Citywide Gun Trauma, Sweden's NATO Pitch, GOP's Tech Lawsuit

Once again, gun violence in America soured four days of celebrations.

Experts say survivors and even entire cities will keep living with the pain.

The community is changed forever.

I'm Rob Schmitz, that's Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News.

Plus, a federal judge hands Republicans a partial victory in a lawsuit over social media. But why do Republicans want the Biden administration to stop talking to tech firms? Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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Christian nationalists want to turn America into a theocracy, a government under biblical rule. If they gain more power, it could mean fewer rights for you. I'm Heath Drewsen and on the new season of Extremely American, I'll take you inside listen to Extremely American from Boise State Public Radio, part of the NPR Network.

On the Ted Radio Hour, MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle her latest research into the intimate relationships people are having with chatbots.

Technologies that say, I care about you, I love you, I'm here for you, take care of me.

The pros and cons of artificial intimacy. That's on the Ted Radio Hour from NPR.

Experts say the gun violence that ruined the July 4th holiday in many cities will have long lasting effects on survivors and even on whole communities.

In Baltimore, Philadelphia and Fort Worth, a total of 11 people were killed in mass shootings and at least 38 were wounded by gunmen who fired on crowds, cars, kids and sidewalks.

Joining us to talk about this is NPR's health correspondent Ritu Chatterjee Ritu. Good morning, thank you for joining us.

This year already, we've had nearly 350 mass shootings, and if you want to get a sense of the scale for all kinds of gun violence. We've already lost more than 21,000 people just since January 1 of this year, and more than half of those deaths were, in fact, suicides. And you know, obviously we're counting those who are injured, who have to live with those injuries for the rest of their lives. And to give you a sense of just how many people in America gun violence touches. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly one in five Americans say they've lost a family member to gun violence. And a similar number say they've witnessed someone getting shot.

So just to pick up on something that you just said. When we talk about the toll of gun violence, we're not just talking about the people who have died. And we're not just talking about the people who are injured, sometimes grievously. We're also talking about people who have to live with this, who witnessed this, or who are caring for family members who have been injured. You know, sometimes with lifelong injuries. So what do we know about the mental health toll of all this?

There's a tremendous mental health toll of gun violence. Now, let's start with mass shootings. For example, I spoke with psychologist Robin Gurwitch at Duke University, and here's what she told me.

Any time a community is impacted by large-scale mass violence, the community is changed forever. The names of those communities are now linked with mass violence events. Whether it is Sandy Hook, whether it is Oklahoma City, Columbine, there's so many.

Gurwitch says that the people who are closest to the acts of violence, those who've witnessed it, maybe they have injuries, people who've lost loved ones. They are at highest risk of long-term mental health issues. And in the immediate aftermath of these incidents, people can end up having symptoms like feeling hypervigilant, having trouble sleeping. Maybe they don't feel as comfortable going on about their daily lives because their overall sense of safety is just shattered.

Do we know whether people continue to experience these symptoms of trauma over time?

So the good news, Michelle, is that most people will recover in time, but a significant minority, about 25, will continue to struggle. In the long run, they're at a higher risk of PTSD of developing other issues like substance abuse and suicidal thoughts. And children can be vulnerable to these symptoms too, especially if their parents and caregivers are struggling. Which is what happens when people don't get the mental health care support, the social support, not just in the immediate aftermath, but in the long run. Because what we see is that once there's a mass shooting or an act of violence, communities will get support right away, but those supports tend to dwindle over time. But experts I spoke to said it's really important to keep those supports and services going so that communities have a chance at healing in the long run.

That is NPR32 chatterjee Ritu, Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

The leaders of the NATO countries head to their annual meeting. It's being held in Lithuania next week, with a focus once again on Russia's war on Ukraine.

Sweden wants to join the alliance, whose nations promise to defend each other against outside attacks. But one of the NATO allies, Turkey, has blocked that application for more than a year.

