Julian Assange Extradition Hearing, Egypt Buffer Zone, Louisiana Special Session

to the United States.

What are his chances?

A planned Israeli invasion of the southern city of Rafah in Gaza may force Palestinians

into Egypt despite its objections.

So how is Egypt preparing on the other side of that border, and what will it mean for

the more than one million Palestinians in Rafah displaced by Israel's war against

Hamas?

state's recent criminal justice reforms.

Lawmakers will consider over two dozen bills, including a bill that would make state executions

easier.

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the U.S. to face spying charges.

This case goes back to the 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S.

government documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Good morning, Lauren.

I mean, I have this image of him on a balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where

he was taking refuge for years.

Where is he now?

Now, he's in a high-security prison here in London, Belmarsh Prison, and he's been there

for the past five years.

Before that, he was, if your memory serves you correctly, in the Ecuadorian embassy in

London.

Here's a recap.

In 2010, Assange was arrested here in London at the behest of Sweden, where two women had

accused him of rape and sexual assault.

He jumped bail in that case, took refuge in that Ecuadorian embassy.

After seven years, the Ecuadorians evicted him, and he was arrested by the U.K. for breaching

that bail.

Now, the Swedish charges have since been dropped, but in the meantime, the U.S. has charged

him with 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer misuse.

Whew.

I mean, OK.

So, this goes back to Chelsea Manning and her leak of U.S. military files during the

Iraq War, right?

So, Chelsea Manning was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

In early 2010, she leaked hundreds of thousands of secret files to WikiLeaks, which shared

them with media organizations and published them.

And this was one of the biggest security breaches in the U.S. military ever.

It included this now-infamous, then-classified video of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that

killed about a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists.

I remember that video really well.

It became an important story for the public to know.

You and I were both based in Baghdad at the time.

Chelsea Manning went to prison, and her sentence was commuted by then-President Obama.

But the case against Assange still remains.

And it actually could have implications for media, like you and me.

Essentially, Assange's lawyers say he is a publisher.

Reporters without borders and other press freedom groups say this case sets a dangerous

precedent for journalists to be charged with espionage for work that they do that's in

the public interest.

Now, Assange's lawyers also say they're concerned about his health.

Last week, I interviewed Assange's wife, Stella Assange.

She is a lawyer whom he married in 2022 while in prison, and they have two children together.

Here's what she had to say.

in a bogus case that criminalizes journalism.

CIA wants to kill him, so he doesn't want to be transferred to the U.S.

days.

order that has already been signed by the U.K. government.

So the U.K. is not weighing whether Assange is a journalist.

They're only weighing whether he can be extradited safely.

The question of guilt or the validity of his defense will be decided at a U.S. trial if

that happens.

So after two days of arguments today and tomorrow, the judges could announce their decision tomorrow

night.

It could take a couple weeks.

Assange's wife told me, though, that she's not optimistic, and she thinks he could actually

be on a plane to the U.S. within days.

Thank you, Lauren.

the border from Egypt.

And the Biden administration is warning Israel not to advance without first ensuring the

more than one million people sheltering there have an opportunity to seek safety somewhere

else.

Good morning, Ayah.

What's the situation there for people?

in Rafah, many of them living in makeshift tents after being pushed from their homes

by Israeli ground operations in other areas like the north.

And there was hope that Rafah would be a safe zone, but it's not.

There is no safe place in Gaza for civilians and people are growing desperate.

The number of aid trucks entering Gaza has fluctuated dramatically in recent days.

From one day to the next, some days a hundred trucks go in, on other days just a fraction

of that.

And now there's growing concern about hunger, disease and hospitals collapsing.

You know, already more than 29,000 people in Gaza, most of the women and children have

been killed by direct violence in this war.

According to the health ministry there, a war that began October 7th when Hamas attacked

Israel.

And in that attack, they took 240 hostages and 1,200 people were killed, according to

Israeli officials.

And some of those hostages have been released and some still remain.

Israel has carried out airstrikes on Rafah.

What do we know about their impact?

