--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Israeli ground troops have pushed into central Gaza. Previously, ground troops were not active there out of concern for hostages. Will crossing this line ramp up pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal?
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: I'm Steve Inskeep with Sasha Pfeiffer, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The Trump administration is planning to use military bases in Indiana and New Jersey to detain people accused of lacking legal status.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Beds are important. Last week, I woke up one morning, we had less than 200 beds. We'll fill them by half a day.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Are there risks to using military resources for immigration enforcement?
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: And Harvard University appeared in federal court to ask a judge to reverse the government's freeze on its grants and contracts.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from BetterHelp. President Fernando Madeira describes how BetterHelp Online Therapy has helped him.
--:-- Fernando Madeira: For me, sometimes I just need to go and talk to somebody that is not going to judge me, right? Is going to be there and going to listen to me. And I can't start just saying, look, I'm not feeling right today. And it feels natural.
--:-- Announcer: To get matched with a therapist, visit betterhelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from NPR sponsor AARP.
--:-- AARP Representative: Where do you see your career in 12 years? What are you doing now to help you get there? The sooner you start enhancing your skills, the sooner you'll be ready.
--:-- AARP Representative: That's why AARP has management, finance, and small business reskilling courses, all to help your income live as long as you do.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: In 21 months of war, Israeli ground troops have pushed into central Gaza. Israeli's military radio reported that a ground operation began yesterday.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Palestinians staying in several areas there have been ordered to evacuate.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Central Gaza is also where many international aid organizations are, including the World Health Organization.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: With us now is NPR's Emily Fang, who is in Tel Aviv.
--:-- Emily Fang: Good morning, Emily. Good morning, and thanks for having me on.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Why is the Israeli military entering central Gaza now, and why is that noteworthy?
--:-- Emily Fang: So Israel's military wants to ramp up pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal. And they're trying to show they're willing to cross lines that they had not been willing to cross before.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Now, previously, Israeli ground troops had not really been active in this area called Der al-Balakh because they were concerned about potentially endangering hostages kidnapped by Hamas and its attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, who might be in the area.
--:-- Emily Fang: But Israel and Hamas have been negotiating a ceasefire, and there is international pressure building from U.S. President Trump and also foreign ministers from more than 25 countries, which issued a statement yesterday calling for an end to the war.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Because of this grand offensive, the director of the United Nations office says its premises in central Gaza have already been hit in this new offensive.
--:-- Emily Fang: This was a house for the staff of the World Health Organization, which says its male staff were handcuffed, stripped and screened at gunpoint. And one of their staff remains detained.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Now, we asked Israel's military about what happened here. They said they'd ordered evacuations, that they were responding to gunfire, and that, quote, suspects involved in terrorist activity may be required to temporarily remove certain items of clothing.
--:-- Emily Fang: Now, who this ground offensive impacts most immediately, however, are the tens of thousands of Palestinians who are living where this ground offensive is taking place.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The United Nations says that with this latest evacuation order nearly 88 of Gaza is no longer accessible to civilians because it's now an Israeli militarized zone.
--:-- Emily Fang: And that means about 2 million civilians are squeezed into just about 12% of the area of the Gaza Strip.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Emily, NPR has been doing a lot of reporting about limited access in Gaza to food, housing, basic necessities. How is that squeeze you described affecting people's daily lives?
--:-- Emily Fang: Well, they're getting pushed even more into a smaller fragment of the Gaza Strip, where these services you described have completely collapsed.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: I spoke to Jan Egelind about this. He is secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
--:-- Emily Fang: He has, he says, about 70 colleagues in Gaza, and they've been told by the Israeli military over the months to first move south in the Gaza Strip, now to central Gaza, and most recently...
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: We now have to leave Deirabala with a population. Our aid workers are herded around like cattle.
--:-- Emily Fang: And with barely any food now allowed into Gaza, our NPR producer there, Anas Baba, has been reporting that people are quite literally fainting from hunger in the streets and some people are dying.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Egelin says the Norwegian Refugee Council has food ready to go into Gaza.
--:-- Emily Fang: My organization has now had trucks, relief supplies, This life-saving relief supply are ready to go across the border crossings for 145 days, and we've been blocked every single day.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Emily, you mentioned ceasefire negotiations. How likely is a ceasefire at this point?
--:-- Emily Fang: These talks are continuing, and Qatar hopes are higher than they've been in recent weeks.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: But one main sticking point is that Israel wants to keep a military presence in Gaza.
