US and Iran Trade Fire, Tennessee Redistricting, US Boat Strikes In Caribbean

0:01U.S. forces intercepted Iranian attacks on Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. responded by hitting launch sites inside Iran, but President Trump says the ceasefire is still on. They trifled. I call that a trifle. I'm Leila Fodil. That's A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News. Tennessee is the first state to redraw its congressional map after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act. The new map breaks up a majority black district in Memphis, effectively eliminating the state's last Democratic House seat. And the U.S. military is facing allegations about undisclosed airstrikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.

0:42Survivors say fishermen were attacked, detained, and transported for days with little food or water. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:24Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. For a second time this week, the U.S. and Iran traded fire. The U.S. military says three Navy ships came under attack Thursday as they moved through waters near Iran. U.S. Central Command says it responded by attacking Iranian missiles and drone sites. NPR international correspondent, Haya Batraoui, is in Dubai. Tell us, what else do we know about what happened last night in the Gulf? Yes, this is the first report of U.S. airstrikes on Iranian soil since the ceasefire a month ago. CENTCOM says it responded to, quote, unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes yesterday.

3:04After they say three U.S. Navy ships were attacked by Iranian speedboats, missiles and drones while moving through the Strait of Hormuz southward and out toward the Gulf of Oman. Now, CENTCOM says it intercepted those attacks. Iran, though, says the U.S. started this latest round of violence by attacking one of its oil tankers in the strait and that three areas along its coast were hit by U.S. airstrikes and that it did hit those U.S. naval ships transiting the strait. Iran's first news agency published videos of Iran's missile attacks against U.S. forces. Have a listen.

3:40and this vital waterway was where we saw violence flare up also on monday when president trump launched that surprise operation called project freedom to try and take control of the strait from iran but that operation was abruptly halted by trump and both times the violence risked engulfing this region again the united arab emirates where i'm talking to you from came under iranian attacks throughout the week including again last night yeah the control All the Strait of Hormuz is Iran's most important point of leverage. So what does this latest round of violence mean for the ceasefire? Right. This waterway is vital to the world, but Iran has blocked access to ships since the start of the war.

4:14And, you know, with ships unable to transit, we're seeing really high oil prices because there's now 13 million barrels of oil a day off the market and shortages and things like fertilizers and other products that come from this region. And this has hurt Trump's polling ahead of midterm elections later this year. But despite this latest round of violence, neither the U.S. or Iran seem eager to return to war. Listen to what Trump told reporters yesterday. He says the ceasefire is still on. They trifled with us today. We blew them away. They trifled. I call that a trifle. I'll let you know when there's no ceasefire.

4:45You won't have to know. If there's no ceasefire, you're not going to have to know. You're just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran. But alongside those comments, Trump is still threatening Iran with more bombing if it does not agree to a U.S. proposal to ending this war, Iran says it's reviewing that text and will deliver a response to mediator Pakistan. You mentioned the UAE coming under Iranian attack again this week. So what are you hearing from Gulf Arab states? The UAE has borne the brunt of Iran's attacks throughout this war, including this week when its key oil terminal caught fire for two days from an Iranian drone attack.

5:18And it says it reserves the right to self-defense. And we also know that the UAE is using Israeli and U.S. defense systems to intercept Iran's attacks. Iran's foreign ministry, however, is warning leaders in Abu Dhabi against, quote, collusion with Israel and the U.S. But the UAE is doubling down on those alliances and says a ceasefire with Iran is not enough. It wants the U.S. to push for a deal that also limits Iran's missiles and drones and its support for proxies like Hezbollah. But, you know, other countries in the region like Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, they're more supportive of current ceasefire efforts because they don't want their infrastructure attacked again.

5:52The Pakistani prime minister says that he and Saudi Arabia's crown prince asked Trump to halt Project Freedom earlier this week, and he did after just 36 hours. And support of Gulf Arab states is important because the U.S. needs their approval to use bases and their airspace. That's NPR international correspondent Taya Batrawi in Dubai. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

6:21Tennessee is the first state to redraw its congressional map after the Supreme Court's move last week to weaken protections against racial discrimination in redistricting under the Voting Rights Act. Yeah, Tennessee's legislature passed it and the governor signed it into law on Thursday. It carves up a majority black district, eliminating the state's last Democratic House seat. It's part of a wave of Republican-led states that have redrawn voting maps ahead of the midterm elections. President Trump kicked off the national redistricting race last year. Joining us for member station WPLN in Nashville this morning is Mariana Bacchiao.

6:59So what can you tell us about the new congressional map in Tennessee? Well, the biggest change is to the city of Memphis, a majority black district that up until last week had been protected under part of the Voting Rights Act. Now the city will be split into three different congressional districts, and it means all nine of the state's U.S. House seats are more likely to go to Republicans. Protesters from the state's blue cities argue that this will take away the voice of voters who support Democrats, roughly a third of the state's population. Some Republicans agreed in their own way. We had a few no votes and a few who abstained, but by and large, the state's Republican supermajority was on board with Trump's redistricting plan.

