--:-- [Up First theme music plays]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Hi, it's Steve Inskeep. And Michelle Martin. It's Election Day.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Before we dive into the show, do I need to remind you of how exciting and exhausting this election has been?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, you get one more night of it, maybe a few. You can tune in for special coverage throughout this night on the NPR app and your local station.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And we will be back here tomorrow and the next day and the next day, if necessary, guiding you through it all with updates, reporting and analysis.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And as you continue to follow things here on Up First, we want you to know that there are two other ways to make sure you don't miss a development throughout the day.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Every weekday, you can find a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast with context and analysis on the big stories whenever they happen.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So you get an alert, big breaking news, don't know what to think. Look for the NPR Politics Podcast a few hours later.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And consider this is the podcast where NPR covers one big story in depth every weekday evening. They will be all over this election. And as Steve said, the day after and the day after, if necessary.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: You've got up first in the morning. Consider this in the evening. The NPR Politics Podcast.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And should we mention, we're on the radio a lot as things develop anytime big stuff happens.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And around the clock, election news survival kit from NPR News.
--:-- Michelle Martin: OK, thank you for listening. And now here's our show.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Former President Trump gave what he called his final rally this morning in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Vice President Harris finished up in Philadelphia, referring to her opponent only as the other guy.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: On this election day, I'm Michelle Martin with Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Trump told his supporters they just have to finish the job.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: All we were doing is putting ourselves in a position to win, which we can do tomorrow very easily if we show up.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Both candidates made stops in Pennsylvania, and all of Harris's events were there.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Oh, it's good to be back in the city of brotherly love. We'll take you there.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Also, Israel formally ends its agreement with the United Nations Palestinian Relief Agency.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What's the effect on ordinary people? Stay with us.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: Last month in Philadelphia, I went for a run and ended up going up the Rocky steps, the ones Sylvester Stallone's character runs up in triumph during the movie Rocky.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Generations after the movie came out, it is still an iconic spot, as Steve just told you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that is where Vice President Harris chose to end her presidential campaign late last night.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And here at these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog and climb to victory.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Harris was speaking just before midnight.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Former President Trump was in another swing state, Michigan, where he spoke in the early hours of the morning in Grand Rapids, the same place he finished his last two campaigns.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It's unbelievable. Think of it. This is it. This is the last one that we're going to have to do.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We've reached two NPR correspondents who've been following the campaigns all this time.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We'll begin with political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Hey, good morning.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so how did Trump close it out?
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, as we just heard in that clip that you just played, Trump has been getting kind of sentimental during his speech about all of this being over, all of this being the campaign, but especially his campaign rallies.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He done this a few times in recent weeks.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: He had a bit more to add in Grand Rapids late last night.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But here's the good news. All we were doing is putting ourselves in a position to win, which we can do tomorrow very easily if we show up.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Now, at these recent events, I will say he's been getting smaller crowds than he's gotten in the past.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He didn't quite fill the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee Friday night.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Yesterday at an arena in Redding, Pennsylvania, it was about half full. That's where I was.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He also didn't fill his arena in Raleigh yesterday either.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Now, you can read that a couple of ways. One is that enthusiasm is waning. Maybe that's true.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But also, it's also possible that he's just been to these states a lot and his supporters just don't feel the need to see him for the fifth, sixth, seventh time.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Yeah, and ultimately elections are decided by who votes, not who shows up at the rallies.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But how did the substance of these rallies sound?
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, he's still saying a lot of the same stuff.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He's promising mass deportations.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: He's saying tariffs are a grand economic fix, though there are some real doubts about that.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He also, though, the last couple of days has been spreading election disinformation preemptively.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: He's been spreading false stories about the Pennsylvania system while he's been in that state, which lays the groundwork for him and his supporters to deny the results if they so choose.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, beyond that, a couple other points about this final day of campaigning.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: At least one of his stops you can see is very intentionally chosen because Redding is two-thirds Latino and a lot of those Latinos are Puerto Rican specifically.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So that is a way you can see him maybe extending an olive branch to those voters who might have been offended by some recent comments.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: But to zoom out, if this is his last campaign, this is the end of an era.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It's the end of the Trump rally.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: He has been this singular personality in politics.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He has reshaped the Republican Party.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: And if he loses, they're really going to have to figure out its identity after Trump.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: OK, I want to hang on to something that you mentioned there because you said that Trump went to a heavily Latino city, Redding, Pennsylvania.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Our colleague Deepa Shivram joins us next.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Hey, good morning.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And I bring you in now because if I'm not mistaken, Kamala Harris also stopped in Redding yesterday. Is this right?