I mean, there are so many stories of loss and trauma.

And here's one from Sunday.

Around two dozen people were sheltering in a home in Rafah when an airstrike hit the

house.

Just five people survived.

Now, among those killed, Leila, in that airstrike were a newlywed couple.

They'd been engaged for about a year and decided to go ahead and tie the knot on Thursday.

NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, spoke to the bride's father, Abdel Salam Adib, about

his daughter, Mariam Adib.

And here's what he said.

He says his daughter had only been married for two days when she and her husband were

killed and that they didn't even get a chance to experience life and see the world.

He says, I wish I could say goodbye to her, kiss her and hug her.

Her body's still under the rubble.

It's really hard to hear the helplessness of all these families and stories like this.

Now, of course, the Biden administration continues to back Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas,

providing weapons and aid to Israel's military.

But the president has also cautioned Israel against rushing into a ground invasion of

Rafah.

What do we know, though, about Israel's plans?

about where this war is headed and what the future of Gaza is going to look like.

Now, there has been a push by mediators to get a truce in place, preferably before the

start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in about three weeks.

But over the weekend, a member of Israel's war cabinet said that if hostages aren't freed

by Ramadan, fighting would continue everywhere in Gaza, including in Rafah.

would push Palestinians across the border into its territory.

How's that affecting relations between Egypt and Israel?

I mean, there haven't been any direct calls between Egypt's president, Israel's prime

minister, but Egypt is still trying to get Hamas and Israel to agree to a ceasefire of

some kind.

Now, as a precaution, Egyptian security officials tell NPR Egypt is constructing a walled off

security zone that could take up to 150,000 Palestinians on its side of the border in

case people do break through and breach Egypt's border.

Egypt is very concerned that any displacement of Palestinians into Egypt would be permanent

and that it would drag Egypt into the war.

meant to address that.

But the proposed measures also threaten to undo some of the state's recent criminal justice

reforms, including a controversial proposal that would make it easier to carry out death

sentences.

Hi, Molly.

What's in that bill?

in Louisiana to include electrocution and nitrogen gas hypoxia.

Right now, only lethal injection is allowed, but it's been hard to source those drugs.

And Louisiana hasn't executed anyone since 2010.

There's currently around 60 people on Louisiana's death row.

Here's the state's new Republican governor, Jeff Flandry, opening the session yesterday

and inviting family members of murder victims to come to the Capitol.

Capital punishment is lawful.

And we intend to fulfill a legal duty to resume it for the justice of these families.

But there's also a lot of opposition to this bill from lawmakers and even TV and film producers

are talking about possibly boycotting the state as a filming location if this passes

because they don't want to see the state resume executions.

What other measures might come out of this special session and are there similar concerns?

the reduced sentences that incarcerated individuals can earn for good behavior.

There's also a bill that would lower the age in Louisiana at which someone can be tried

as an adult from 18 to 17.

And there are several bills that would increase penalties for certain crimes like carjacking

and distributing fentanyl.

So overall, the governor and lawmakers are looking to just get much tougher in terms

of dealing with crime.

And these items have all raised concerns from Democrats and Louisiana's legislative black

caucus, which said that these bills will disproportionately affect black men.

They also said that the bills are reactive and don't address the root issue of crime,

so they don't think it will help anything.

these bills would undo some of that work.

Why go back on those policies now?

And crime rates in Louisiana are relatively high compared to other places in the country,

but have dropped in some of the state's biggest cities.

And Louisiana's new GOP governor, Jeff Landry, he campaigned on a platform that would get

tough on crime and promised voters on the campaign trail that he would call this session.

So that's a big reason why we're here.

These policies are likely to be popular with a lot of Republican voters in Louisiana.

But as I mentioned before, others are worried that these bills won't address the root issues

of crime like mental health and education.

I'm Laila Faulted.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Mark Katkoff, Liz Baker, and

H.J. Mai.

It was produced by Claire Murashima, Ben Abrams, and Milton Gevada.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.

And as always, start your day here with us tomorrow.

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