--:-- [Up First theme music plays]
--:-- Leila Fadel: I missed all the news on my vacation. Good. I was like, oh, Trump got shot. A whole new presidential race has happened. Wait, have you been gone two weeks?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Wow. Literally, I was coming back to this. Well, it's like you've returned to a different world. Basically.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Hundreds of people gathered at a soccer field where a rocket fell over the weekend. Israel says that rocket came out of Lebanon, raising the risk of a wider war. Our correspondent visits the village that was struck.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Leila Fadel, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- [Up First theme music continues]
--:-- Leila Fadel: Venezuela's election authority says President Nicolas Maduro won re-election. The opposition claims fraud, so what now?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: In this country, some analysts talked of Donald Trump as a changed man after he survived an assassination attempt. So let's ask the candidate.
--:-- [Up First theme music fades out]
--:-- Leila Fadel: No, I haven't changed. Maybe I've gotten worse. The former president has gone on a run of name-calling against a new opponent. How does his campaign recalibrate for Kamala Harris?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
--:-- [Up First theme music plays briefly]
--:-- Announcer: Or an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report. You can do all that with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat.
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from Ethos. Discover the modern way to get life insurance all online. Protect your family's future against the unexpected in minutes, not months. With Ethos, you could get up to $3 million in coverage without a medical exam. Just answer a few health questions. Some policies are as low as $2 a day billed monthly. Get your free quote at ethos.com slash NPR.
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--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: That rocket killed 12 children and wounded many more. Israel blames the Lebanese group Hezbollah, and they're deciding how to respond. Now, Hezbollah denies responsibility, but the incident has again raised concerns of an even wider war in the Middle East.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Kat Lonsdorff traveled to the Golan Heights, the Israeli-occupied area where the rocket fell.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: Hi there, Steve. What did you see?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So the strike happened in the town of Majl Shams. It's very close to the border with Lebanon, like you said.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: The community there is largely Druze. That's an Arab minority population. They're not Jewish, and some of them are Israeli citizens.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And the town yesterday was completely in mourning.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: You know, all the shops were closed. There were black flags flapping in the wind on practically every corner. And everyone that we could see was wearing black.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The grief there was palpable. People seemed like they didn't quite know what to do with themselves.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: This is a really tight-knit community, and everyone we talked to was either related to a victim or knew someone who was.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So we went to the soccer field where the strike happened, and there were hundreds of people gathered there.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: It's turned into kind of a makeshift memorial with wreaths placed in the crater where the rocket hit.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But the scene was also still really fresh. We were there less than 24 hours after this happened.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: There was an Israeli organization there that dedicated to collecting the remains of victims after terrorist attacks.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And members of the community were donning rubber gloves and volunteering, going around and sifting through the scene to collect any human remains of the victims they could find.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: You know, it was quite sobering.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, Israel is deciding how to respond to this. The United States will have its advice and its opinions.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: Yeah, people are really angry. You know, they say this is one of the biggest tragedies their community has ever seen.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Here's 52-year-old Nasser Abus Saleh. He rushed to the scene after it happened and tried to help.
--:-- Nasser Abus Saleh: You know, he spent all night there. He said his best friend's 15-year-old daughter was killed.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: We wanted a very strong reaction yesterday, he said. The response we want is to eliminate everything related to Hezbollah and Lebanon, period.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But, you know, others cast doubt on Israel acting with full force in a response.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: Some said they felt like the Druze community wasn't a high priority for the Israeli government.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Many of them are not Israeli citizens. And since it was their children who died, maybe Israel wouldn't take it as seriously.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: But I will say the rhetoric from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government does seem like they are taking it seriously.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Netanyahu met with a security cabinet late into the night last night, and his office put out a statement saying that, quote, Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for it that it has not paid so far.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: Well, what are the early signs as to what that price might be?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So we're still waiting to see. I mean, last night we were waiting to see if that response would come after that security cabinet meeting.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: You know, there were reports in Lebanon of limited Israeli airstrikes, but that's kind of par for the course these days.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It does seem like neither side really wants a full-out war to begin.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: But the Israeli military has been making it clear for months now that they are prepared for a bigger war if in fact that is the way they choose to go.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So it's not out of the question.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: But you know, Israel is of course still fighting a war in Gaza which shows no signs of ending soon.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: On the same day that this strike happened up here in the Golan Heights, an Israeli airstrike hit yet another school sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing 30 people, many of whom were also children.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: And there is increasing pressure here in Israel for Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza, not only to bring the hostages home, but also to refocus military efforts up here in the north against Hezbollah.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Kat, thanks so much for your reporting. Really appreciate it.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorff: Thanks, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf. She is currently in northern Israel.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Venezuelans voted for president yesterday. The electoral authority declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner. Opponents of the socialist leaders say they won and were blocked from monitoring the vote count.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sided with the opposition.
--:-- Leila Fadel: We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: During the campaign, opponents mounted a serious challenge to the long-running rule of Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
--:-- Leila Fadel: The political and economic crisis is so serious that in recent years, nearly a quarter of the population has fled.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Carrie Khan is covering all this from the Venezuelan city of Caracas.
--:-- Carrie Khan: Carrie, welcome back. Good morning. Okay, let's start with the official results such as they are. What does the electoral authority say?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: They say that they have 80% of the vote counted and Maduro had won 51% to opposition candidate and Mundo Gonzalez's 44%.