--:-- Emily Fang: And even if a ceasefire deal is reached soon, it's going to likely leave the biggest questions unanswered.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Questions like, who is going to administer Gaza in the future? And how can the Gaza Strip be rebuilt and made livable for the people there?
--:-- Emily Fang: That's NPR's Emily Fang.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Thanks, Emily.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The Trump administration is putting more military resources toward immigration enforcement.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Yeah, the Pentagon is making space at two military bases to detain immigrants who are suspected of being in the United States without legal status.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The administration also plans to expand Guantanamo Bay, the base there, to house more migrants.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: NPR immigration policy reporter Jimena Bastillo has reviewed internal memos spelling all of this out, and she's with us in the studio this morning.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: Hi, Jimena.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: This is not the first time that military resources are being used for immigration enforcement under President Trump. So what exactly is being added?
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: The Homeland Security Department is adding one military base in Indiana and one in New Jersey to a list of places to detain migrants.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: These bases will be available through September.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, will use their personnel and contractors and be completely responsible for the care of the people who are detained there, as well as the transportation and security at the locations.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: No military personnel will be involved here.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: We reached out to the Pentagon and there was no immediate response to a comment on these plans.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: But the military has been a big resource for DHS. They are able to do this because the Trump administration declared a national emergency at the southern border.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: The emergency declaration allows for the administration to shuffle around resources, such as by taking defense resources and giving them to DHS.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Pentagon memos from last week say that these two military facilities will be used on a temporary basis to house what it calls, quote, single adult non-high threat illegal aliens who have links to transnational crime organizations or criminal drug activity.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: The memo, as we noted, also says that detention space at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base will be expanded.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: But we heard that back in January. So what's been approved that's new?
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: Guantanamo, as you know, can currently hold about 200 people at a time, and that will now double to 400.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Still, this continues to be a controversial use of the base.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: And as you noted when Trump first announced that migrants would be going to Guantanamo he said he wanted tens of thousands of beds and we still very far from that.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: They said 30 Experts at the time said that it seems unlikely It seems that it still a struggle to get to that number
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: So that space, this obviously will take personnel.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: What about adding people to help with this?
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: You know, there's about 700 service members that have been tapped for detention duty in places like Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has now approved 500 troops to assist ICE in seven other states.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: So that's a separate initiative.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: There's no timing on when those additional troops will be called up or when they will serve.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: Why does the administration want to use these bases?
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The request to use additional military bases and the expansion of Guantanamo comes as the Trump administration has continued to push to arrest and detain more people in the country without legal status.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: DHS has nearly 57,000 people in immigration detention, though it only has about 41,000 beds.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Here's boarder czar Tom Homan talking to reporters outside the White House last week.
--:-- Tom Homan: Beds are important. Last week I woke up one morning, we had less than 200 beds. We'll fill them by half the day.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: So we're constantly having to change flight arrangements and move deportations as quick as we can to empty beds.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: We shouldn't be in that position.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The department has sought out contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, local jurisdictions, and military bases to detain migrants.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: And more is to come.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The Trump administration is expected to be able to scale up its detention capacity due to an influx of funding from Congress.
--:-- Jimena Bastillo: The recent tax and spending bill set aside $45 billion for immigration detention centers and $30 billion for more ICE personnel, transportation costs, and to maintain existing ICE facilities.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: That's NPR's Jimena Bustillo.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Thanks.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The case of Harvard versus the Trump administration is now in the hands of a federal judge.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Lawyers from both sides made their arguments in court in Boston while supporters of Harvard rallied outside.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Veritas! Veritas! Veritas is a Latin word meaning truth and it's the motto of Harvard University.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: NPR's Alyssa Nadwarni was outside the courthouse yesterday and joins us this morning from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: Good morning, Alyssa.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: What was it like at the courthouse?
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: Well, outside the courthouse, about 100 students, staff, faculty members, and alumni gathered to show their support for Harvard.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: I talked with James McCaffrey, a Harvard senior studying government.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: He co-founded Students for Freedom, a group that advocates for university leaders to stand up to the Trump administration.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: I'm from Oklahoma, very red state. I'm a very proud American. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in the American dream.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: When you're starting to attack freedom of speech, that's anti-American. When you're starting to say, we're going to cut your funding, that's un-American.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The federal grants that were frozen impact about 900 research studies at Harvard, from national security to cancer treatments to children's mental health.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: And what about inside the courtroom?
