Congress Averts Shutdown, Trump To Appear In Court, Climate Solutions Week

We're trying to decide on what's the better. Couple name for Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift? Is it Traylor?

No, that's terrible.

Or Tavis?

These are both very bad.

Well, I mean, it's their names. There's not much we can do.

Traylor, No.

So Tavis.

Tavis Can we use their last names?

No swiffsy, swiffsy, swiffsy.

But to do that, the Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, had to work with Democrats. Did he put his job on the line?

How are you, Martinez? That's Leila Fadal, and this is up first from NPR News.

Plus, the effects of climate change may feel difficult to rein in, but that's what this week on NPR is all about. Solutions. We've got NPR's Julia Simon with us to share ideas on how to help as we launch Climate Solutions Week. Stay with us, We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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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.

Northern Michigan has beaches and wineries, and big blue lakes, great lakes, you might say. Each week on the Up North Low Down podcast, we bring you stories and interesting conversations from the top of the mitten. Listen to the Up North Low Down from Interlochen Public Radio, part of the NPR Network.

With only hours to spare, Congress averted a government shutdown.

Yeah, deal came together after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backtracked and decided to work with Democrats to pass a short-term spending measure on Saturday. We're going to be adults in the room and we're going to keep government open while we solve this problem. But in choosing bipartisanship, McCarthy also put his job at risk. Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz says he plans to introduce a resolution to remove McCarthy as speaker as early as this week. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy.

NPR political correspondent Susan Davis joins us now to discuss all this. Hi, sue.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning, Okay, before we get to the drama surrounding McCarthy's job, could you spell out exactly what Congress agreed to this weekend?

Sure, they passed a stopgap spending measure that basically keeps the government on autopilot until November 17th. There was one add-on provision that includes $16 billion in disaster relief aid to assist with things like recovery from the Hawaii fires. Notably, Layla. What it did not include was any aid for Ukraine, despite very strong lobbying from Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and obviously President Biden. The president already said publicly he believes that he has a deal with the speaker to move something separate on Ukraine.

Okay, and as you point out, November 17th it expires. Is Congress going to be right back at a shutdown standoff?

Yeah, I mean, almost certainly. I mean, the thing that's important to remember here is stopgaps are easy. The underlying 12 annual spending bills, none of them have been passed by Congress, yet the House and Senate are on completely different pages.

And then, in the meantime, McCarthy, because he worked on this deal with the Democrats, is facing a possible removal from his speakership. How realistic is it that he loses his job?

You know, remember? He wouldn't be in this position if he hadn't negotiated himself into this position again. Back in January, he had to agree to make it easier to remove the speaker to get the votes he needed from the far right to become speaker. Now it could be used against him. I would say most Republicans still support Kevin McCarthy.

NPR's political correspondent Susan Davis, I'm sure will be speaking to you again soon.

You bet?

Former President Donald Trump will appear in a New York courtroom today as his legal troubles enter the next phase.

Trump faces a civil trial brought on by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is demanding that the former president and his company pay the state $250 million. Already, New York Judge Arthur Ngoron has found that Donald Trump and his two sons committed persistent fraud. And ordered them to start taking steps to sell off large pieces of their company.

NPR's Andrea Bernstein is at the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, and she joins us now. Hi Andrea.

Good morning.

Good morning, So explain what's at issue here, what the judge already found.

So last Tuesday, surprising, so far as I can tell almost everyone. Judge Ngoron issued a ruling. That when you read it, you can practically see the steam rising, he said. Based on paperwork alone, all of the defendants committed persistent and repeated fraud by lying about their property values. For example, Donald Trump lied about the size of his own Triplex apartment at Trump Tower, he said. It was three times as big as it actually is worth, several hundred million dollars more. And with Mar-a-Lago, the judge said, Trump lied by 2,300 percent about the value.

2,300 percent, quite a lot. The judge has moved to cancel the Trump company's business certificates. What does that mean?

So in New York, the law is clear if you commit persistent and repeated fraud, you can't do business. So now there's a process which begins with the cancellation of the business certificates. The idea is that Trump would have to sell some of his most iconic pieces of his business Trump Tower, golf courses, commercial buildings. The process will move in parallel with the trial.