--:-- Carrie Khan: Right after that declaration fireworks just lit the sky over downtown Caracas Maduro then came out and he spoke.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He told a sizable crowd that they all had won against powers attacking Venezuela dignity
--:-- Carrie Khan: He didn't mention the U.S. by name, but he said they couldn't beat us with sanctions, they couldn't with aggressions or threats, and they never will.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Maduro also said the electoral system was hacked by foreign terrorists, but he gave no proof and said he wouldn't name names.
--:-- Carrie Khan: And the electoral authorities run by Maduro loyalists have yet to release the entire vote count, but they said they will in quote the coming hours.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so that is the official view of events. What does the opposition say?
--:-- Carrie Khan: They declared victory themselves and they cried foul, denouncing violations, they said, in hundreds of voting stations.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The biggest accusation is that the authorities kicked opposition observers out of those stations and refused to print or even transmit voting tallies.
--:-- Carrie Khan: Edmundo Gonzalez, who was the last-minute candidate for the opposition, said Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And Maria Corina Machado, the opposition's most popular leader who was banned from running, called the fraud a gross disregard and violation of popular sovereignty.
--:-- Carrie Khan: Machado says that according to independent exit polls and the 40 percent of the votes they've counted, Gonzalez won by a huge margin. She says 70 percent.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And I can just tell you, Steve, that I watched the vote count in one polling place after the polls closed in downtown Caracas.
--:-- Carrie Khan: And of course, this isn't a scientific survey at all. But in that center, the vote for Gonzalez was 85% to Maduro's 12%.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm just trying to think about what happens now, Carrie.
--:-- Carrie Khan: That is the biggest question. The opposition has called for calm and says they're determined to make sure all votes are counted, but they didn't specify how they're going to do that.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: In the past, like you said, they called for massive street protests that were put down with violence.
--:-- Carrie Khan: NPR's Carrie Conn is in Caracas, Venezuela.
--:-- Carrie Khan: Carrie, thanks very much.
--:-- Carrie Khan: You're welcome.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Wow, it seems like longer, but Vice President Harris has been the likely Democratic presidential nominee for barely a week.
--:-- Leila Fadel: We heard enthusiasm for Harris among Democratic voters in Pennsylvania last week, and her campaign raised hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Former President Donald Trump is trying to reclaim the spotlight.
--:-- Leila Fadel: In recent days, he told a gathering of Christian voters that if they just support him one time, he would have things, quote, fixed, so they, quote, won't have to vote anymore.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He also attacked his new opponent, whose name is pronounced Kamala. If a crazy liberal like Kamala Harris gets in, the American dream is dead.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So how is Trump trying to claw back attention?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez is covering the Trump campaign.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Franco, good morning. He's in our studios here, Studio 31 in Washington, D.C. How is Trump recalibrating to a new opponent?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, he's still looking to tie Harris to Biden's most unpopular policies, including inflation and especially the border, which is a vulnerability for her.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: But as Layla mentioned, he's also escalating his attacks and getting personal.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He's calling her sick and unhinged. He's attacking her past, her time as a district attorney in California, and charging that she would impose San Francisco values on the country.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Kamala Harris was the original Marxist district attorney. She destroyed San Francisco and she will destroy our country. She will be the worst president we've ever had. She will be worse than crooked Joe Biden.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And Steve, listening to that, I'll just point out that Harris was criticized on the left as well for her time as a prosecutor.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: You know, and she's not hiding from the fact that she was a prosecutor, even framing the race as one between prosecutor and convict.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: She's emphasizing how she took on predators, including predators who abuse women, which is a clear reference to Trump's multiple convictions. 34 of them, to be exact.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: I am thinking about how the former president was said to have a unity message for a minute after his assassination attempt.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Has that lasted?
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Yeah, it really didn't last that long. I mean, Trump seemed to kind of joke about it, actually, you know, how people thought he'd change after the assassination attempt two weeks ago.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: No, I haven't changed. Maybe I've gotten worse, actually, because I get angry at the incompetence that I witness every single day.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: On Friday, he called Harris a bum and went into detail about how he didn't care about mispronouncing her name.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, the Harris campaign, however you pronounce her name, has raised $200 million since she emerged as a likely Democratic presidential nominee, which I guess we should just note that that's a lot.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: How does that affect Trump, though? I mean, I don't think he's happy about it. I mean, it is a lot of money.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But the Trump campaign will tell you that it is simply a honeymoon period.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: I spoke with Brian Lanza, a former campaign official who is still in contact with the team and Trump. He says Democrats are experiencing a sugar high.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And what do we know about sugar highs? That the crash eventually happens.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: But when the sugar runs out, when the sugar high evaporates, as it always does, they're going to realize they're even in a worse position than they were with Joe Biden.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: You know, most polls taken after she entered the race show her about even with Trump.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: At the same time, this is not territory that Trump is so familiar with. I mean, he doesn't like to give up the spotlight and usually doesn't have to.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And they're also having to play some defense, as some of J.D. Vance's past comments have drawn controversy.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: And Trump had so much momentum after the debate, as well as after the Republican National Convention.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: There was this feeling of inevitability across the campaign. And right now, it's just a whole different dynamic.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Franco, thanks very much for the insights. Always a pleasure to see you.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Thank you, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And that's Up First for this Monday, July 29th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Fadel.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Your next listen is Consider This from NPR.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Likely Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has a matter of days to choose a running mate. The list of possibilities is long and each person delivers a different electoral advantage.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Listen to Consider This.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Today's Up First was edited by James Heider, Tara Neal, Krishnadev Kalamer, are Jenea Williams and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, Nia Dumas, and Milton Guevara.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Join us tomorrow.
--:-- [Up First theme music plays]
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