Government Shutdown Looms, Brazil's Ex-President on Trial, Earthquake in Afghanistan

Congress returns to the Capitol today with Republican leaders under pressure to release the Epstein files.

There's also the small matter of funding the entire federal government.

So how's that going to work?

I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Favel, and this is Up First from NPR News.

The former president of Brazil goes on trial today, accused of plotting a coup.

President Trump applied pressure for his preferred verdict, and some Brazilians support that.

Basically, Trump is restoring the democracy of Brazil.

What's the evidence against the ex-president?

And authorities in Afghanistan say they need the world's help with rescue efforts after an earthquake that's killed hundreds and injured thousands.

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Congress returns to Capitol Hill today after an August recess that was anything but quiet.

Angry constituents confronted some lawmakers at town halls across the country.

They focused on economic turmoil and presidential overreach, And now lawmakers face those same issues in Washington, where a government shutdown deadline comes at the end of this month.

Joining us now is NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grasales.

Hi, Claudia.

Good morning, Layla.

Good morning.

So the last day to fund the government is September 30th.

Could the government shut down by the end of the month?

It's possible.

That's the hardest job on tap for lawmakers as the parties remain deeply divided.

Many House Republicans want to see another stopgap measure to keep funding levels static, but Democrats want a a regular appropriations plan.

Then underlying all this, we have seen this Republican-led Congress cede their power of the purse to the president.

The most recent example happening this past week, when the president unilaterally clawed back billions more in foreign aid using what's known as a pocket rescission.

That's when the president asked lawmakers to rescind funds so close to the end of the fiscal year it runs out the clock.

On the 45 days Congress would have to deliberate for a traditional rescissions request.

So we expect to hear a lot from President Trump during this process.

And Democrats say they're going to fight these efforts in a new way after facing plenty of blowback from their base that they are not doing enough.

Now that they're back, what else is set to take priority?

Well, I did hear a lot from lawmakers who faced angry constituents while they were on recess.

For example, I was traveling in Texas where redistricting just took place.

A lot of voters there there are really worried about the economy.

And so we'll see if lawmakers want to take any steps related to addressing these concerns.

And then meanwhile, they also heard a lot of complaints about the signature bill passed this summer.

President Trump called it the big beautiful bill and even said that maybe they should rename it because it should focus on benefits for middle-class families in terms of what that name would be.

And that's a signal this plan is not landing as they intended.

So that could shape discussions on Capitol Hill as well.

We also saw President Trump push the extent of his executive power this past month with tariffs.

He tried to fire a Federal Reserve governor and ousted the CDC director.

So once again, testing the checks and balances that many argue Republicans have just ceded.

What do you expect Congress to do?

Right.

Lawmakers are going to have to make a political calculation here.

How much do they want to pay the price in terms of pressures they may face because of these efforts by President Trump?

For example, the ousting at the Federal Reserve could create new pressures for the economy, for the markets.

And then when we look at the CDC director situation, there's concern that there's new confusion about U.S.

vaccine policy.

We're going to hear from Health Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy before a Senate committee this week.

And finally, President Trump's efforts on tariffs, that's under legal challenge now, whether that power really rests with Congress.

So that's something we could hear about in the coming days as well.

And really quickly, what what happens with the Epstein files now that the Congress is back?

Right, lawmakers are going to return to a real crossroads here.

Republicans continue to face demands from their base to release records related to the Jeffrey Epstein case and be more transparent when it comes to the prosecution of this late sex offender.

We did see the House Oversight Committee have a very busy period recently issuing subpoenas for documents, for witness testimony.

The Justice Department has started turning over files from its investigations, and the committee intends to make records public.

But Democrats say that Republicans are going to make that limited.

It will be far from comprehensive.

And they have an ally in Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey, who's teamed up with Democrats to try to force a full vote on the House floor to release the records comprehensively.

That's NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Garcellus.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Today, Brazil's Supreme Court puts a former president on trial.

J.R.

Bolsonaro is the country's former far-right leader.

He's accused of plotting to stay in power after losing his 2022 re-election campaign.

Many Brazilians see this trial as pivotal for their democracy.

Bolsonaro has won support from overseas, where President Trump has tried to use U.S.

power to stop the case.

NPR's Carrie Kahn is covering the story from Rio de Janeiro.

Hey there, Carrie.

Good morning.

Okay, amazing story.

What exact charges does the former president face?

There are five charges, and they include attempting to violently end the democratic rule of law, plotting a coup, and forming part of an armed criminal organization.

There are two other charges.

They're lesser charges, and they're related to the damage of property and historical items during the January 8th, 2023 riots by Bolsonaro's supporters on the capital in Brasilia.

Prosecutors say they have extensive evidence against Bolsonaro, including the discovery of a plot to assassinate President Luis Inácio Lula de Silva and the Supreme Court Justice Alessandre de Marais.

Much of the evidence is in text messages, electronic communications, and cell phone calls between Bolsonaro and the seven other defendants that are on trial today.

Bolsonaro's closest aide took a plea deal for a reduced sentence and is the prosecution's key witness.

Really interesting interesting to hear that Bolsonaro's own words would be part of the evidence here.

