Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed; Biden in Berlin : NPR

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today’s top stories

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and Israel’s most wanted man in Gaza, is dead, the Israeli military confirmed. He was considered the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. The attack sparked a war that has killed over 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military reported that he was killed in Rafah, in the south.

Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022.

Adel Hana/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Adel Hana/AP

• 🎧 Sinwar’s death — the latest high-profile killing of a Hamas leader after two other key leaders were killed over the summer — has raised questions about who will assume leadership of the group, NPR’s Hadeel Al-Schalchi tells Up First. Sinwar’s right-hand man has been his brother, Mohamed Sinwar, but there are others outside of Gaza who have represented Hamas in Qatar and Turkey for years. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night his ultimate obligation is to secure the release of the remaining hostages. The U.S. and Israel have long argued that Sinwar was the main obstacle to reaching a hostage deal, according to former Israeli intelligence officer Michael Milshtein. President Biden has emphasized the need to move forward, indicating it’s time to reinvigorate stalled cease-fire talks.
• ➡️ Who was Yahya Sinwar? Here’s everything you need to know about the obsessively secretive man labeled a psychopath by Israeli politicians and security officials.

NPR put together a pair of focus groups in May with “double haters,” voters who disapproved of both former President Donald Trump and Biden. This was to help understand how they made up their minds about the candidates, but a lot has changed since then. This week, NPR went back to those very same voters to find out which way they are now leaning in the tighter-than-ever race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.

• 🎧 NPR’s Mara Liasson says that of 10 springtime double haters, four were locked in or leaning towards Trump, five were locked in and leaning towards Harris, and one was certain he would not vote for either. The shift towards Harris seems to be driven more by anti-Trump than pro-Harris sentiment. “She still isn’t garnering as much support as Biden did in 2020 at the same point in the race with key Democratic groups like African Americans, Hispanics, and young people,” Liasson said. These voters seem less concerned about a Harris outcome as they didn’t believe she would undermine the election. More apprehension surrounds Trump and the potential for political violence due to his repeated refusal to commit to accepting the results of any election he didn’t win.

Biden is in Berlin, Germany, today to meet with European leaders for the last time during his presidency. It’s a farewell trip to a region that has been front and center since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The meeting holds great political importance, especially as the U.S. is poised to elect a new president while the outcome of the war in Ukraine remains uncertain. Here’s a look into this meeting’s significance.

• 🎧 “America’s relationship with Europe is stronger than ever, and that’s largely due to the work that President Biden has done these past four years,” NPR’s Rob Schmitz says. According to a recent survey by the German think tank Körber-Stiftung, 80% of Germans polled believe that another Trump presidency would harm trans-Atlantic relations. Trump’s uncertainty about continuing support for Ukraine could force Europe to step in to fill the gap in U.S. support for the country if he is re-elected. This could put pressure on Germany in particular to strengthen its own security. Furthermore, a Trump presidency could contribute to the growing popularity of far-right parties in Germany and across Europe.

Picture show

Abrar Saleh Ali, 17, arrived to Milé refugee camp in Eastern Chad two weeks ago after the civil war in Sudan destroyed her home and she was seperated from her family. It took months for her to walk across the country and reach the camp, along the way she was robbed of all her belongings, After arriving at the camp, she found out that her sister had been killed.

Claire Harbage/NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Claire Harbage/NPR

NPR’s Claire Harbage and Fatma Tanis spent a week in September speaking with more than two dozen women in several refugee camps in Chad, which is now home to over 600,000 people who have fled Sudan. The women said that the adult men in their families — their husbands, fathers, adult sons, and brothers — were almost always missing. Some men had disappeared, been killed by the Rapid Support Forces to prevent them from defending themselves and their families, or had been conscripted by the Sudanese army. The conflict has displaced over 13 million people and resulted in what the United Nations is calling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Weekend picks

Florence Pugh in We Live in Time.

A24

hide caption

toggle caption

A24

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿Movies: We Live In Time stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, who laugh and cry as a couple trying to make the most of their time together. The story jumps from their first meeting to their later crisis and several critical points in between.

📺 TV: Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as a successful documentarian who is confronted with a secret from her past. Each of the seven episodes propels the story forward, providing new clues, raising bigger questions, and leaving the audience eager to learn more.

📚 Books: Clean is narrated by Estela, a sharp woman who works as a housemaid for a wealthy family. She becomes the main suspect in the death of a 7-year-old who was found dead in the pool of the home where she works.

🎵 Music: Renowned guitarist and composer John Scofield will be celebrating 50 years of recorded music in November. To commemorate this milestone, Jazz Night in America presented him with a special challenge: Choose 10 pivotal tracks from his vast discography and reveal the stories behind them. Listen to the full setlist here.

🎮 Games: Super Mario Party Jamboree is packed with variety, including 112 mini-games, 22 playable characters, seven boards, five multiplayer modes and an exclusively single-player adventure.

❓Quiz: If you’ve paid attention to the presidential hopefuls and incoming pandas, you can pass at least half of this week’s quiz. But if you are like me, you will ace it all. Are you ready to take it on?

3 things to know before you go

People protested in front of the White House in September 2023 to raise awareness of opioid-related deaths. A year later, the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the U.S. has dropped sharply.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

1. Drug overdose deaths are down 12.7%, as per CDC data released this week. If the trend continues, this year could be the first since 2020 to see overdose deaths drop below 100,000.
2. Vikash Yadav, a former Indian intelligence official, is facing U.S. federal charges for allegedly planning to assassinate an American citizen in New York City. The intended victim is a leader in the movement for an independent Sikh homeland.
3. Recently released body camera footage shows Tyron McAlpin, a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy, allegedly being beaten and tased by Phoenix police officers in August 2024. This comes after a DOJ report found evidence of discrimination by Phoenix police against Black, Hispanic, and Native American individuals.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.