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Good morning, Laila.
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What did you just say? Good morning.
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Yeah, it's Giving Tuesday. I figured I'd give you a good morning.
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Thank you. And I'm glad you remembered what I reminded you of yesterday. So on this Giving Tuesday, we want to thank up first listeners who have stepped up to support NPR during a really difficult year.
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Yeah. Listeners such as Shannon in California who says she gave because NPR lost federal funding. And I listened to up first every morning.
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Hi, Shannon. I hope you're listening. Thank you for supporting the work. We love starting the day with you.
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Now, it's true, federal funding for public media was eliminated as of October 1st, and that means that NPR is now operating without federal support for the first time in our history. But NPR's commitment to you has not changed one bit.
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Yeah. We're going to keep bringing you the news you need to start your day right here on Up First. And you can help us do that by signing up for npr.
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A simple recurring donation that gets you perks to NPR's podcast. And you'll be supporting public media while you listen. So join us at +NPR npr.org.
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A US official tells NPR that it was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who gave the command that killed everyone on board a boat in the Caribbean.
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Did those orders break the law? Members of Congress want to know.
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I'm Layla Faldel. That's a Martinez. And this is up first From NPR News. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff meets with Vladimir Putin in Moscow today and he's joined by President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner. The goal, peace in Ukraine. The question Does Putin want peace or just a path to declare victory over Ukrainian territory?
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And we're learning more about the Afghan man accused of killing one National Guard member and injuring another. In Washington, D.C. a volunteer who worked closely with him says they saw no signs of radicalization, only a man in deep personal and mental crisis. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your.
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This message comes from International Medical Corps. When crises strike, every second matters. And that's why International Medical Corps moves fast. From conflict zones to natural disasters to disease outbreaks, they deliver life saving medical care and supplies while training local health workers to ensure care continues long after the emergency ends. This giving season, your generosity saves lives and builds resilience for tomorrow. Learn more or donate today@internationalmedicalcorps.org NPR support.
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For this podcast and the following message come from Fisher Investments. SVP Judy Abrams shares the experience she hopes to create when meeting a prospective client for the first time.
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One of the ways that I work to establish trust is to listen. We're going to be asking you questions to make sure we truly understand what's going on with you. Then we can make decisions not only for the present moment, but also for whatever direction you're going into.
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Learn more@fisherinvestments.com Investing in securities involves the risk of loss.
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President Trump and his advisors met yesterday evening to discuss next steps with Venezuela.
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The meeting comes after months of growing tension between the two countries. This year, the Trump administration has conducted strikes against what they allege are drug boats traveling from Venezuela to the US Those strikes have killed dozens of people and opened questions about the legality of these attacks. Meanwhile, there's a military buildup off the coast of Venezuela. Venezuela. And now, as the Trump administration considers next moves, those strikes are also under renewed scrutiny.
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NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here. So, Danielle, tell us about the meeting over Venezuela.
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Well, there's not much to tell right now. We do know the meeting had been set to be with Trump's national security team, so that would include people like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But Trump has said he spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last week. President But Trump wouldn't say much more. All that said, it was likely not a friendly call. Trump has long railed against the authoritarian leader, and Maduro, for his part, thinks the US Is aiming for regime change in his country. And he's accused the US of using this pretext of fighting drug traffickers to seize his country's oil reserves.
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Now, you mentioned Secretary Pete Hegseth in connection to that meeting about Venezuela. He's getting some heat for strikes on one of those boats. Take us through.
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Why, sure. So on Friday, the Washington Post reported that on September 2, US forces struck one of those boats, leaving survivors afterwards. And so Hegseth gave an order to kill those survivors. Now, NPR later confirmed that Hegseth had ordered both strikes. All of that matters because, as Congress members from both parties have said, that second strike may have constituted a war crime. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense in that Washington Post story said that, quote, this entire narrative is completely false.
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Now, what did we learn from the White House yesterday?
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Well, the administration then confirmed some parts of this story. At yesterday's press briefing, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt acknowledged a second strike. But as for Hegseth ordering it, she didn't deny it, but said Hegseth authorized US Navy Admiral Frank M. Bradley to take these actions. Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated. But our NPR colleague Tom Bowman has new reporting on this. Yesterday, a US Official who was not authorized to speak publicly pushed back on the White House, saying Hegseth gave the command for two strikes to kill in addition to two strikes to sink the boat.