I guess what I'm confused about is, if all of this is already happening, why is there even a trial?

So the judge's ruling was only for the first cause of action. There are six more. They have to do with drawing up false documents, conspiracy and lying to insurance companies. On top of that, the AG has to present evidence supporting her claim that Trump's company made $250 million in extra profits from these fraudulent representations. Now, Trump's team has argued no one was hurt, that he made money, banks made money, all good.

And so what do we expect today?

So there'll be opening statements by Assistant Attorney General Trump's lawyer, and possibly lawyers for Don Jr. and Eric Trump, who are also defendants. Here. The first witness is Trump's former outside accountant, Donald Bender, from the firm Mazzar's. Bender knows a lot, so that should be interesting. Alan Weisselberg and Michael Cohen, two former executives, are expected this week.

And Trump's there today. will he be back tomorrow?

As with everything involving a former and would-be president going on trial, it's uncharted. We'll know when we know.

Andrea Bernstein Thanks so much.

Thank you.

This week, NPR is bringing you stories about the surge for climate solutions.

Just this past Friday, New York City experienced major disruptions after several inches of rain led to flash flooding. This comes after a summer of brutal heat and deadly flooding and wildfires in several countries across the world.

Julia Simon is the climate solutions reporter on NPR's Climate desk, and she joins us now to explain what this week is all about. Julia. When I talk to people about climate change, I often hear a lot of hopelessness. So what do you say to that?

Things are really bad right now. But what if we reframe the conversation with climate change? It's actually not like there's this meteor hurtling towards Earth and there's nothing we can do about it. Humans are driving climate change and that means we can find the solutions to change the trajectory we're on. We actually have many solutions already.

For example, slavery was an evil institution and it needed to be dismantled. I push back against any individual or organization that would say, well, we can't do anything about this challenge, we can do something about it. All right, Julia? So climate solutions, that's what this week is centered around. How do you define it?

Broadly speaking, climate solutions are things that reduce greenhouse gases, renewable energy, solar, wind, batteries, energy efficiency and the way we use land matters. Are we burning forests, destroying mangroves? Individuals can play a role, too, by eating less meat, for example. But we have to remind folks, solutions are not all about individuals. a lot of solutions come down to governments and companies.

O.K. governments. Would that be something like when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act last year? That's really the most significant piece of climate policy in U.S history. Is that what we're talking about?

Right, right, governments can really set the agenda for climate policy. We saw this in Brazil. The new president, Lula da Silva, is really cracking down on deforestation in the Amazon. Under his predecessor Bolsonaro, Brazil's deforestation was surging.

What if, though, someone's thinking, Well, OK, since the planet is already warming, then we need to adapt to that. Is that considered a climate solution?

Yes, we will need to rebuild infrastructure for rising sea levels, new rainfall patterns. Adapting to climate change doesn't mean we're giving up, adaptation is part of the solution. If we replace coal and gas plants with renewables, we reduce greenhouse gases that warm our planet, and we also end up reducing the air pollution that is bad for our lungs.

So it sounds like there's an equity component of climate solutions.

A hundred percent. And we have to remember that some individuals and companies are more responsible for climate change than others, so how do we hold them accountable? This summer, in Montana, 16 young plaintiffs won a climate lawsuit arguing against the state's development of fossil fuels. It could have huge implications across the U.S.

Julia Simon is the climate solution reporter on NPR's Climate Desk. Julia, Thanks.

Thanks a.

Before we let you go, we have one more story for you this morning. California Governor Gavin Newsom is appointing Lafonza Butler to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Dianne Feinstein. She could be sworn in as early as Wednesday. Butler is a Democratic strategist and was an advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign. Butler also currently leads Emily's List, which is a political organization that supports women who favor abortion rights.

And I'm a Martinez. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Krista Dev Callimore, Neela Banerjee and H..J Mai. It was produced by Mansi Khurana, David West and Chad Campbell.

And thanks for listening to Up First. You can find more in-depth coverage of the stories we talked about today, and so much more. On NPR's Morning Edition, the radio show. Michelle Martin, Steve Inskeep, A. Martinez and I host Find Morning Edition and your NPR station at stations.npr..org.

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