--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Is Israel ready to accept a ceasefire initially proposed by Israel? President Biden is urging the parties to say yes. Some of Israel's right-wing government is not willing to go along. It's also unclear if Hamas would accept.
--:-- A Martinez: I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Jury selection begins today in a gun case against Hunter Biden. Prosecutors say the president's son lied on a background check when he bought a firearm in 2018. And they intend to use passages from his memoir as evidence.
--:-- A Martinez: And 71 years after Mexico extended voting rights to women, voters there appear to have elected their first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Por primera vez en doscientos años, las mujeres lleguemos a la presidencia de la república. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Steve Inskeep: To get matched with a therapist, visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
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--:-- Daniel Estrin: The U.S. is putting new pressure on Hamas and Israel to permanently end the war in Gaza. Yeah, President Biden surprised Israeli leaders last Friday when he went public with a ceasefire proposal that Israel had offered privately.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Biden's speech set off debate inside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, which raises the question as to whether Israel can deliver on its own ceasefire deal.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Tel Aviv. Daniel, what does the ceasefire proposal say?
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Well, it's a proposal for a six-week initial ceasefire, which would include a major hostage prisoner exchange, and it would allow Palestinians to return to North Gaza for the first time in the war.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Then it would be followed with a next phase, a final release of hostages, including male Israeli soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza, and it would be a permanent end of hostilities.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: And then there would be a final phase after that, a big reconstruction effort for rebuilding Gaza's decimated infrastructure.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This is a very similar proposal to what has been proposed for many months now, but that really never went anywhere. And so President Biden is making an effort for a breakthrough here.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: And he said, quote, it's time for this war to end.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now are Hamas and Israel on board with this framework to end the war? Hamas says it is. It says it ready to deal with the proposal positively and constructively.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: You know President Biden is promising Hamas what it essentially has been asking for all along which is a guaranteed and permanent end of the war.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And our producer in Gaza, Anas Bhabha, has spoken to residents in Gaza who are eager to see President Biden push this deal through.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: The bigger question A is if Israel is ready to get on board. Biden has packaged this as a ceasefire that Israel is backing, when in reality, there is major disagreement about this in Israel.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Public opinion wise, there is a new survey that found 40% of Israelis polled do support the ceasefire deal.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: If you look at the military, you see that Israel's army is actually focusing new attention elsewhere. In addition to Gaza, it's focusing on the Lebanon border and training troops there because there's been an escalation of Hezbollah fire onto Israel.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The problem here with this deal is political. On the one hand, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed this plan privately.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: That's what an Israeli official tells me. But Netanyahu cannot come out and say it outright because the far right flank in his government is threatening to resign over this proposal because they say it would keep Hamas intact.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And if the far right does resign, Netanyahu simply won't have a government anymore. And that could spell the end of his political career.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: So if Netanyahu is in this bind, how is it likely to play out?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, Netanyahu, you know, does have an important choice to make. Ending the war could cost him his own political survival.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: At the moment, Israel's government politicians are holding consultations. They're making their own calculations about whether to embrace this deal.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with Netanyahu's two other war cabinet members to try to push it through.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Biden is making the case here that accepting the deal will bring a reward for Israel, which is diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, something Israel has long sought.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And Biden is saying that that can help Israel become less isolated globally over its actions in Gaza.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: All right. That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: You're welcome.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Today in federal court in Delaware, jury selection begins in the Hunter Biden trial on gun charges.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This case against the president's son was brought by Justice Department Special Counsel David Weiss.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Just last week, former President Trump was in the spotlight denouncing the jury verdict against him in a Democratic state.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, trial begins for a Biden as part of an investigation that dates back to President Trump's administration.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is joining us now. Ryan, a gun case against Hunter Biden here, but what are the charges he's facing?
--:-- Ryan Lucas: So there are three charges against Hunter here that all relate to a Colt Cobra revolver that he bought in October of 2018.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He faces two counts of making false statements when purchasing the weapon.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Prosecutors say that Hunter lied on a federal background check form he had to fill out when buying the gun.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That form has a boilerplate question that asks whether you use illegal drugs or are addicted to drugs.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Prosecutors say that Hunter lied on that form by checking the no box, in other words, saying that he wasn't using illegal drugs when prosecutors say he was.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And then there's, of course, also the third count, and that is for the unlawful possession of a firearm by a drug user or addict.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: OK, how do prosecutors intend to prove their case?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, they've said in filings in an open court that they expect to call around a dozen witnesses.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: That includes Hunter's ex-wife, Kathleen Buell, as well as the widow of his brother, Beau, Haley Biden.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Hunter had a romantic relationship with her after Beau died.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Prosecutors say that Haley Biden will testify that Hunter had the gun in question, that she threw it into a dumpster outside a market in Wilmington less than two weeks after he bought it.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That gun was later found by a man collecting recyclables. He's the one who turned it over to law enforcement.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Prosecutors also intend to use parts of Hunter's own memoir as evidence, as well as Hunter own text messages related to his drug use.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But to be clear Hunter has been very open including in his memoir about his addiction to crack cocaine to alcohol.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: But this trial looks like it going to put that struggle and the toll that it took on the Biden family very much in the national spotlight.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: All right. Now, how will Hunter Biden's attorneys plan to counter the government's case?