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Okay, so we have all that. And just a few weeks ago, Democratic Congress members with military or intelligence backgrounds released a video telling service members to refuse illegal orders. Trump called that video seditious behavior punishable by death. Have they responded to the latest developments?
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Yes. Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a retired naval officer who was in that video, spoke about this yesterday when a reporter asked him about the strikes. Kelly said if the reporting is accurate, that second strike could have been illegal.
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I will say, though, you know, as somebody who has sunk two ships myself, folks in the military need to understand the law of the sea, the Geneva Conventions, what the law says.
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And leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have said they're going to be looking into these strikes. And Admiral Bradley is expected to give a classified briefing on Thursday, so we may know more about them in the weeks ahead.
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All right, that's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.
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Thank you.
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White House envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow today for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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In an added twist, Witkoff will be joined by President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner. Discussions are expected to focus on a U.S. peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.
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NPR's Charles Mains joins us on the line from Moscow. So Charles Witkoff meeting Putin, those two guys, no strangers to each other. But Jared Kushner, how does he fit in?
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Yeah, you know, Jared Kushner was involved in negotiations with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida over the weekend. But this clearly takes his role to another level, much like the one he played in the Gaza negotiations. You know, as to Witkoff, well, he now has will have met with Putin six times since January. So he knows Putin well and he knows his team well. Some would argue too well, as a recent leak of a phone transcript of conversations he had with Kremlin mediators appeared to show.
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Yeah, okay, so they have some kind of rapport. But has that led to any breakthroughs, any flexibility at all in Vladimir Putin's positions on Ukraine?
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Well, Witkoff has come out of past meetings saying he believes Putin wants peace. The White House says it's hopeful, too and yet that's hard to square with scenes broadcast last night here on Russian TV which suggested that what Putin wants is victory. So Putin visited a military command post dressed in fatigues, where his top brass reported Russian gains on all fronts. And they told Putin that ill equipped Ukrainian recruits were essentially being sent to slaughter, which prompted this response. So here Putin, getting emotional, says this is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people. And he goes on to blame the criminal policies of their pro Western government, which which he labeled an illegal junta for dragging it into war.
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Okay, so some pretty strong language there by Vladimir Putin on the eve of these peace talks, no less. So what do you make of that?
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Well, I think it's important first to point out this is a very Kremlin interpretation of recent Ukrainian history, one most Ukrainians would dispute. But leaving that aside, yeah. The video seems to be a message to Trump and his team that any compromises towards Ukraine are out of the question. I mean, look, this, this deal was initially tilted in Russia's favor, which got Putin's cautious endorsement. But then came the blowback. Ukraine, Europe, even some republic Republicans in Congress said this was unacceptable and they demanded changes. And so with each revision, they pulled it further away from a deal Moscow liked. And these scenes of Putin and his generals certainly seem an attempt to convince the US that there's just no alternative but for Ukraine to bend to core Russian demands. And those remain. Ukraine formally giving up territory Moscow claims to have annexed, including parts not occupied by Russian forces and the band on Ukraine joining NATO, full stop.
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Yeah. So, Charles, if those are the bottom line Russian demands, what does Ukraine want?
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Well, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Paris yesterday for meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in which they clearly tried to impress upon the US the need for long term security guarantees for Ukraine. Here's Zelensky.
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Ukraine.
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So here's Zelensky says Ukraine must know for sure that when the war ends, the west is willing to provide protection so Russia doesn't just invade again later. So this is key if Kyiv really wants to be even talk about signing away territory. But the fear, and it's one shared by Europe as well, is that with Witkoff and Kushner and the Kremlin meeting with Putin, somehow the US And Russia will be cutting deals over their heads.
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That's NPR's Charles Maines in Moscow. Thanks a lot.
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Thank you.
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The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members last week in Washington, D.C. appeared to suffer a personal crisis in the years leading up to attack and not Radicalization.
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That's according to a refugee resettlement volunteer who worked closely with Rahmana Lakhinwal and his family over a period of years in Bellingham, Washington.
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NPR's Brian Mann is part of the team covering this story. Brian, you spoke with this resettlement support worker volunteer. What do they have to tell you?
