Kirk Shooting Investigation, Economic Round-up, Brazil's Bolsanaro Convicted

Authorities still don't know who killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Investigators recovered a weapon and released footage of a man fleeing the scene, but is that enough to find him?

I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News.

The stock market keeps climbing, even as prices also rise and the job market weakens.

The worst part about tariffs is that no one is seeing the benefits of these costs rising.

It's directly just a tax.

So, why are investors so upbeat when many Americans feel squeezed?

And in Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted of plotting a coup to try to stay in power after losing re-election.

He's been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison.

President Trump criticized the verdict.

What else might his administration do in response?

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The person who shot and killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk is still at large, and the only description police have to go on at the moment is what a person suspected in the killing was wearing.

A black t-shirt, white converse shoes, and a hat with a triangle on it.

Last night, officials shared photos and a new video showing a suspect's apparent escape.

You see him leaping from a roof.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox asked for anyone who might recognize the shooter to come forward.

We continue to implore the public to support this investigation and come forward with any information.

We need as much help as we can possibly get.

With us now is NPR's Bobby Allen, who's been reporting from Orem Utah.

Bobby, good morning.

Thanks for joining us.

Hey, Michelle.

So you were at the press conference last night on the Utah Valley University campus, and that was where Kirk was killed on Wednesday.

What stood out to you?

Yeah, well, the obvious thing is it's now almost 48 hours since Kirk's murder, and authorities haven't arrested a suspect, right?

This press conference, which was very hastily organized, I think we had like an hour's heads up, was essentially a blinking help-needed sign, right?

FBI Director Cash Patel stood by as state officials played surveillance video showing, as you mentioned, a person in dark sunglasses, a black shirt, climb off a roof and flee the scene.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox says state and federal investigators are working hard to catch this assassin and hold him accountable, but it does not appear that they have located him yet.

Cox says they have, however, received a flood of tips from the public.

So far, we've received more than 7,000 leads and tips.

I would just note that the FBI hasn't received this many digital media tips from the public since the Boston marathon bombing.

Yeah, and that was more than a decade ago.

Now, with this investigation, it appears authorities are going to need the public's help even more.

Cox said complicated matters is a surge of online disinformation about the shooting.

Some distortions, he says, are even being spread by Russian and Chinese bots.

Cox said of the briefing that officials are focused on transparency, but then it was interesting that they did not take any questions.

So you've been talking to people in Orem, which is where you are now, people who attended the Kirk event, people who live there.

Can you just describe like what's the mood there?

Yeah, well, after the shooting on Wednesday, the school closed for the week.

So it's been pretty quiet with police tape blocking off portions of the campus that are still considered an active crime scene.

There are, of course, gaggles of journalists and TV vans waiting for an update in the investigation.

I stopped to talk to Utah Valley University freshman James Jordan, who was walking through campus, and he said he remains pretty rattled.

The man that did shoot him is still undetermined, and how close we live, he could be anywhere.

The other night we had cops at our apartment just doing their protocol, and it was a little unsettling and not knowing for sure how safe we really are.

Well, others in the area assume the shooter is long gone from Utah so are not as worried.

So turning back to the investigation, do we have any sense of what the next phase looks like?

Yeah, well investigators recovered a rifle and unused rounds believed to be the shooters and that's now being forensically examined in a lab along with palm prints and an impression from the Converse sneakers authorities say the shooter was wearing.

Law enforcement gathered this from where the shooter escaped from the roof, right?

Investigators will be putting this together with the surveillance footage and any useful public tips they have in hopes of identifying and locating the shooter.

State authorities have several times now raised the prospect of this turning into a death penalty case, but the suspect has to be caught before he is prosecuted.

That's NPR's Bobby Allen.

Bobby, thank you.

Thanks, Michelle.

The stock stock market is soaring, but stocks are not the only things getting more expensive.

New reports from the Labor Department show consumer prices continue climbing.

And at the same time, the job market is showing fresh signs of weakness.

And Pierre Scott Horsley is with us now to tell us more about this.

Good morning, Scott.

Good morning, Michelle.

You know, higher prices and fewer jobs does not sound like a recipe for a booming stock market.

So what's going on here?

Yeah, the Dow jumped more than 600 points yesterday.

All the major indexes closed at record highs.

And it's mainly because investors believe the Federal Reserve is going to cut interest rates next week, and stock prices tend to go up when it looks like interest rates are coming down.

The Fed has been cautious about cutting rates up until now because policymakers wanted to see how President Trump's tariffs would affect inflation.

And those tariffs do seem to be putting upward pressure on the price of a lot of imported goods like coffee.

A lot of our coffee comes from Brazil, which is now subject to a 50% tariff.

Patrick Reardon is the head roaster at Palace Coffee in Amarillo, Texas.

He says prices are going up as a result.

I guess kind of the worst part about tariffs is that for the farmers, producers, our importing partners, even our baristas, like no one is seeing the benefits of these costs rising.

It's directly just a tax.

And it almost feels like we're just kind of lighting money on fire.

Retail coffee prices are up more than 20% over the last year, and they jumped more than 3.5% just in the last month.

Even with inflation on the rise, though, the Fed is expected to pay more attention to the sagging job market.

Okay, the sagging job market.

How big of a sag are we talking about?