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Well, they think they can challenge some of the evidence.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: There has been, though it has to be said, a lot of legal wrangling in the lead up to this trial.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Hunter's attorneys have tried to get this case dismissed on a bunch of different grounds.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: The judge has denied those.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But this time last year, it looked like Hunter was going to be able to avoid trial entirely.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: He had a tentative deal to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and to avoid prosecution entirely on the gun charges.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But that deal fell apart dramatically in court.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Weeks later, Weiss was appointed special counsel.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He then indicted Hunter on these gun charges.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: A few months after that, Weiss separately brought tax charges against Hunter in California.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That case is scheduled to go to trial in September.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Now, Hunter's attorney, Abby Lowell, has argued that these gun offenses are usually not charged.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: And he's argued that the special counsel has folded, essentially, to Republican pressure on the Hill and that this whole prosecution is politically motivated.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: There is quite the political backdrop for this trial, a son of a president going on trial as his father runs for re-election.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: I mean, could this possibly hurt President Biden?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Look, it comes at a tricky time for the president politically, of course.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: We're just, what, five months out from the election.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Republicans have certainly in the past tried to play up Hunter's legal troubles, his international business dealings in an effort to muddy his father.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: And there's every reason to believe that they're going to try to do that with this trial again.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But Hunter, of course, is the one on trial, not President Biden.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Hunter is not running for president.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And of course, the man who is running against Biden for the presidency, former President Trump, was just found guilty by a jury in New York of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to an adult film star.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: But Trump is still leading Biden in many polls.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So it's hard to say what the political impact, if any, Hunter's legal troubles will have on his father's political fortunes.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: We're going to have to wait and see.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Hunter's trial that opens today with jury selection, and this trial could last up to two weeks.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Thank you.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Okay, here's the sound of history being made in Mexico City. Presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum says women have reached the presidency of the Mexican Republic for the first time in 200 years.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She said las mujeres got there, women, plural.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Now that election results show that Sheinbaum herself is heading for a landslide victory.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Eder Peralta joins us now from Mexico City.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Ader, Sheinbaum has been the favorite for months, so the results aren't necessarily a surprise, but tell us what it was like.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Well, look, the Electoral Commission took unusually long to announce its results, but just before midnight, the commissioners came on TV and said that according to preliminary results, Claudia Sheinbaum had achieved an irreversible lead.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I was at the Socalo, which is Mexico City's main square, where many of her supporters had gathered, and it was an emotional moment.
--:-- Eder Peralta: There were little girls with their moms, older women with their adult daughters.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And it's hard to overstate what this moment meant for them.
--:-- Eder Peralta: It has been just over 70 years since women were allowed to vote here.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And now they were welcoming a woman president-elect.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Let me play you a little bit of what it sounded like.
--:-- Eder Peralta: And here at the Sokalo, it is being celebrated as a woman breaking the highest of glass ceilings.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And all of this is happening in a country that is notoriously machista.
--:-- Eder Peralta: But now, Claudia Shebaupardo, a 61-year-old environmental engineer, the former mayor of Mexico City she will become the first woman to hold the most powerful office in this country.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Sounds like a partyator
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So what about the women at the square? What did they tell you?
--:-- Eder Peralta: You know, I saw women cry. I saw women dancing. I saw women hugging the Mexican flag and holding little dolls of Claudia Sheinbaum.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I found 69-year-old Rosa Maria Garcia just staring at the presidential palace in front of her.
--:-- Eder Peralta: And she told me that she has always felt that like this was a dream because she felt the power structures in Mexico had been in place too long.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And she thought that maybe Mexicans could never break free of them.
--:-- Eder Peralta: But today, she says they did.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm emotional, she says. I feel complete seeing that a fellow woman will be in charge of the Mexican people.
--:-- Eder Peralta: And, you know, before today, I had heard skepticism. Many women had told me that having a woman in the presidency didn't necessarily mean that she would be a feminist or that their lives would improve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And today I heard none of that.
--:-- Eder Peralta: I heard women who were proud of their country and who were simply enjoying the moment.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: All right, so the inauguration would be in October.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Tell us about Mexico's president-elect and her policies.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Claudia Shebam is a protege of the current president of Mexico, so she has hewed very closely to his policies.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And so she's very likely to retain or even expand the welfare state that has made President Andres Manuel López Obrador very popular.
--:-- Eder Peralta: But also, early results seem to show that Sheinbaum's party might have achieved a supermajority in Congress.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And Sheinbaum and her party say that they want to amend the Constitution to reform the judiciary, the Electoral Commission, and to put at least some police forces under military control.
--:-- Eder Peralta: If this supermajority holds, we can safely say that President Sheinbaum will usher in huge changes to Mexico.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's NPR's Eder Peralta in Mexico City. Thanks a lot.
--:-- Eder Peralta: Thank you.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that's Up First for Monday, June 3rd.
--:-- A Martinez: I'm E. Martinez.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- A Martinez: Your next listen can be Consider This from NPR News as they consider the artifacts in some museums.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: A Nashville museum is acknowledging its past and returning pieces of history to their home.
--:-- A Martinez: Listen to Consider This.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Krishnadev Kalamur, Tara Neal, Alex Schweitzer, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- A Martinez: It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Lindsay Totti.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director, Isaac Coleman.
--:-- A Martinez: Join us again tomorrow.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This message comes from ShipBob. Nothing ruins your holiday faster than the customer emails like, Where's my order? Or worst of all, why can't you deliver by Christmas?
--:-- A Martinez: But Peak doesn't have to be chaotic when ShipBob's in your corner.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: ShipBob helps brands like Our Place, Bloom Nutrition, and Tony's win the holidays with reliable, scalable, fast, and cost-effective fulfillment.
--:-- A Martinez: Make this your best holiday season yet with ShipBob. Go to shipbob.com slash NPR for a free quote.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This comes from NPR sponsor Sierra. How businesses connect with customers defines their brand.
--:-- A Martinez: Sierra is the platform for building better, more human customer experiences with AI.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: No stock answers, no Holt music, just real solutions fast.
--:-- A Martinez: Visit sierra.ai to learn more.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Support for this podcast comes from Dignity Memorial. For many families, remembering loved ones means honoring the details that made them unique.
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