US & Iran In Qatar For Talks, SCOTUS Birthright Ruling, Colorado Primary Preview

0:02People in Lebanon are caught in a regional war and don't know when they can return to their homes. Their government made an agreement that leaves Israeli forces in charge of their towns. What would it take for that to change? I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. It's the last day of the Supreme Court's term. We expect a ruling on birthright citizenship. President Trump's administration sought to change the long-accepted meaning of the 14th Amendment. So what are the implications? And it's primary day in Colorado. The races there could give a read on the national mood.

0:37A Democratic Socialist is on the rise. There's a scramble to win Latino votes. And rural voters say nobody in Washington is listening. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

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1:35Listen today and subscribe at schwab.com slash oninvesting or wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from NPR sponsor Rocket Money. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash NPR today. The United States and Iran both say they've sent delegations in Qatar today. They are showing up for talks over a long-term peace agreement, although, as we will hear, it is not clear they actually will talk with each other. The two sides have traded attacks in recent days rather than words. We're joined now by NPR's Ruth Sherlock in Beirut.

2:13Hello, Ruth. Hi, good morning. So President Trump said the U.S. and Iran had planned to meet. The Iranians say they are not. So what can you tell us about what's actually happening? Well, the White House says President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Woodcoff have gone to Doha. But as you say, Iran says they're not there to meet them. Iran says this meeting is with Qatari officials on topics, including the release of billions of dollars of frozen assets. That was in the Memorandum of Understanding, this MOU signed between the US and Iran. Iran's president has said he expects around half, six billion dollars of these frozen assets in Qatar to be released in this interim phase.

2:52You know, underpinning the hurry here is this fundamental lack of trust on both sides. But the Iranians in particular are worried that with all the back and forth and failed previous talks, the Trump administration would renege on its commitments. And, you know, as you mentioned, it's not been going well recently. The Iranians are also furious about a separate deal the U.S. brokered between Israel and Lebanon. So let's talk more about that deal. What are the Iranians unhappy with? Well, Israel is fighting Hezbollah, the militia in Lebanon, which is heavily supported by Iran. And the deal says Hezbollah would be disarmed.

3:27And crucially, it makes Israel's full withdrawal from the large amounts of land it's occupying now here, actually conditional on Hezbollah first disarming. Hezbollah was never part of the agreement and has outright rejected it, calling it a surrender of sovereignty. And this, though, has also been widely criticized by independent experts who say the problem here is the Lebanese army who would disarm Hezbollah is quite weak and is simply unable to do this. and therefore this agreement essentially cedes Lebanese territory to Israel. You've also been speaking to some of the people displaced from these southern areas.

4:02What are you hearing from them? You know, people here told us they feel sold out by the Lebanese government over this deal. Many are from areas that are now controlled by Israel. Israel says it's weakened Hezbollah enough that the Lebanese army can now take over these southern border areas and oversee disarmament. But there is still support for Hezbollah in these areas by people who see them as a protector from Israel. Lebanon is a country of many religions with a long history of sectarian violence. I spoke with Ali Shaito, who's a mechanical engineering student who's displaced, lives in a tent in Beirut.

4:39And he warned that if the Lebanese army tries to remove Hezbollah's weapons, it could push the country to civil war. To have a war between each other, not with another counter. No one could take the weapon of Hezbollah. Lebanon's president insists that the Lebanese army will deploy to the southern border. Israel's agreed to withdraw initially from a couple of towns in the south that are going to be called pilot zones where the Lebanese army would deploy and disarm Hezbollah. But as I said, many Lebanese are really worried about all this. That's NPR's Ruth Sherlock joining us from Beirut. Ruth, thank you.

5:13Thanks, Michelle.

5:20This is the last day of the U.S. Supreme Court's current term, and several major rulings are expected. Two cases involve bans on transgender athletes. The case attracting the most attention is about birthright citizenship and whether it should still be automatically granted to any child born in the United States. Here to tell us more about this is NPR Immigration Policy Correspondent Jimena Bustil. Jimena, good morning. Good morning. So, you know, this had been considered a settled issue. So how did it get before the court, and how might it go? President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office barring citizenship for children born in the U.S.

5:55if parents entered the country illegally or are here on a temporary status like a visa. It brings into question the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that says, quote, all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States. A decision siding with Trump would upend over a century of legal precedent and raise several logistical challenges for millions of mixed status families. But if Trump loses in court, it would be a blow to one of his several immigration-related campaign promises. Jimena, you know, we're still sorting through the effects of immigration rulings that came last week, mainly one on temporary protected status or TPS.

6:34You've been following this very closely. How has that played out? Right. And that gave the administration more power to end TPS, particularly for Haitians and Syrians. And that's a program that allows people to stay in the U.S. because their countries have been considered unsafe to return to. The administration is arguing they need to either find a way to adjust their status or leave. And now hundreds of thousands of people are waiting to see when they may lose permission to legally live and work in the U.S. You mentioned that the case was specifically about Haitians and Syrians, but other groups could be affected next, I take it.