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Yeah, she did.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So after a comedian at last weekend's Trump event called Puerto Rico a, quote, floating island of garbage, that just has been mobilizing Puerto Rican voters and Democrats have really been seizing on that.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: And that's been a real focus for the Harris campaign.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She had celebrities like rapper Fat Joe with her yesterday.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Now, I started this with telling you, where's the orgullo? Where's the pride? Where's your pride if you're still out there talking about you might be voting for somebody or you're not decided? Where's your pride as a Latino?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And as Danielle pointed out, I mean, there are more than 500,000 Latino voters in the state of Pennsylvania, most of them with ties to Puerto Rico.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: So people at this Allentown rally had huge Puerto Rican flags.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And then after that, you know, Harris drove for an hour to make it to this stop at a cafe called Old San Juan Cafe in Redding, like you mentioned.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: And, you know, on the last day of her campaign, you're running up against the clock. The fact that she drove an hour to get there, that says a lot.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So, you know, zooming out a little bit here, it's definitely notable that Harris spent her final day campaigning just in Pennsylvania.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: This is a state that has 19 electoral votes.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: A majority of voters there don't vote until Election Day itself.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: So this is a huge battleground state and one where the vote is going to be really, really close.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Right. And because of that, every voter group is critical to turn out.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: And that 19 is a critical number.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It is hard to find another swing state.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: You can't find another single swing state to replace it if you lose it.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's what makes it so essential.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: So what was that final day like for Harris?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Yeah, I would describe it as, you know, the events sort of building in size and scale over the course of the day.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Harris started at a canvas kickoff in Scranton that had about 200 supporters.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: There was a big homemade banner there to help get out the vote.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Then she went to that Allentown event, then that stop in Reading, and ended the day with these really big rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That one at the Rocky Steps, like you mentioned, had 30,000 people.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: And Harris kept her message to voters pretty brief.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She wants them to vote. She wants them to tell people that they know to go out and vote.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: But I will say one thing that was different here was that she didn't really talk about Trump at all at any of her events.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She mentioned him briefly, sort of referring to him as the other guy.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: But that was really it.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Really for her it was emphasizing this final message about who she is, her story, you know, growing up going to civil rights protests.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: And she been wrapping up her rally saying that her campaign is not just about being against something and that she wants to be a president for all Americans.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We talking here about getting the last few people out to vote.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, we know that more than 82 million people have cast ballots thus far.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, hasn't been as much mail voting as in 2020 during the pandemic.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Sure. But the in-person early voting has been really big.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I mean, we've seen those record numbers in states like Georgia and North Carolina.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Now, one thing that's interesting, though, is that Republican messaging for their voters to turn out earlier has gotten through because in the past they had cast doubt on some of these methods.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And those Republican voters are turning out.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: But it's hard to say if that means anything.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It could just be that people who would have voted on Election Day are now voting earlier.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: I really appreciate that note.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 2020 was so different. It's hard to draw comparisons now.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: It's hard to take any clue and really know who's winning or who's going to win.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But Deepa, when will we know something for real?
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Oh, that is that is the question, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: If you find out, let me know.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: As we know, mail ballots are taking longer to count.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: They have to be verified.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: So, you know, less mail voting means that we may see faster results in some places compared to 2020.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But the key thing here to remember is that this race is about the margins.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: We've been saying that for so long.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So a state can count ballots relatively quickly.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: But if the margins in this race are so tight, outlets like the Associated Press, which, you know, NPR here and many other outlets rely on to call these races, places like the AP won't be able to make these quick calls.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So election officials have been urging a lot of patience.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: And we'll use all the patience we can and get you the best information we can.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Deepa Shivaram and Daniel Kurtzleben, thanks to you both.
--:-- Deepa Shivram: Thanks for having us.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Hope you get some rest.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And let's go overseas now to hear the sound of a rescue from the rubble.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Video from Gaza shows people in orange vests digging through the remnants of a building, believing someone under the wreckage is alive after an Israeli airstrike.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Maria. Kavisha Maria. Kavisha Maria. Kavisha Maria. Kavisha Maria. Kavisha Maria.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: At the end of the video, the rescuers bring up a little girl in pigtails.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You can hear them calling her Miriam.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She was alive, a rare bright spot in a war that has claimed so many lives.
--:-- Michelle Martin: One of the latest moves in that war comes from Israel, which says it will stop cooperating with the United Nations Agency.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's international correspondent, Aya Petraoui, is with us.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: Hi, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Why does Israel say it'll stop working with the U.N. Relief Agency?
