about this alleged assault. Ithaca's mayor Robert Cantelmo is a Cornell alum and he issued his own statement yesterday blasting Cornell's leadership for failing to coordinate this investigation with city police. Cantelmo is now pushing for a moratorium on student events including Greek fraternity and sorority activities until Cornell comes up with a new plan to keep students safe. NPR's Brian Mann in Ithaca, New York. Brian, thanks so much. Thank you, Steve.

13:30And that's Up First for this Tuesday, September 29th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faldil. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Cara Platoni, Gigi Dubon, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and H.J. Mai. It was produced by Ziyad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Highness and Patrick Murray. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.

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