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Yeah. This volunteer agreed to speak with NPR on condition of anonymity. They said they fear for their safety and the safety of others working with the Afghan refugee community. They told me when they first Met Lackenwall in 2022, he seemed hopeful and outgoing. They met at his home where he was often outside playing with his kids and laughing. He held part time jobs for a time, but by 2023, after failing to find permanent work, he was struggling with cultural isolation. This volunteer described Lackinwall withdrawing and becoming more isolated, behaving more and more erratically. We should note a Lackinwall was a member of a paramilitary group called Zero Unit that operated in Afghanistan before US TR left. My colleague Tom Bowman has reported they would mount night raids, go after Taliban fighters. They were pretty brutal. And there were reports from Human Rights Watch that they engaged in torture and also illegal killings.
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Okay, so he had this military history. Did this volunteer worker think that he might be violent when he was in the U.S. no.
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After spending a lot of time with Lackinwall and his family, this volunteer said they never saw or heard any threats, never sensed any danger to the community, and and observed no hostility toward the U.S. they tried to get help for Lackinwall beginning early in 2024 because they feared for his safety. They told me, and I'm quoting here, my biggest concern was that Lackinwall would harm himself. Now, after last week's shooting, of course, 20 year old Sarah Beckstrom, a guard member from West Virginia, died from her wounds. 24 year old Andrew Wolf remains in serious condition. And in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Lackawall was radicalized after coming to the US in 2021. But this volunteer said they saw no evidence of that. This individual's account of Lackinwall's behavior is supported by emails they shared with me showing they started raising concerns about his mental health beginning in January of 2024.
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Do we know anything more about why he drove across the country before this attack?
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Okay, so this person could not shed light on any possible motive. But the volunteer, who's not a mental health professional, said they feared Lacanwal was suffering emotional strain related to his time in Afghanistan working alongside U.S. forces. And this volunteer told me one other interesting thing. Beginning in 2023, Lackanwall began making long, rambling driving trips by car from Bellingham, Washington, across the US he would drive as far away as Arizona and Illinois. Often his family and volunteers trying to help him would not know where he was. So the fact that Lackawann drove to Washington, D.C. that wasn't surprising to people in his community. But the volunteers said lack and Wall's alleged violence, that came without warning.
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Okay.
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Now you mentioned concerns about his well being at least as early as January of 2024. Did anyone try to help him?
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Yeah, and that's documented in the emails this source shared with me. This volunteer says locals in Washington state who worked with Afghan families tried to get professional mental health support. They said after an initial orientation for Afghan families, volunteers supporting them got little help from trained experts on refugee care or mental health. NPR did reach out to nonprofit refugee aid groups that worked with Afghans in the Bellingham, Washington area. They didn't respond or they declined to comment.
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Okay.
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That's NPR's Brian Mann. Brian, thanks.
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Thank you, Ray.
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All right.
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Before we go today on MORNING edition, we're airing a new NPR investigation into a company that is sending disabled military veterans bills for tens of thousands of dollars.
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Yeah, there's a federal law that says that you can't charge veterans money for help filing initial disability claims. But despite warnings from the VA that it may be breaking the law, Trajector Medical continues to operate. A former Army Ranger told NPR's investigations team he started working with the company for help on his disability. But he says Trajector stopped responding. So he did the paperwork himself. He was stunned when he got the bill.
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I think that they took advantage of me and they accessed via database to find out if I had a claim so they could make $4,500 from a guy who spent five and a half years in the army and two tours in Afghanistan.
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Veterans told NPR they were surprised by how aggressive Trajector was at trying to collect. Here's Marine Corps vet Enrique Miranda Cardenas.
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They were calling just about every day, sometimes even twice or three times a day.
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Trajector says it complies with the law and that it's just helping vets, quote, understand, identify and document their medical conditions. You can hear the full investigation on our radio show MORNING Edition. Find it on your local NPR station or anytime on the NPR app. And this afternoon, our colleagues at All Things Considered will dive deeper into what Congress might do to put restrictions on on companies like Trajector Medical.
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And that's up first for Tuesday, December 2nd. I'm Eme Martinez.
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And I'm Layla Faldel. We here at up first give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider this colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. Learn about a big Story of the Day in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Today's episode of up first was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Miguel Macias, Alina Hartunian, Mohamed El Bardisi and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Buch, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Damien Herring, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our senior supervising producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.
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