--:-- Aya Petraoui: So Israel says UNRWA, which employs around 13,000 people in Gaza, has been infiltrated by Hamas.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Here's Israeli government spokesman David Menser.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: The state of Israel will continue to cooperate with humanitarian organizations, but not with organizations that promote terrorism against us.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So UNRWA's chief, Felipe Lazzarini, says Israel has not provided the agency with evidence to address these allegations.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: And he notes that Israel has killed at least 237 UNRWA staffers in Gaza in this war.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, the agency did let nine people go out of its staff of 13,000.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: And the UN's investigative body says those nine may have been involved in attacking Israel, but that they could not authenticate the information used by Israel in their allegations.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And to be clear, the U.S. says it is concerned about the implications of these Israeli laws that were passed last week, banning contact between Israel and this UN agency, and banning it from operating in Israel, which would impact the West Bank as well.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: And so whoever wins this White House will also have an impact on how this moves forward.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm trying to understand what this Israeli move means on the ground for people in Gaza.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: Well, in short, people are going to suffer because there's already hunger and starvation across Gaza.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: UNRWA says that last month in October, Israel permitted just 30 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza on average per day.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: If you look at markets and shelves anywhere in Gaza from the south to the north, they are bare.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, UNRWA is seen as a key element to staving off famine.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: Because they're the main agency distributing whatever little aid is trickling in and coordinating with Israeli forces over how and when to pick up that aid that's entering Gaza, including fuel supplies from Egypt that keep hospitals running, bakeries, water desalination plants.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, Onra's senior emergency officer in Gaza, Luis Waterbridge, told me a major problem now is what comes next.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: There's less than 90 days for this legislation to come into effect.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We're talking about people's lives, you know.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: So there are systems in place, there mechanisms in place, there 13 months and it kind of got a rhyme and a rhythm going.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And if you change everything now, if you pull the cord now, it's going to take a while to find other ways of doing it.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: So what is the alternative to UNRWA, right?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, Israel hasn't offered a plan.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: Some in Israel say Israeli soldiers should take the lead.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Others say that aid agencies could fill the gap.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: But every UN agency in Gaza is saying they cannot replace UNRWA.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I want to come back to that image we began with, the image of a little girl being pulled from the rubble.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: A bit of good news, regardless of what side you're on in this war, humanitarian news.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Are rescue workers able to operate that way all across Gaza?
--:-- Aya Petraoui: Actually, they're not, Steve, because the northern part of Gaza, just north of where she is in Gaza City, has been under a full Israeli siege for a month now.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, Israel says it's operating against Hamas in response to the group's October 7th attack on Israel last year that killed 1,200 people and took hostages, some of which are still being held in Gaza.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: But by Israel's own account, the military has already dismantled all of Hamas's brigades.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And so it's going after what they're calling scattered and shattered brigades trying to regroup.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: But to do this, the military has launched a punishing assault and siege that's drawn criticism, including from the White House.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But Israel is doubling down on this assault.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: They just deployed another brigade to the area.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, Palestinians there fear the aim is permanent expulsion.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: You already have tens of thousands forcibly fleeing the north this past month.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The UN says there's still 100,000 people in north Gaza.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: They do not have access to food, ambulances, and rescue services.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: These rescue crews have said they've been under attack, they've been arrested, and they cannot operate.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: So what we know is that there are families and there are children just like her dying under the rubble.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Piazaya Batraoui, thanks so much.
--:-- Aya Petraoui: Thank you.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Here's an update on one more news story.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Boeing workers have voted to accept a new proposed contract, ending a strike that lasted nearly eight weeks.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Wow, the deal provides 38 percent raises over four years and will help the company turn the page on billions of dollars in losses over the work stoppages and safety issues.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Here's Union District President John Holden announcing the results.
--:-- John Holden: You stood strong and you stood tall and you won. This is a victory. Thank you, everyone.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Stay tuned to NPR for the latest updates.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's up first for this Tuesday, Election Day, November 5th.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: For your next listen, tune in to Consider This from NPR.
--:-- Michelle Martin: A bit of counter-programming for those who need a break from the election.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Just one man has worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Of course, we're talking about Quincy Delight Jones Jr.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Jones passed away this week at 91.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You can't tell the history of popular music without telling the story of his legendary career.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Listen to Consider This from NPR.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I did not know his middle name was Delight.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That is... Delightful.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Thank you very much.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's Up First was edited by Megan Pratt, Roberta Rampton, Russell Lewis, Olivia Hampton, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Lindsay Tati.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Carly Strange and our technical director once again in this election is Zach Coleman.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Join us tomorrow.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This message comes from NetSuite.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What does the future hold for business?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Can someone invent a crystal ball?
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--:-- Michelle Martin: With real-time insights and forecasting, you're able to peer into the future and seize new opportunities.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash story.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: Thanks for listening to Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Steve Inskeep.
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