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Tell us what played out there.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: So inside, the courtroom was packed. There was actually a long line to get in.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: For arguments, Harvard really stuck with what they had filed in court documents, that the White House violated the university's First Amendment rights and acted in retaliation when it demanded control over the school's viewpoint diversity policies.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: Now, the more surprising pivot was on the side of the Trump administration.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: In terms of their legal argument, did they adjust what they're arguing?
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: Yeah, so in court filings, the administration said these grants were canceled because Harvard violated civil rights law by allegedly fostering anti-Semitism on campus.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: But in court on Monday, the lone lawyer representing the Trump administration, Michael Velchik, seemed to pivot, arguing that the administration has the right to cancel government grants at any time if it decides that an institution doesn't align with its priorities.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: He essentially framed the issue as one about finances and told the judge that the government has the ability to simply give the research funding to another institution.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: He actually singled out Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: And Velchik is actually a Harvard alum himself, and he told the court, quote, Harvard wants billions of dollars. That's the only reason we are here.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Alyssa, any indication of what the judge is thinking?
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: Well in court Judge Alison Burroughs an Obama appointee appeared to push back on the administration argument
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: She asked about the relationship between cancer research and combating anti
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: At one point, she even called the government's arguments, quote, mind-boggling.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: And after arguments wrapped up, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that Burroughs was, quote, a total disaster, and that when she rules against us, we will immediately appeal and win.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: And what's the sense in the legal community of whether that is likely to be how this turns out?
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Well, both sides have asked for a summary judgment. In court, Burroughs said that she would issue her ruling as fast as possible.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: Now, that opinion could come after several days or even weeks.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: But yeah, legal scholars have told us whoever loses is likely going to appeal, and that means that this case could eventually land at the U.S. Supreme Court.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: That is NPR's Alyssa Nadwarni in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Thanks for your reporting.
--:-- Alyssa Nadwarni: You bet.
--:-- [Sound effects: Brief pause]
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: And finally today, actor Malcolm Jamal Warner, best known for his role as the sweet and rebellious teenager Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He drowned Sunday in an accident in Costa Rica.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Millions of TV viewers in the 1980s enjoyed Warner's role as the only son of Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Is this my shirt? Is this a shirt? I paid $30 for it. Is this a chance to do it for the thing and the boarding bar trails?
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Later, he had starring roles in the comedy Malcolm and Eddie and the medical drama The Resident.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And he won a Grammy Award for his spoken word contribution to a 2015 song called Jesus Children, memorializing the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: He spoke to All Things Considered in 2023 about discovering other avenues of creative expression later in his life.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I found music. I became a bass player Because through the music and poetry, there are ways that I can express myself that I can't as an actor or a director.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Malcolm Jamal Warner was 54 years old.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that's up first for Tuesday, July 22nd.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: I'm Sasha Pfeiffer. And I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: The NPR app lets you keep public radio in your pocket.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: You'll find a mix of local, national, and international news, plus the best podcasts from the NPR network.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Download the NPR app in the App Store today.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Anna Yukhananov, Steve Drummond, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We got engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carly Strange.
--:-- Sasha Pfeiffer: Please join us again tomorrow.
--:-- [Theme music starts playing]
--:-- Announcer: Code Switch is one of Time Magazine's top 100 podcasts of all time, baby.
--:-- Announcer: They called our show, quote, a kind of cultural compass, never preachy, always curious, about the roots of inequality in people's lived experiences.
--:-- Announcer: Mm-hmm. I mean, I'm biased, but we couldn't have put it better ourselves.
--:-- Announcer: And we're digging into all this every week.
--:-- Announcer: So make sure you catch the next episode of Code Switch on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Announcer: I kind of miss being back in school.
--:-- Announcer: I mean, you get assigned to read great books and then you have time to talk about them.
--:-- Announcer: It seems like a dream.
--:-- Announcer: If you're in the same boat, NPR's Book of the Day has a whole week of interviews with authors big on high school syllabi.
--:-- Announcer: Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros, Jason Reynolds, and more.
--:-- Announcer: So listen to NPR's Book of the Day podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Announcer: Keeping up with the news can feel like a 24-hour job.
--:-- Announcer: Luckily, it is our job.
--:-- Announcer: Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest, most important stories happening, and we package them into five-minute episodes, so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing.
--:-- Announcer: Listen to the NPR News Now podcast.
--:-- [Theme music continues to play]