7:08So who are they? Right. Officially, there are only four countries that still have TPS that has not reached an expiration date yet. That's Lebanon, El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine. And some Venezuelans still also have an active TPS. This all totals to more than a quarter of a million people. And all of these designations will expire by the end of this year. El Salvador particularly has had TPS since 2001. And I spoke with Todd Schulte of Forward.us, an immigrant advocacy group, and he says it's possible that by the end of the year, there's no one with TPS. These are people who have been building their lives here for over a quarter century, and there is no precedent in modern immigration history for revoking status, population like that.

7:52I asked the Department of Homeland Security whose status they could terminate next, but they didn't respond. And this administration has been a sharp critic of TPS, arguing that the program is meant to be temporary. Overall, then, how could the court end up shaping Trump's immigration policy, if you can put all this together from TPS to this birthright citizenship issue? For a lot of families, it's just all related. The administration wants to limit how people can legally be in the country. And TPS is one way and citizenship by birth is another. There are TPS recipients who have U.S. citizen children at the center of the birthright ruling.

8:28And even if birthright is supported by the court, immigrant advocates say that families may need to continue to be making this decision of whether to stay together. And, you know, there was a lot of focus on people here without legal status. And the administration's policies have been focusing more towards narrowing legal migration. And sending these cases to be litigated at the highest court underscores that message. That is NPR immigration policy correspondent Jimena Bustillo. Jimena, thank you. Thank you.

9:04Primary elections in Colorado today could yield some clues about voter preferences nationwide. Yes, some national themes are emerging in races for governor and the Senate and the House. There's a Democratic Socialist candidate, competition for Latino votes, and rural voters worried they're being left out. Benta Berklin with Colorado Public Radio is following all this, and she's with us now. Benta, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. So these are primaries, which means, you know, parties are sorting out their candidates for the fall. So let's start with Congress. What are the key races there?

9:35In Denver, Democrat Diana DeGette has held this congressional seat for three decades, and she's facing two challengers. Malak Kuros is a 29-year-old first-time candidate and a Democratic Socialist. We will see if they can continue their momentum after wins in New York primaries. The other candidate is Wanda James, a University of Colorado regent. The winner in this race is the overwhelming favorite in November. This is a deep blue Denver district. Can you say more about this race? Are the challenges to get drawing like a generational contrast? Is that part of their campaign? Yes, it is part of the campaign.

10:12I think we hear from a lot of voters dissatisfaction with what's happening at the national level and the push for fresh faces and younger candidates is playing into the race. There's also a race in what's considered a toss up district that has a Republican, Gabe Evans, incumbent now. Can you tell us about that? Yes. Evans doesn't have a Republican challenger, but two Democrats are vying to oppose him. Former state lawmaker Shannon Byrd, she bills herself as a bridge builder in this purple district, and current state lawmaker Manny Routenel. He's leaning into his history as the child of an immigrant and in this heavily Latino district says Byrd hasn't done enough to oppose ICE.

10:51You've also been reporting on rural voters who've been affected a lot by tariffs and energy prices and presumably that could impact some of these races. What are you hearing? We heard dissatisfaction with Washington. Caleb Meisner is 27. He works in construction. He voted for President Trump twice, but doesn't support the direction of the country and how expensive things are. Seems like we have kind of a ruling class that doesn't have to follow any of the rules anymore. And we just all kind of face the brunt of it. And I just don't think that's any way we're supposed to live. That's not the values our country was created on.

11:29Another voter, John Iannone, is from Colorado's eastern plains. He's a data center engineer and farmer and an unaffiliated voter. I'm furious that we're in Iran in another war when they promised we weren't going to be in a war. The tariffs cost me a fortune. I was really upset about that. He said he reluctantly voted for Trump in the last election, but is not happy with how his second term is going. OK, but Trump isn't on the ballot. So did you get the impression from these voters that they were going to take Trump's performance into account when making their decision about the congressional representative?

12:06Certainly in some of the races, especially the Democratic primaries, Trump is front and center in all the ads. And a lot of the messaging is around how much candidates have or will push back against the Trump administration. And finally, Democratic Governor Jared Polis, he's term limited. So who's looking to replace him? In the Republican primary, there are two state lawmakers, Scott Bottoms, who's also a pastor, and Barbara Kirkmeyer. And there's a political outsider, Victor Marks. He served in the Marine Corps and says he's a high-risk humanitarian who's rescued people overseas, but opponents say he's lying.

12:41As a blue state, the stakes are especially high on the Democratic side. In that race, there's a well-known name, U.S. Senator Michael Bennett and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. And while they have similar policy positions, both are trying to run on pushing back against the Trump administration. That's Colorado Public Radio's Benta Berklin in Denver. Benta, thank you. Thanks so much.

13:07And that's Up First for Tuesday, June 30th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inscape. Today's Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Larry Kaplow, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director, Zach Coleman. Our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.

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