Hamas Leader Killed, Harvard's President Resigns, NRA Trial in New York

The militant group accused Israel of carrying out the drone strike that killed him, as did

Lebanese leaders.

Could this attack in Lebanon trigger a wider war?

I'm Laila Fadl, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Harvard's president has resigned after just six months on the job.

Claudine Gay had come under fire for her congressional testimony about anti-Semitism on campus and

allegations of plagiarism.

Does her departure point to an even bigger political battle across academia?

Plus New York's attorney general is hoping to oust the National Rifle Association's

longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, from his position on corruption charges.

How strong is her case?

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A senior Hamas leader and six other members of its armed wing were killed in an explosion

in Lebanon.

It's the first such killing after Israel vowed to target Hamas officials in other countries

after the militant Palestinian group's October 7th attack on Israel.

And Lebanese leaders have warned that the assassination could open another front in

the war on Gaza.

Hi, Jane.

suburb of Beirut Tuesday.

Hamas announced the explosion killed Saleh al-Aruri.

He's deputy head, he was deputy head of its political bureau and one of the founders of

the organization's military wing.

And that's significant because it's one thing to target Hamas leaders in Gaza, where war

between Hamas and Israel has been raging for three months, but it's another to launch attacks

in the capital of another country.

Israel and Hezbollah, that Iran-backed Lebanese militia, have been attacking each other across

the Lebanese border since the start of the war in Gaza, but so far they've stayed within

a fairly limited zone around that border.

country.

How have officials in Lebanon reacted to these killings?

Lebanon's prime minister, Najib Makati, has said the attack is aimed at opening a new

phase in the conflict at the Lebanese border, and he's asking the UN Security Council to

condemn the breach of Lebanese sovereignty.

We have to note that Israel hasn't claimed responsibility for the attack, as you mentioned.

Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an MSNBC interview

that whoever did it was not targeting Lebanon or Hezbollah.

But the big danger is that Hezbollah will likely feel compelled to respond in some way,

and if it does escalate, Iran, which backs Hezbollah, could get involved.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said in the past that any assassinations in Lebanon

will incur retaliation, and he's giving a speech this evening in Lebanon.

That speech, to commemorate the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad

four years ago, happens on an already tense anniversary, but that might give us some picture

of what's ahead.

What more do we know about this senior Hamas leader, Arouri?

He spent years in Israeli jail, and he became one of the founders of the military wing of

Hamas, which was established after the Palestinian uprising in 1987 against Israeli occupation.

He was deported in Turkey, and in Lebanon, importantly, he was the main liaison with

Hezbollah, and is credited with building relations with Iran, a Shia Muslim country, while Hamas

is Sunni Muslim.

He was also involved in negotiations in Doha over a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of

Israeli hostages, which could complicate things.

among Palestinians to this killing?

to protest, but the day is still young, and that killing really does raise tensions around

the region.

Thank you so much, Jane.

yesterday.

She's been taking a lot of heat for her comments to a congressional committee about anti-Semitism

on campus and accusations of plagiarism in her past academic work.

Hi, Tovia.

hearing?

down.

There was, of course, fierce backlash to her testimony last month after she said that calls

for genocide against Jews would not necessarily violate campus rules.

But at that point, Harvard still had her back.

Things really seem to have changed this week when we learned of even more allegations that

she lifted chunks of language without attribution.

In her resignation statement, Gay said it was difficult beyond words to have doubt cast

on not only her commitment to confronting hate, but also now on her scholarly rigor.

And she said she's resigning so as not to be a distraction.

on campus.

What kind of reaction are you hearing?

There are those who've been calling for Gay's resignation all along who say they're thrilled

now that she's finally gone.

That includes a Harvard grad student I spoke to named Shabbes Kestenbaum.

enforce policies about anti-Semitism on campus, or whether it was creating a hostile culture

at Harvard where people don't feel that they have the ability to exchange ideologies that

are not in favor at the moment, just time and time again, she did the wrong thing.

problem is not a single person, but a culture.

And that was also echoed by Elise Stefanik, the congresswoman who grilled Gay and the

presidents of Penn and MIT at that hearing.

Stefanik said in a statement that her investigations would continue into what she called a woke

agenda and political bias at Harvard and at other campuses.

political battle here?

As one faculty member I spoke to put it, this is not about Harvard, it's about New Hampshire

and Iowa.

Or as another put it, the committee is using the pretext of fighting anti-Semitism to actually

fight DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as to fight how schools approach things

like race and gender.

I spoke with Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad, who called Gay's resignation a terrible

moment for higher ed.

in plotting Gay as a first black woman, as a diversity hire, who is supposedly unqualified

as proof that Harvard had lowered its standards and was being ruined from within.

And that is not going to stop at Harvard.

animus, and Harvard's board also cited racist vitriol directed at her.

Who leads Harvard?

The battle over what speech is protected on campus?

job until a permanent one is found, but no, don't expect her resignation to be the end

of it, either in terms of the tussle over what's taught on college campuses or on where

to draw the line between protected speech and hate speech on campus.

Thanks, Tovia.

National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun rights group.

LaPierre on corruption charges.

He's denied any wrongdoing.

Three other current and former NRA leaders are also named in the suit.

Hi, Brian.

So what are the accusations Wayne LaPierre is facing?

capitals around the country.

The organization really succeeded for decades under LaPierre's leadership, pushing the gun

control debate to the right, blocking gun control measures even after catastrophic mass

shootings like Sandy Hook and Parkland.

But beginning in 2019, the organization began to unravel with internal feuds and accusations

of corruption.

New York's Attorney General Letitia James began investigating, and her team says they

found evidence that more than $64 million in cash from NRA donors was misused by LaPierre

and other leaders.

The lawsuit claims the organization became a personal piggy bank, paying for things like

private jet flights to the Bahamas.

This is a civil lawsuit, so there's no risk of jail time or criminal penalties for LaPierre

or the three others named in the suit.

But if the NRA loses this case, LaPierre could be ousted after more than 30 years at the

helm, and New York officials would also gain a lot more regulatory oversight over the NRA's

activities.

pro-gun group.

Basically, they say it's a political attack by a Democratic Attorney General.

The NRA tried repeatedly to have this case dismissed on those grounds, but their arguments

have been rejected by appeals courts.

So now we're going to trial.

It is important to note that this case and the growing controversy surrounding LaPierre

have already really crippled the NRA.

Since the lawsuit was filed in 2020, they've lost millions of members.

The NRA shut down their juggernaut media operation, even attempted once to file for bankruptcy.

And LaPierre, who's 74 years old now, he used to be a really high-profile player in American

politics, courted by presidents, and his personal influence has clearly waned because of all

of this.

How has that affected the wider debate over gun rights and gun safety?

Before the NRA was hit by internal dissent and these legal troubles, a lot of their beliefs

about gun regulations had really been adopted wholesale by the Republican Party and by

many of the GOP's core voters.

So while the NRA's direct influences faded, we haven't seen big changes to the politics

of gun control.

Despite the growing number of mass shootings in America, daily gun violence in some cities,

and also polls showing broad public support for things like universal background checks,

the GOP's largely stuck to their argument that almost all gun regulations violate the

Second Amendment.

So the NRA is a shadow of itself as this case goes to trial, but the NRA's ideas, they're

still incredibly influential.

I'm Laila Faldal.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Mark Katkov, Michael Sullivan, Catherine Laidlaw,

and Andrea DeLeon.

It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Taylor Haney.

We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.

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