Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
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People in Syria are slowly settling in to a new reality. The fall of the Assad regime offers new opportunities, but also creates big challenges. NPR's Ruth Sherlock is reporting from Damascus. The motive of the alleged gunman in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is still unclear. Police have been sifting through Luigi Mangione's online history since his arrest to learn more about his ideology, and the proposed merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons hangs in the balance.
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Today's episode of Up First was edited by James Hider, Andrew Sussman, Emily Kopp, HJ Mai and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Ben Abrams. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
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Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today's episode of Up First was edited by James Hider, Andrew Sussman, Emily Kopp, HJ Mai and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Ben Abrams. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
[MUSIC PLAYING] People in Syria are slowly settling into a new reality. The fall of the Assad regime offers new opportunities, but also creates big challenges. What's the priority for Syrians going forward? We'll hear from NPR's Ruth Sherlock in Damascus. I mean, Martinez, that's Michelle Martin. And this is up first from NPR News. The alleged gunman's motive in the shooting death of United health care CEO Brian Thompson is still unclear. I mean, we could speculate on 100 different things. All these have been sifting through Luigi Mangione's online history since his arrest and learn more about his ideology. We'll get an update on what they found. And the proposed merger between two grocery giants hangs in the balance. Yesterday, two separate judges and two separate cases blocked Kroger and Albertsons from joining forces is the merger dead. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's been four days since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country. And celebrations are settling down. People that are starting to think about the huge challenges facing the war-torn country. NPR's Ruth Sherlock is in Damascus, and she's here to tell us more good morning, Ruth. Good morning. So what's the situation they're like now? Well, you know, you might be able to hear the high caliber rounds being fired behind me. It's the rebels testing weaponry they've acquired. But apart from these explosions, they seem to be trying to keep a pretty light touch here, Michelle. You know, they've swept down from this rural province of Idlib, and they seem to be trying to show Damocines people from here that they can go about their business. And there's not even a lot of checkpoints, for example. And what is quite extraordinary is they seem to now be handling a relatively managed handover of power. They formed this new transitional government. And this even includes some politicians from the old regime. They're pardoning soldiers who are conscripted into the military service. But they are dismantling the feared security apparatus, the intelligence bases of the regime,
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