good morning You are reading the Up First newsletter. Subscription here to get it sent to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.
top story of the day
Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and Israel’s most wanted man in Gaza, has been killed, the Israeli military confirmed. He is believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. The attack sparked a war that has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military reported that he was killed in Rafah, in the south.
Yahya Sinwar of Hamas chairs a meeting with Palestinian faction leaders at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022.
Adel Hana/AP
hide caption
change the caption
Adel Hana/AP
- 🎧 Sinwar’s death – the latest assassination of a Hamas leader after two other key leaders were killed in the summer – has raised questions about who will become the group’s leader.NPR’s Hadeel Al-Schalchi reports Go up first. Sinwar’s right-hand man is his brother, Mohamed Sinwar, but there are others outside Gaza who have represented Hamas in Qatar and Turkey for years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night his main obligation was to secure the release of the remaining hostages. The US and Israel have long argued that Sinwar was the main obstacle to reaching a hostage deal, according to former Israeli intelligence officer Michael Milshtein. President Biden insisted on moving forward, indicating it was time to revive the stalled ceasefire talks.
- ➡️ Who is Yahya Sinwar? Here’s everything you need to know about the obsessive man branded a psychopath by Israeli politicians and security officials.
NPR convened a pair of focus groups in May with “double haters,” voters who disagree with former President Donald Trump and Biden. This was to help understand how to make decisions about candidates, but a lot has changed since then. This week, NPR went back to those same voters to find out how they are now leaning in the tighter race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.
- 🎧 NPR’s Mara Liasson says that of the 10 spring double haters, four are locked or leaning toward Trump, five are locked and leaning toward Harris, and one is certain they won’t vote. The shift toward Harris appears to be driven more by anti-Trump than pro-Harris sentiment. “He still didn’t get the support that Biden did in 2020 at the same time in the race with key Democratic groups like African Americans, Hispanics, and young people,” Liasson said. These voters appear to be less concerned about Harris’s results because they don’t believe he will damage the election. More anxiety surrounds Trump and the potential for political violence because of his repeated refusal to accept the results of an election he did not win.
Biden is in Berlin, Germany, today to meet with European leaders for the last time as president. It was a farewell trip to a region that has been front and center since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The meeting has great political significance, especially since the US is poised to elect a new president while the outcome of the war in Ukraine remains uncertain. Here is a look at the significance of this meeting.
- 🎧 “America’s relationship with Europe is stronger than ever, and that’s largely because of the work that President Biden has done over the past four years,” NPR’s Rob Schmitz said. According to a new survey by the German think tank Körber-Stiftung, 80% of Germans polled believe that another Trump presidency will damage trans-Atlantic relations. Trump’s uncertainty about his continued support for Ukraine could force Europe to fill the gap in US support for the country if he is re-elected. This could put pressure on Germany in particular to strengthen its own security. Furthermore, Trump’s presidency could contribute to the popularity of right-wing parties in Germany and throughout Europe.
Exhibition of pictures
Abrar Saleh Ali, 17, arrived at the Milé refugee camp in Eastern Chad two weeks ago after the civil war in Sudan destroyed his home and separated him from his family. It took him months to walk across the country and reach the camp, on the way he was robbed of all his belongings, after reaching the camp, he learned that his brother had been killed.
Claire Harbage/NPR
hide caption
change the caption
Claire Harbage/NPR
NPR’s Claire Harbage and Fatma Tanis spent a week in September talking to more than two dozen women in several refugee camps in Chadwhich is now home to more than 600,000 people who have fled Sudan. The woman said that the adult men in her family – her husband, her father, her adult son, and her brother – were almost non-existent. Some of them have disappeared, killed by the Rapid Support Force to prevent them from defending themselves and their families, or deployed by the Sudanese army. The conflict has displaced more than 13 million people and caused what the UN has called the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.
Weekend selection
Florence Pugh We Live in Time.
A24
hide caption
change the caption
A24
Check what NPR watch, read and listen this weekend:
🍿Movie: We Live In Time stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, who laugh and cry as a couple trying to make the most of their time together. The story jumps from the first meeting to the later crisis and several critical points in between.
📺 TV: Disclaimer Cate Blanchett stars in a successful documentary that confronts secrets from the past. Each of the seven episodes pushes the story forward, provides new clues, raises bigger questions, and leaves viewers wanting to learn more.
📚 Books: clean narrated by Estela, a slender woman who works as a housekeeper in a rich family. He is the prime suspect in the death of a 7-year-old boy who was found dead in the pool of the home where he worked.
🎵 Music: Acclaimed guitarist and composer John Scofield will celebrate 50 years of recording music in November. To commemorate this milestone, Jazz Night in America given a special challenge: Choose 10 pivotal tracks from the discography and reveal the story behind them. Listen to the full setlist here.
🎮 Games: Super Mario Party Jamboree is packed with variety, including 112 mini-games, 22 playable characters, seven Boards, five multiplayer modes and an exclusive single-player adventure.
❓Quiz: If you’ve been paying attention to the presidential candidates and incoming pandas, you can pass at least half of this week’s quiz. But if you’re like me, you’ll ace everything. Are you ready to shoot?
3 things to know before you go
People protest in front of the White House in September 2023 to raise awareness about opioid-related deaths. A year later, the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the US has dropped dramatically.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
hide caption
change the caption
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
- Drug overdose deaths down 12.7%according to CDC data released this week. If the trend continues, this year could be the first since 2020 to see overdose deaths fall below 100,000.
- Vikash Yadav, a former Indian intelligence official, faces US federal chargess for allegedly planning to kill American citizens in New York City. The victim in question was a leader of the movement for an independent Sikh homeland.
- Newly released body camera footage shows Tyron McAlpin, a deaf black man with cerebral palsy, allegedly beaten and tased by a Phoenix police officer in August 2024. This comes after a DOJ report found evidence of discrimination by Phoenix police against Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans.
This newsletter is edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