Well, the pace of hiring has definitely slowed.

Employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, and revised figures show the economy actually lost jobs in June for the first time since 2020.

There was also a big jump last week in the number of people applying for unemployment benefits, which could be a harbinger of rising layoffs, which is something we hadn't seen before.

For several years, we had a really strong job market, which meant people had money to spend, and that kept the economy humming along.

Economist Julia Coronado, who's with macro policy perspective, says a weakening job market could turn that cycle on its head.

When you start to see that engine stall out, then consumers can become more cautious and they stop spending and then you can move into a negative loop where firms start cutting workers and then consumers get even more cautious.

You know, we're not there yet, but we're closer than we were a few months ago.

That's what the Federal Reserve hopes to avoid by cutting interest rates starting next week.

And speaking of the Fed, there could be some new faces there when that decision is made.

Could you tell us about that?

Yeah, President Trump has nominated one of his allies, White House economist Stephen Myron, to serve a short-term stint on the Fed's governing board.

And it's possible that Myron will be confirmed in time to be at the big table in the Fed boardroom next week.

Meanwhile, the President's trying to prevent another Fed governor, Lisa Cook, from taking her seat at the table.

This week, a federal judge blocked Trump's effort to fire Cook, but Trump is appealing that ruling, so we don't yet know if Lisa Cook will, in fact, take part at next week's meeting.

All this just showcases how the president is trying to exert more control over the central bank, even though when Congress set up the Fed, it tried to insulate the central bank from just that kind of political meddling.

That is Empires Scott Horsey.

Scott, thank you.

You're welcome.

Brazil's Supreme Court has found former President Jair Bolsonaro guilty of attempting a military coup after losing the 2022 election.

The justice leading the case called the plot, quote, an attempt to sow the malignant seed of anti-democracy, unquote.

In the end, all but one of the judges on a five-member panel found him guilty.

Now, the far-right leader, a close ally of President Trump, faces more than 27 years in prison.

Reporter Julia Carnero is in Rio de Janeiro and covering this.

Welcome to the program.

Thank you, Steve.

Okay, so I'm just thinking this through.

It's different than a trial would be in the United States.

It is the Supreme Court, or a portion of the Supreme Court, a four-to-one vote against the former president.

What are the details of the verdict?

Well, Bolsonaro is facing five charges, and he's been found guilty on all of them, including attempting a coup after losing the election and leading a criminal organization.

Seven other defendants were also in the trial and were also convicted, including three former generals.

The justices said there was ample evidence of Bolsonaro's moves to overthrow the government, and these actions included a plan to assassinate the then president-elect, Luis Inaso Lula da Silva, before he could take office, and also culminated with the January 8 riots back in 2023.

That's when Bolsonaro's supporters vandalized government buildings in the capital, Brasilia,

just days after Lula's inauguration.

Now the 70-year-old faces 27 years and three months in prison.

And there's another difference between a lot of trials in the United States and how this works.

It seems they have issued the guilty verdict and the sentence at roughly the same time on the same day rather than in separate phases.

How are people in Brazil receiving this news?

Well, Bolsonaro is still very popular, and his supporters consider the trial unfair and will likely double up on efforts to pressure Congress to approve some kind of amnesty law to defend Bolsonaro.

But many Brazilians greeted the news with relief as a landmark defense of democracy.

This is a country that's had a history of coup attempts, and it was the first time that a former president was punished for trying to stage a coup.

Remember, we 40 years ago were coming out of a 20-year dictatorship.

Justice Alejandro de Moraes emphasized the importance of the verdict.

But I said the sentence given should discourage any future attempt to destroy democracy and the idea that it would be possible to disrupt the rule of law and stay in power, disrespecting free and fair elections.

But Bolsonaro's defense lawyer said the prison sentence was excessive and disproportionate.

And in the United States, Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, who's been lobbying on his father's behalf, predicted further sanctions from the U.S.

in response.

Well, he got some vocal support in the United States from President Trump leading up to the verdict.

Has the president said anything since the verdict?

Yes, he spoke to the reporters at the White House and said Bolsonaro had been a good president, and it was very surprising that this could happen.

He said, quote, that's very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn't get away with it at all.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Brazil Supreme Court had, quote, unjustly ruled to imprison Bolsonaro, and the United States would, quote, respond accordingly to this witch hunt.

Remember, President Trump slapped 50% terrorists on Brazilian goods because of the trial, and now there's fear that more could come.

Yeah, interesting that the United States would use tools of its power based on the president's personal opinion of a trial in another country.

Have we heard from Bolsonaro himself?

No, not so far.

Bolsonaro followed the verdict from home.

He's under house arrest.

He won't be sent to prison for now while he can still try to appeal the decision.

But he seems to be out of the game, the political game, for good for now.

But he's still the leader of the far right, has strong support, and will try to influence next year's presidential election.

So let's see what's to come.

Okay, Julia Carnero, thanks so much.

Thank you, Steve.

And that's Up First for Friday, September 12th.

I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Up First Comes Your Way on the Weekend, too.

Aisha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news in this feed or wherever you get your podcast.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Whitney, Raphael Naam, Tara Neal, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley.

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

We get engineering support from David Greenberg, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

Our executive producer is Jay Shaler.

We hope you'll join us again on Monday or Saturday.

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