7:41Now, Memphis' 9th congressional district was pretty compact. Now it will stretch nearly 300 miles from the border with Mississippi in the western corner of the state to the edge of Nashville in the middle of the state. Okay, so what's been the early reaction? The NAACP has filed a petition to challenge the map. They've argued that this is too close to the election to change the maps. People could be confused about what district they're even in. But across the country, mid-decade redistricting efforts have survived in court, so far at least. Republicans have said this is strictly partisan and partisan gerrymandering is legal.

8:21This is what State Representative Jason Zachary had to say yesterday during the floor debate. This map was drafted based on politics, based on population, and the opportunity for the first time in history for us to send an entire Republican delegation from Tennessee to represent the state in Washington, D.C. The protesters who came to Nashville from Memphis for demonstrations yesterday said, you can't really consider this without the context of race and the obstacles that have historically stopped Black voters from casting a ballot. One protester, Tequila Johnson, addressed the crowd by invoking Tennessee's history as the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan and Nashville's history as the first city to desegregate lunch counters.

9:07So don't you dare let nobody tell you we don't have hope because we a red state. You can't. Tennessee is a movement state. Even though they see this as a setback, protesters say what really matters is who comes out to vote in November. Now, Tennessee is the first state to do this after the Supreme Court ruling. Doesn't look like it's going to be the last. What states could possibly be next? Yeah, just in the last few days, Republicans in states across the South, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina are rushing to redistrict congressional maps. That's on top of redistricting that started last year when President Trump asked states to redraw maps to give Republicans an edge.

9:47Now, California and Virginia are the only states to redraw to aid Democrats. So these new maps and the new maps to come could give Republicans a redistricting advantage during the midterms in a time when the party in power typically loses seats. Mariana Bacchiaw from WPLN, thank you very much. Thank you.

10:16While much of the attention on the U.S. military is in the Middle East, there is still significant deployment in this hemisphere. The U.S. has been increasing its airstrikes on what it claims are narco-terrorists operating in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. The Trump administration has publicly disclosed at least 56 airstrikes on boats they're killing, at least 190 people. There are also allegations of additional undisclosed strikes that survivors say were carried out by the U.S. They say fishermen were detained, transported to third countries, and mistreated. NPR's South America correspondent Carrie Khan is in Rio de Janeiro.

10:55I'll admit, Carrie, I mean, focusing on Iran has put this part of the world in the back of my mind a little bit. Yes, there has been an uptick in strikes in recent weeks, which has brought this back in the news, but the information we're getting about them and the controversy about them just stays the same. Like the latest strike, which was on Tuesday, which the U.S.'s southern command says killed three men. As usual, the military posts a short video on social media and the same terse statement that those killed were members of what they say is a designated terrorist organization transiting along no narco-trafficking routes, but no evidence or further information is provided.

11:32Legal experts say the strikes are extrajudicial killings and that even if the suspects are criminals under international law, the U.S. must interdict them and give them a trial, which has been U.S. policy for decades. President Trump says the U.S. is involved in a war, the war on drugs, and that these men are combatants and claims that they can be killed legally. Carrie, there are also those allegations about other strikes. What are people saying? Yes, there is disturbing testimony coming out of Ecuador about three strikes. The most documented was on a shrimp trawler off the Galapagos Islands that occurred on around March 26.

12:10In that case, human rights lawyer Fernando Bastillas says that 20 fishermen gave testimony that their ship was attacked by an aircraft. Bastillas says what happens next fits a pattern that has been observed in two incidents and possibly a third.

12:33After the attack, a ship from the United States then makes its way to the disabled vessel, and at gunpoint, the fishermen are forced on board the U.S. ship, he says. The men are then restrained, hoods are put over their heads, and according to these testimonies, they are then transported by sea for days with little food and water to El Salvador. Ultimately, the men were returned to Ecuador where they are speaking out. And family members of a crew from a third incident back in January say they received messages of a similar attack underway, but haven't heard from their relatives since and fear they're dead or maybe still being held in El Salvador.

13:09So, Carrie, what's the U.S. military saying about these allegations? In a statement, Southcom tells NPR it has no knowledge of any of those incidents off Ecuador. The Trump administration and since the months-long action striking suspected drug trafficking boats are working, President Trump likes to cite numbers of lives saved from overdoses in the U.S. by killing these seafaring drug traffickers. But most drug overdoses in the U.S.A. are caused by fentanyl, which is not trafficked on the seas from South America, and these are mostly ferry cocaine. And even the South Command General, Francis Donovan, doubts the strike's efficacy.

13:48He told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that, quote, boat strikes aren't the answer. That's NPR's Carrie Kahn in Rio de Janeiro. Thanks, Carrie. You're welcome.

14:01And that's Up First for Friday, May 8th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Leila Faudel. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Crya, Acacia Squires, Tara Neal, Mohamed El-Bartisi, and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us again tomorrow.

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