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
Lebanon has declared three days of mourning following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah for the past 32 years. He was killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed a city block in Beirut. The Iran-backed group has been severely affected by his killing and the loss of other senior leaders, while Israeli airstrikes persist. The death toll has surpassed a thousand, and the Lebanese prime minister has warned that a million people could be displaced.
- 🎧 NPR’s Jane Arraf tells Up First that, for many people in Beirut, it is hard to comprehend that Nasrallah is gone. Today, there is less grief being shown and more defiance. People are saying despite him being gone the fight will continue as waves of people are being displaced. Hezbollah’s second in command will give an address later today. Nasrallah is expected to be buried later this week.
- ➡️ Here’s a closer look at how the conflict escalated over a 12-day span.
In western North Carolina, the aftermath of the devastating flooding caused by Tropical Storm Helene has left hundreds of people stranded, especially in the rural, mountainous areas. Gov. Roy Cooper described the damage as “widespread and catastrophic.” Authorities have confirmed 30 deaths in just one county, but many more are still unaccounted for.
- 🎧 Helene has caused flooding and mudslides, leading to roads being washed out and tens of thousands being left without power or clean drinking water. Gerald Albert III of NPR Network station Blue Ridge Public Radio says he was trapped for a couple of days due to flooded roads while reporting in Brevard, just south of Asheville, when the storm hit. Despite the forecasted flooding, many residents were caught off guard, as they hadn’t seen it flood that high before. They are now frustrated because the timeline for when outside help and supplies will arrive is unclear.
For the first time in decades, both vice presidential nominees are veterans. They’ll go head-to-head in a debate Tuesday night. Ohio Sen. JD Vance is a Marine Corps veteran and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a National Guard veteran. Here’s what you need to know ahead of the debate.
- 🎧 NPR’s Quil Lawrence says Walz served 24 years and deployed a year to Europe in support of the war in Afghanistan, but Vance has been attacking him over a couple of misstatements. It’s tricky for Vance to push too hard, though, as former President Donald Trump avoided serving in Vietnam with five deferments and has a track record of offending veterans. Other differences are the campaigns’ approaches to veteran care, as the Trump administration previously pushed through the VA Mission Act, which expanded private medical care options for veterans. Lawrence says it’s safe to assume Harris-Walz would push back toward more VA-provided care.
Today’s listen
Throughout the 2010s, SOPHIE made a name for herself as one of the most cutting-edge producers in pop music. She worked with artists like Madonna and Vince Staples. In 2018, her public profile rose when she released her own album, which was nominated for a Grammy. But before she could release her next highly anticipated music project, she died at the age of 34 in 2021. She left behind hundreds of unreleased songs and an incomplete album. Now her family is releasing her final album.
- 🎧 Listen to some of the artist’s music and from her family on why this was important.
Behind the story
by Ann Powers, NPR music critic and correspondent
Almost a decade ago, I had a conversation that changed the course of my life. Some women friends and I had just seen a show by guitarist Barbara Lynn and wondered aloud why she’d been mostly written out of the histories of early 1960s rock music. Soon we were spinning out other names of artists we loved – Rickie Lee Jones! Roberta Flack! – who never received the powerful attention men easily earned. We kept talking after that night, growing an idea that became NPR Music’s project to reset the musical canon: Turning the Tables.
From the start, Turning the Tables sought to be more than just another treatment of women as a novelty, as the “next big thing” or an “alternative.” We wanted to see what would happen if we focused only on women, trans, and nonbinary artists. Turning the Tables made the case that women aren’t just a side note in a man-made history. It’s possible to understand the whole of music through women’s work.
Now there’s a new book to put on the shelf, titled How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History. Edited by longtime contributor Alison Fensterstock, it collects the cream of the Turning the Tables series plus gems from the NPR archives spanning 50 years of interviews with women musicians. In the new canon it presents, women’s experience and creativity resonates across generations. What’s amazing is that what we talked about so long ago has become self-evident – today, women dominate the pop scene and so many histories are being revised. We’re proud that our work has contributed to what feels like a sea change, and that this book exists as a document and a celebration.
Before you go
- Gov. Gavin Newsom of California vetoed a bill yesterday that would have held tech companies legally liable for harms caused by AI and required them to build in a “kill switch” if systems went rogue.
- Musician and film star Kris Kristofferson, who starred in 1976’s A Star Is Born, opposite Barbra Streisand, died on Saturday. He was age 88.
- MLB star Shohei Ohtani hit his 50th homerun last week, causing fans in the stands to fight to claim the milestone baseball. The situation has now become even more complicated as a judge ruled that an online auction for the ball can take place, even amid an ongoing lawsuit.
This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.