Has Brazil ever had a trial like this?

This is unprecedented.

There have been presidents accused of crimes before, but an ex-leader has not been successfully brought to trial for trying to overthrow the government.

You know, Brazil's democracy is very young.

It emerged from a military dictatorship just 40 years ago.

So Bolsonaro's prosecution is really testing the strength of its institution, especially the judiciary and the Supreme Court, Court, which hears criminal cases against politicians.

And the other really unique thing about this is that there's a lot of intervention on the part of the United States.

President Trump has said he is closely watching the case and has called it a witch hunch against Bolsonaro.

He's demanded it be dropped.

He slapped 50% tariffs against Brazil, and the U.S.

has sanctioned the lead justice overseeing the case.

case and revoked visas for many of the justices on the Supreme Court.

Now, all this before the Supreme Court has even judged the evidence.

What does Bolsonaro say in his defense?

He says he's done nothing wrong.

He said if any discussions were had about not giving up power, they were all in search of constitutional ways to stay in the presidency.

Bolsonaro has never conceded that he lost the election.

His son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman here, actually moved to the U.S.

to lobby the Trump administration for help for his father.

And I spoke with him before the trial, and he praised Trump's intervention in the case.

Basically, Trump is restoring the democracy of Brazil.

But there are also many in Brazil that are condemning the U.S.

intervention in the case, and they've rallied around President Lula, the current president now, who says Trump is assaulting Brazil's sovereignty.

I guess from what you're telling me that the Brazilians have resisted the U.S.

pressure so far.

The tariffs, for example, did not cause the Supreme Court justices to suddenly drop this case.

No, not at all.

So what happens now?

The trial could last about two weeks.

If convicted, Bolsonaro, who is 70 now, has few appeals ahead of him and could face as much as 40 years in prison.

And there are also concerns that if Bolsonaro is convicted, the U.S.

will impose even more sanctions against Brazil.

NPR's Carrie Khan is in Rio de Janeiro.

Thanks so much.

You're welcome.

More than a day after an earthquake devastated parts of Afghanistan, rescuers are still trying to reach victims.

Afghanistan's Disaster Management Authority says more than 950 people are dead and they expect that toll to rise.

On the line with us is NPR's Dia Hadid.

She covers Afghanistan from her base in Mumbai.

Haidia.

Hi, Layla.

So what is happening with the rescue effort?

Well, aid workers and residents are telling us they're still trying to reach impacted areas, particularly a remote mountainous district called Kunar.

You can get a sense of what it looks like from drone footage shared by the Disaster Management Authority.

There's collapsed mud brick homes and they're perched on steep hills that overlook narrow river valleys.

One aid worker told me some places were only accessible by goat trail before the quake.

That includes one village called Dugal and it appears to have been wiped out.

This is Ibrahim Ahmed from the Islamic Relief Aid Group.

We are taking those injured people, walking for three hours.

till they arrive to the first point close to Diogal where Islamic Relief was one of the first respondents.

Wow, walking for three hours with wounded people.

What's happening in other areas?

Authorities are trying to rescue people in other places by helicopter and they're trying to reach places by car.

But these are long, difficult journeys over dirt roads.

Two residents told us locals are just trying to dig up people by hand.

But Leila, the remoteness isn't the only thing that's making this crisis potentially worse than it should be.

What else might be making it worse?

There's the heavy rains that came days before, and it potentially loosened the ground and may have made these mountain villages more vulnerable to collapse.

And this earthquake comes as aid groups are already stretched thin.

That's after President Trump suspended most aid early this year amid claims that the Taliban was siphoning off some of it.

But America was the largest aid donor to Afghanistan and these cuts have had a calamitous impact.

Hungry people are going without.

Hundreds of medical centers have shut down in recent months.

Midwives were telling us as early as March that they were seeing more babies die because birthing women couldn't get to health centres on time.

Yeah, now the UN says they're trying to raise money for an emergency appeal.

Do we have any sense of whether the international community will step up?

Countries may donate to the UN, but the spokesman of the Taliban's Disaster Management Authority told NPR they're also contacting national and international aid groups.

But donors are unlikely to hand over money directly to the Taliban, considering those allegations of siphoning off aid.

And frankly, because the Taliban's restrictions on women, which have made it difficult for even female aid workers to help female victims.

What do you know about the victims so far?

Well what we know is from what one of our producers heard from a man who was trying to rescue people out of their homes and he said he heard women and children crying out for help.

That's to be expected because the quake occurred while people were sleeping in their homes.

But a senior aid worker for World Vision also told us that the victims likely include some of the more than 2 million Afghans who were deported from Iran and Pakistan this year.

She says many of those families were encouraged to settle in areas that were impacted by this quake.

NPR's Dia Hadid, thank you for your reporting.

You're welcome, Layla.

And that's Up First for Tuesday, September 2nd.

I'm Layla Faulden.

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

For your next listen, consider Consider This from NPR News.

Up First gives you three big stories of the day.

Consider this drills down on one.

Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukoninov, Tara Neal, Rylan Barton, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley.

It was produced by Ziad Buch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

Join us again tomorrow.

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