Russia meets with Sweden's Prime Minister, ULF Kristersson to talk about that today, and NPR White House reporter Deepa Shivaram will be watching Deepa, Good morning.

Hey, good morning.

So let's start with why Sweden wants to join NATO and why it's taking so long to get that application ratified.

Yeah, this all started a little over a year ago. Sweden has long been a neutral country, but that changed after Russia invaded Ukraine, and that's when both Sweden and Finland applied for membership to NATO.

So for President Biden, and, you know, for a number of other Western leaders, it's been a priority to try to keep NATO strong and unified in the face of Russian aggression. So what has the White House been doing to try to accelerate Sweden's ratification?

The administration has been in talks with Turkey trying to sway them for months. That's included National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveling to Istanbul, Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with his Turkish counterpart and other NATO countries have.

I think that the administration could do more to be able to offer Erdogan the F-16s as part of a deal, and that might well be a decisive factor.

But in order to move forward, Congress would need to approve. And Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who leads the Foreign Relations Committee, has said he's concerned about Turkey's human rights record. So the path forward on this whole thing is a little bit unclear.

So that brings us to this meeting today. What are Biden and Christensen expected to talk about?

It's definitely going to be on NATO and trying to expedite this ongoing process of getting Sweden ratified. The White House says they'll be talking about Russia, relations with China and climate change as well. And then, on Sunday, the president's travels kick off. He's first headed to London, where he's meeting with King Charles. Then that NATO summit, and then after that summit, Biden will end his trip in Finland, the newest NATO member to meet with Nordic leaders.

That is NPR's Deepa Shivaram Deepa, thank you.

Thank you.

A federal judge has blocked some government agencies and Biden administration officials from communicating with tech companies.

Government officials say they work with social media companies to stop criminal activity like child abuse and terrorism. In recent years, the agencies also asked for better policing of misinformation on Covid vaccines and election interference. Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri sued over that, arguing the government was suppressing conservative viewpoints.

Zachreski is a tech policy reporter with The Washington Post, and she's with us now to tell us more about it. Kat, good morning, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me on the show.

This just seems like an extraordinary development. I just can't think of another instance where government officials were told they could not talk to key players in an industry. So just tell us what's the basis for it?

For years, Republicans have argued that social media companies policies to address disinformation related to elections and public health have resulted in unfair censorship of their views. The Republican AGS brought those arguments to court, subpoenaing thousands of emails between Biden officials and tech companies that they say showed illegal collusion between the administration and the tech industry. But the Biden administration disputes these claims. And they've argued that those communications actually reflect the government using its bully pulpit to promote accurate information in the face of foreign interference in elections and a deadly pandemic.

What do we know about what this ruling means for how the government operates now?

So this order puts limits on executive agencies across the government. This affects the Department of Justice, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC. It also affects more than a dozen individual officials with a lot of power over various institutions related to elections and public health. Including the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jen Easterly, who leads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. And in addition to limiting the government's communications with tech companies, the judge also prohibited agencies and officials from quote, collaborating with key academic groups that focus on social media. These are groups like the Election Integrity Partnership academics who work out of Stanford and University of Washington on issues like voter suppression and public health disinformation.

Why are the plaintiffs going after government officials and government agencies? And these academic researchers? Why not sue the social media companies directly?

Well, they've tried that before and it didn't work. The tech companies effectively argued that they have a First Amendment right to decide what appears on their sites. So we've really seen a new twist in Republicans complaints, now focusing instead on the federal government's role in that process.

There would seem to be profound implications for the First Amendment and free speech. More about that in the future. That's Kat Zekreski, she's a tech policy reporter with The Washington Post. Kat, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And that's up first for Wednesday, July 5th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Rob Schmitz. Up First is produced by Nina Kravinsky, Shelby Hawkins and Taylor Haney. Our editors are Jane Greenhalgh, Roberta Rampton, Alice Wolfley and Jan Johnson. Our technical director is Stacey Abbott, with engineering support from Hannah Glovner. With us tomorrow.

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