FlyDubai Pilot Investigation, SCOTUS Climate Change Case, Brazil Runoff Election

Up First from NPR

This episode of Up First covers three major global developments, beginning with an investigation into a FlyDubai co-pilot's mid-air attack that investigators believe was intended to crash the plane into

Key takeaways

• FlyDubai co-pilot from Oman used a cockpit crash axe to attack the captain before passengers subdued him and another pilot landed the plane safely.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces blame-shifting between security services and transportation officials ahead of national elections.

Main topics

• FlyDubai mid-air attack investigation
• Israeli political fallout and elections

Notable quotes

Investigators say the fly Dubai pilot who attacked his captain last week intended to crash the plane in Israel's main airport.

Conclusion

The episode provides listeners with a concise breakdown of how geopoli

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) Investigators say the fly Dubai pilot who attacked his captain last week intended to crash the plane in Speaker 1 (0:07) Israel's main airport. Israeli agencies are deflecting blame about why he was allowed to fly that route in the first place. I'm Speaker 2 (0:14) Amy Speaker 1 (0:14) Martinez. Speaker 2 (0:14) That is Michelle Martin. And this is Up First from NPR News. Speaker 2 (0:20) The Supreme Court begins its new term today with a case about climate change. Can local governments sue energy companies for their role? Boulder, Colorado wants two oil companies to help cover the cost of damages. And Speaker 1 (0:32) the son of Brazil's far-right former president is now the frontrunner in the country's presidential election. Flavio Bolsonaro is headed to a runoff against the incumbent president, Lula da Silva. What's driving voters in Brazil back to the right? Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day. Speaker 2 (0:52) Public media is no longer federally funded, but the NPR network remains yours in service to and powered by you. Keep public media public with a donation today at donate.npr.org. And thank you. Speaker 8 (1:09) In a war zone, reporting is a deadly gamble where you have to balance risk and reward. For one Fox News reporter, that calculation ended in tragedy. Speaker 6 (1:18) The whole person would have been injured. Speaker 6 (1:23) Who's Speaker 8 (1:24) responsible for setting limits on reporting in a war zone when lives are on the line? Listen now to the Sunday story from the Up First podcast on the NPR app. Speaker 3 (1:33) Before Bernie Sanders or AOC, a man named Michael Harrington tried to market socialism to the American public. Speaker 6 (1:41) Tens of millions of Americans are poor, miserable, in body and in spirit. Speaker 3 (1:46) On NPR's ThruLine, how the founder of the DSA created a modern political movement. Listen to ThruLine in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This Speaker 7 (1:57) fall, there are a lot of movies and TV shows on tap for you to see. And we're as excited for all of it to arrive as you are. On Pop Culture Happy Hour, we've got a guide to what's worth keeping on your radar. Listen Speaker 1 (2:09) via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (2:14) An investigation into the mid-air attack aboard a commercial flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week has found that the co-pilot who tried to take control of the plane intended to crash it into Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. Speaker 2 (2:26) That's according to a person familiar with the matter, but not authorized to speak publicly. Investigation into the incident is still ongoing. For Speaker 1 (2:33) more, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorff in Tel Aviv. Hi, Kat. Hey, good morning. So there are several countries conducting investigations into Speaker 3 (2:39) this attack, so what do we know? Well, over the weekend, officials in the United Arab Emirates, which is leading the investigation, announced that they had deemed the incident a terrorist attack. That assessment agreed with what Israeli officials had been saying earlier. We still don't have a clear motive for the attack. This morning, a source familiar with the investigation told NPR that the co-pilot who attacked the captain intended to fly the plane to Ben Gurion Airport, which was its destination, but then crash it. into the airport. This all happened in the morning here when Ben-Gurion would have been full of people. That source also said that it's likely the co-pilot acted alone. And just to be clear, this investigation is still very much ongoing. Do we have any more detail about what actually happened on the plane? Yeah, we're starting to get a clearer picture. Investigators said that the co-pilot of the fly-to-buy plane carried out the attack with what's called a crash axe. That's a lightweight emergency tool stored in the cockpit. It's used to break through